STRIX’S JOURNAL - ENTRY 0101

VIOLENCE IS NOT RADICAL ACTION (0101):

Violence is not radical action. Clarence didn’t know this. But there is something worse than his, to be found in the so-called freedom fighter.

Violence is the action of the dissolute, of those who seek to vent the frustrations of their lives on others and it is done without conscience.

Violence is a form of self-indulgence.

Violence is the Mark of the Beast on our heads and hands; of how we think and act. The Mark of the Beast is simply a sign that some amongst us have lost their humanity. They seek to justify violence by an appeal to their own suffering; the injustices or limitations which their lives have suffered. They seek to dehumanise others by sharing their experience of injustice.

Violence is not a status symbol. Better to be the hero that brings peace.

Violence perpetuates injustice and the perpetrators seek to apologise for it by referring to “collateral damage”. There are enough victims in our world without adding any more. We get the governments we endure. We tolerated a system based on the virtues of equality, liberty and fraternity, sold to us today, by the powerful who do not believe in such things. Indeed, they perpetuate the vices of inequality, slavery and privilege; these are the symptoms of our cooperation with evil.

Violence destroys people, environments and communities.

Violence is like acid, burning through the very things which hold our lives, our communities together. These good things are simple evidences of our humanity: our love for one another, generosity, empathy, the love of something bigger than ourselves.

Violence is not just a physical act; it is also to be found in the words we use to demean one another. Describing a race as "rats", wogs, kikes, fags, niggers, chinks and women as “skanks” is an act of violence.

Violence atomises society, it polarises and alienates people from each other. The violence of the Corporate State has led us to fear our neighbour. The Projects are not a safe place. The question that hangs above our heads is; “Is my neighbour a collaborator?”

 Violence distracts us from the real aim of humanity; peaceful coexistence. These acts of violence are tools used by the ruling classes upon those they rule; to enhance, to aggrandise their power. The irony is profound, as we fight the battles they are unwilling to fight themselves, only to add to their control over us.

 Violence has left us numb, vulnerable to propaganda, to manipulation, but we have also collaborated with them by our apathy, our complacency measured by an overwhelming self-interest, which has left us isolated and vulnerable, so that we no longer know how to connect with one another. We are in the thrall of propaganda, dressed up on the Quad Screen as Candy Cane and Julie Julep. Two actresses named after cocktails and meant as a cock-tease for the thigh-rubbers amongst us!

 Violence is a game played by the powerful with us as the pawns. It is time to leave the game board.

And how am I to live, amongst those who are dehumanised and resort to violence?

How am I to live amongst those who seek to dehumanise me and my friends? The rulers of Modernity waged war, not in national interests, but in personal interests of power; the great seducers and propagandists use patriotism (“the last refuge of the scoundrel”) to cover their true motives.

 Now that Modernity is dead, what has replaced it?

‘Josselin’ (C) Geoff Hall, 1999.

Or is it really dead? Lyotard said Postmodernism isn't Modernism at its end, but its coming to birth. Modernism was the incubator for the inhumanity which followed. I know he wrote this, because I saw the book before it was destroyed and that is what qualifies me as a ‘Librarian’, that I was there during the book burning.

 And I know Baudrillard wrote of the cracks in reality. When I saw it, I tore it out of the book, so that at least a fragment remained. The cracks of life are the cracks in reality. Don't fear them.

 Our Postmodern rulers have modified patriotism into brand allegiance and appeal. Our country as a company; a corporate entity. No more Presidents, Prime Ministers and Cabinet ministers, just CEO's and Board members. We are a trading entity only concerned with our market share. We, as workers, are commodities to be bought and sold to the lowest bidder (moral irony), for everyone loves a bargain, even if it is a pre-adolescent, pre-pubescent, looks ‘almost human’ person and is compliant through fear and appears thankful for the experience.

Compliance does not equal assent.

The problem isn't 'them’, it is 'us'. Even if we do not commit the act of violence, we are complicit in it by our indifference. Indifference is not a commitment, but an evasion of it.

The opposite of passive resistance isn't violent resistance. If we ignore it, it won't go away; it will fester and contaminate society. What we hold dear will decay, rot, necrotise, in front of our eyes.

Strix