Friedrich Nietzsche ain’t shit, man. Declaring God obsolete to announce mankind’s emancipation, our freedom to decide our own morals and truths? Look where that has brought us. A world where good is evil and evil is good. A world where what matters doesn’t matter any more and what doesn’t matter does. A world where what should be grey is now black or white, and what should be black or white is now grey.

No wonder people are looking for meaning in life — a higher power to seek comfort and guidance from when the universe around us becomes too complicated, too hostile, too alien to grasp. Yet should we find that meaning where we have sought it for generations — in a deity in whose name so many of the very atrocities that alienate us from the reality around us have been committed? Or should we look for one among us to fill that role?

Some might step up to the plate, and tells us to entrust our hearts and minds onto them. Hucksters and grifters, ensnaring us in their makeshift realities and fooling us that their matrices are the higher truth? Should we listen to them, embrace traditions and trap ourselves in an eternal loop of repeating the same mistakes over and over again, trading security for progress and justice? Screw that.

Elon Musk will not save us. Jordan Peterson will not guide us. Andrew Tate will not enlighten us. God is dead. If we so desire a savior, it needs to be someone who is humble and unsullied. A being of purity who sees the best in everyone, no matter the situation. Someone who will not solve our problems for us, but gives us the strength and support to take hold of happiness for our own two hands. Someone who isn’t omniscient or all-powerful, but simply tries their best, over and over again, never backing down or giving up, through unprecedented hardship, for one simple reason — they care.

There is nothing more radical than caring, because caring is self-evident. It cannot be explained. It should not be explained, because as soon as you feel a need to justify why we ought to care, only the abyss awaits. Sometimes things truly are as simple as they seem. It is good when people are happy, and bad when people are sad. Why? Because seeing people happy makes us happy, and seeing people sad makes us sad. In a world as complicated as the one we live in, perhaps such simplicity will be our salvation.

Forget your preconceptions and prejudices. Forget the lies of those who would seek the empty throne of heaven for themselves. Forget everything I said about Takopi’s Original Sin being “tough to recommend” and watch one of the most uncompromisingly and stunningly realised works of animated art this wretched decade has brought forth so far. And in the void that remains, find Him. Let Him in. Let Him care about you. And be redeemed.

God is dead, long live Takopi.