“What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving, how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god, the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust?” —Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2
Hamlet was being ironic, musing on man’s potential versus his propensity for not meeting that potential. “Dust you are and to dust you shall return,” says God in Genesis following the unfortunate incident in the produce aisle in Eden. An incident in which man, God’s chosen creature to shepherd His creation, has soundly dropped the ball. “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” laments the writer of Ecclesiastes.
The fictional Hamlet and the writer of Ecclesiastes would feel right at home in the 21st century. Never have we had so much potential, and never have we been more at risk for throwing it all away to wallow in our dust. Some Boomers and most Gen Xers have, at some point, wondered aloud why we were promised “The Jetsons” or “Star Trek” and we got, well, what we got. Because no matter how far technology may progress, large swaths of our society prefer to regress.
Wednesday night, Florida Republican Rep. Kat Cammack posted the following on X:
Today, we had to evacuate our offices due to imminent death threats against me, my unborn child, my family, and my staff. These threats erupted after the Wall Street Journal reported on my life-threatening ectopic pregnancy—a nonviable pregnancy with no heartbeat.
Since then, we’ve received thousands of hate-filled messages and dozens of credible threats from pro-abortion activists, which law enforcement is actively investigating. In light of recent violence against elected officials, these threats are taken very seriously.
To those spreading misinformation: I did not vote for Florida’s heartbeat law; I serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, not the Florida Legislature.
Let me be clear: I will not be intimidated. I won’t back down in the fight for women and families. Ensuring women have the resources and care they deserve is critical. We need real conversations about maternal healthcare in America—conversations based on truth, not fear.
Today, we had to evacuate our offices due to imminent death threats against me, my unborn child, my family, and my staff. These threats erupted after the Wall Street Journal reported on my life-threatening ectopic pregnancy—a nonviable pregnancy with no heartbeat.
— Rep. Cammack Press Office (@RepKatCammack) June 26, 2025
Since then,… pic.twitter.com/gsaBO70s9P
Of course, none of the above matters to those who posted the savage responses or to those who made death threats. If they were made aware of all of the mitigating circumstances, they blithely skipped over them. But why?
We live in an age of rage, an age in which many people’s first and foremost concern is their own egos and the ability to bend others to their will, or intimidate them into silence. They may be of the opinion that they are participating in a revolution, wealth distribution, a struggle for rights for whatever demographic they happen to favor, or (insert your favorite word) justice. The pathetic truth is that such individuals are more interested in themselves than in anything else.
The new Democratic nominee (and presumptive general election winner) for the office of mayor of New York rode his way to victory with high-minded rhetoric about housing, buses, groceries, rent control, marginalized people, and free childcare. He also wants to defund the police. A sufficient number of New Yorkers seem to have forgotten about subway violence, homeless attacks, drug use, and the general malaise that afflicts the Big Apple, so much so that they not only backed the party that brought them all of those things, but also a candidate who will magnify those problems one thousand-fold.
Some of the candidate’s support was grassroots, but much of it came from New York City’s wealthy, white enclaves, where people who consider themselves largely immune to the miseries of the hoi polloi, will be able to brag about how bold and progressive they are to the other attendees of their hot yoga class. If they genuinely believed in what Mamdani is selling, they would have divested themselves of their assets years ago. When things do collapse in New York City, these people will take their wealth and go elsewhere, still congratulating themselves for being the change they wanted to see in the world.
It is easy to shout “Free, free Palestine!” or “Globalize the intifada!” and break windows and attack people from the safety of your campus quad. Once you are done screaming and are basking in the afterglow, you can assure yourself that you were a hero and took a bold stance. Something your conscience or whatever shreds of it may remain, would not permit you to do if you saw the photos of Israeli babies placed in ovens on October 7 or took the time to read the works of Yasmine Mohammed. Intifada is not what the protesters think it is, no matter how compelling the sales pitch may be.
Similarly, it may be satisfying to call oneself a socialist, unless you have read “The Gulag Archipelago.” When the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, people dutifully left the cities for their own “protection,” unaware that life under Pol Pot would consist of growing and harvesting rice year 'round, and living in fear that they might be sent to prison for crimes such as having too much cloth, owning a radio, being educated or wearing glasses (which made one look educated). Everyone could become an enemy of the state, even loyal members of the Khmer Rouge. You can visit the shrines at many of the killing fields there, and see row after row of skulls bearing mute testimony to the inevitable conclusion of collectivism.
This manner of thinking has been carefully crafted in America for years. When I was in junior high, there was one year that our English teacher spent about a month on the French Revolution. We learned all about the oppressive monarchy and "Liberté, égalité, fraternité." Do you know what was never mentioned? The Reign of Terror, that period of bloody chaos that not only followed the revolution, but was the result of it.
Revolutions are fueled by emotion, and those who wish to acquire or maintain wealth and power understand that. This is why, for decades, people have been made increasingly narcissistic and focused on the dopamine rush of self-satisfaction that comes with outrage, and therefore "useful idiots." So they gleefully advocate smashing the patriarchy, capitalism, the Jews, America, whatever, completely unaware that they themselves will have to walk barefoot over the broken shards. Launching a revolution is easy. Cleaning up after one is another matter entirely.
But back to our question: why do people do this? Because, as Hamlet said, such people believe themselves to be angels and gods when we are all in fact dust. Dust with enormous potential, but dust nonetheless. That is, until we decide to gaze at something other than our navels.
