Would You Believe that This is It? - BiteofanApple
Would You Believe That This Is It?
June 15, 2026
Last year I heard this song from a band called Loser Demon. The song is called Holding Ground and here's the chorus that has been stuck in my soul ever since (added words, mine):
would you believe that this is it and it is good?
doesn't surprise me and i hope that it never would
(I'm) holding ground
I heard that phrase and was immediately repulsed the first time, yet something about it lingered in my heart. I think that reaction is likely the same for lots of people these days. I mean, look at the world? Look at the strife and the trouble and the heartache? How can this be good?
EP2 by Loser Demon
I think for me the real wisdom in those lyrics is that it's not describing what ought to be, but what is. Can the world be better? You better believe it. In so, so many ways.
Yet the first part of that line reminds me of something else: the feeling of growing up and seeing that the adults are just as scared and clueless as the other kids in your class. At that point I think we all have the moment of realization, the fear that surely this can't be how things work. We then spend the rest of our lives learning to cope, or deny. But it's true.
This is it.
The second part of that line is even more difficult to bear. So this is it, this is what the world is, how can this horrid state be anything like good? The moral repulsion is valid and, for me, it's strong. Yet while the world continues to get worse in numerous ways, any reading of history will tell you things are a whole lot better than they've been for 99.99% of human history. Not in all ways, sure, but in the vast majority of ways: yes. It's not a question and those who debate that question are ignorant of how it feels to bathe once a week in baths powered by slaves without soap, suffer from near constant famine and plague, or live in a world where 50% of children died before the age of 15. Today humanity has succeeded in fending off a great many of the curses of the natural world.
Not only that, but this world we have made is one built on consistent improvement. We have built structures that are intended to continually improve themselves and the lives of those they serve. These systems are flawed, and indeed bogged down and slow, but this can and should be fixed. Yet still, the mission, to improve the world and the lives of all within it, is one we have continually worked to fulfill. In the past fifty years we have done so much together as a country and a world to make things right.
In other words: this is good.
Yes, we have a great deal to do and so much of that progress has not been equally distributed, nor has it been made without harm. That is part of the work we have left to do, but let's not lose sight of our progress. Our job now is to advance the rest of the way, and to hold the ground we've gained.
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The Liberal Order
Liberalism starts with the assumption that it’s just human beings trying to do the best we can, and there will be mistakes, there will be errors, so we need strong self-correcting mechanisms.
– Yuval Noah Harari on the Ezra Klein Show
I idolize Congress, and always have. I dislike many of the people in it, but the institution itself makes me so damn proud to be an American.1 The House and Senate, though born of terrible compromise and riddled with problems, are together the engine of our shared work and the flagship of liberal democracy. The workings of Congress are almost mythical to me, shrouded in a veneer of Roman-looking symbols, British traditions, and founded on a Declaration containing some of the most beautiful words humanity has ever written.
Yet, I remember what it felt like when I discovered that a lot of the people in the House of Representatives are lawyers and farmers and business owners. A lot of them are career politicians, but even so, I remember thinking:
Wait, those are just people. Flawed people. Like me. But if that's it, if that's who's in charge, who's looking out for us?
And there's the rub. This is it. There is no one else. That's precisely why we've constructed institutions, to protect us from the failure that might come one day. The trouble is that One Day™ seems to be nearing and many of us see it coming. I am one of those people. Many see nothing at present to protect. I am not one of those people. As well, these day's it's trite to defend our current world, and so people tend not to do so. I do not want to be one of those people.
So I'm not sure who this is for, perhaps it's only for me. But I needed to write it, because in my heart I believe in this world we have made, and I do not wish to see it burn. Leading up to a—shall we say contravertial—celebration of our country's 250th birthday, I figured I would try to make the best case that I can for the world as it could be, and for a more Perfect Union.
What This Is
When in the Course...