There are only a few movies that I’ve watched back to back upon first viewing

Princess Mononoke was one of them

creating and destroying; flying cars, roc.camera, july.rocks

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Lately, I keep coming back to Princess Mononoke as a parable for where we are and where we might go. Ashitaka, cursed yet clear-eyed, moves between Irontown and the forest, trying to break the cycle of vengeance. Lady Eboshi isn’t a villain—she’s building something, lifting people up. San isn’t just a noble warrior—she’s been raised by wolves, bound to something older and wilder. Each side sees itself as civilization and the other as barbarism. Sound familiar?

(paɪəˈnɪərɪŋ ˈspɪrɪt) a willingness to endure hardship in order to explore new places or try out new the new
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Ashitaka offers another path: seeing with “eyes unclouded by hate.” Not neutrality—he fights when he must—but a refusal to be consumed by the logic of the war. He crosses boundaries, speaks with everyone, acts from principle rather than faction. If there’s a way forward for us, for America, it’s something like that. Not just civility (which often masks cowardice) but deep, dangerous boundary-crossing.

This is the challenge: how do you move through the world, refusing to be defined by its battles, while still standing for what matters?
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I had a bot draft the above

The borderlands between these fortresses are the only place anything new can happen, but they’re also dangerous. Step outside the walls, and your own people might treat you as a traitor. That’s the game theory trap we’re in, the self-reinforcing cycle of America’s factions hardening against each other. Venkatesh Rao’s Internet of Beefs describes how the online landscape has devolved into perpetual, low-grade tribal warfare—not conflict in the classical sense, but just endless beef, where status comes from proving you hate the right people the most. And it’s not just online. It spills into every part of life. The uncivil war isn’t about solving anything. It’s about keeping the battle going.