Below the Horizon, Shining

And the weak man longs to be a strongman. But how to do it. It dawns on him. Find one even weaker, beat him down, pose and flex for onlookers.

The strongman vibe is in fashion, online as much as on the street, in affairs of state as much as in sport. Virtually everywhere you look, here in America and across the globe, there it is for all to see, weak men longing, preying on those weaker still.

The beating down of those least able to fight back and all that posing and flexing afterwards aren’t just for show, it even gets written into law. What one state did on orders from a strongman wannabe cost a 46-year-old man with a serious lung condition his life. Stunned to learn his lifeline had been heartlessly cut, his desperate appeals for mercy fell on deaf ears. Tragedies like this did nothing to dampen the wannabe’s craving to make every state do the same thing.

And the weak man longs to achieve immortality. No matter how many others he steps on to stand out, no matter how many chapters are …