In my years I have noticed how a great many persons hold weird beliefs about war, such as in the presumption that nations have a clean battlefield set aside for the actions, rather than the reality of events taking place in public, destroying places of business, bombing hospitals and schools and making rubble out of homes and filling children with bullet holes. I suppose that is a very western misconception, what with no war really occurring on American soil since we had our harbors pearled in response to embargoes placed against the enemies of our allies in the 1940s. Due to the conditioning of a repetitious life however, long memories are an admitted rarity.
And of foreign wars, such as the multitude of conflicts in the Middle East, western audiences are too often shown by their corporate-sponsored media platforms scenes along the lines of desert villages rather than densely-populated metropolitan communities, either bustling or the smoldering ruins after. It separates us away from the experience of war, dehumanizes by removing any identifiable trace.
For this and other concerns, in today’s world it is unconscionable to not be anti-militarism or anti-establishment, as the writing is not only scrawled on the wall for all passersby to see, but in neon letters as tall as the world trade center’s tower 7. But overthrowing the carny wizard con-men behind the curtain must never be mistaken for attacking the victims of these madmen. The leaders both elected and self-appointed, their generals and their bankers are the people distorting the world further and further away from any natural order, charging all to live on a planet that cost nobody to make. They hold the burden of responsibility, and not the people going about their lives in the streets. Whether one has issues against their own government or a foreign government which almost always is acting in alliance with the United States or in fear of retaliation from the United States, attacking the people on the streets only deprives the persons calling the shots of cannon fodder. To stop an infestation one cannot save the queen.
Last year, persons claiming to represent anonymous issued a video declaring 15 July to be a Day of Rage, inviting the public to act out their favorite scenes from the Purge movie series. James Holbrooks wrote a marvelous article on the matter, attempting to summarize some of the legitimate reasons many have for considering throwing trash bins through shop windows and the like. He also brilliantly pointed out a comparable situation in another nation, one that began similarly but ended disastrously. One small difference was that the authoritarians there did not have the hundreds of millions of dollars in military-grade weaponry fetished with itchy trigger fingers by American law enforcement.
Regardless of what prompts anybody to finally lash out for their grievances, attacking anything other than the tyrants responsible is counter-productive, and will inevitably be met with authoritarians opting to expand their own authorities all the more. Thinking with our fists is stupid anyhow because hearts are the only organs fit for sleeves. Do not allow television to do our thinking for us in private, and do not allow agent provocateurs to do our thinking for us in public. The real enemies of mankind, not our neighbors and not people across the globe whom we never have and never shall meet, deserve what they will eventually get out of life. They own the market on violence though, meaning alternative solutions are the only resolutions.
There is a strange synchronicity to all of this. In a couple of weeks will be the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Nice, France, on Bastille Day. Dozens were murdered. The French National Day commemorates the Storming of the Bastille in the French revolution, where peasants finally lashed out against a deeply corrupted ruling class. History does repeat itself in many curious ways, but just because something is systemic absolutely does not make it right. Especially when any bodies other than the ruling class are left bleeding in the streets.
Thinking with our fists is stupid because hearts are the only organs fit for sleeves.