The Missouri Review

Here’s another runner-up; 

“Man versus machine. Mensch gegen Maschine. The will to preserve one’s self is simply a consequence of Man’s will to exert his strength on the world at large. I know this. Schopenhauer’s utilitarianism is a fraud; I am not happy ergo neither is Man. I don’t think that’s right, but happiness is not a goal of Nature. Bourgeois society perpetuates the myth of accumulation as fulfillment of a promise rather than a position of fear. Of course we are all scared, asshole. Of course we are trying to snatch every resource we can. We will die. Dying poor and alone is the state of nature. Self-preservation is the first law of nature; the first instinct is not charitable but infantile. The rich man cannot be happy or honest about the source of his unhappiness. I am his defender and his fear. We know that we are all abandoned to this rock, this miniscule spot of space, tumbling toward oblivion, and we are all afraid. We are no different from you, just further disgusted by past naïveté, determined not to accept it. We need to share more. I will; we will; we shall; we shall; we shall.”

from Matt Bucher, about whom we know this:

Matt Bucher is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas