"The lazy and the stupid are always quick to denounce violence when it threatens their stranglehold on comforts. If people keep ignoring and repressing the faceless ones who are struggling against oblivion, of course the faceless ones will eventually use violent methods to remind other people that they are still alive and struggling. Do the new Masters of the Universe- the Global Marketeers, the transnationals, the WTO, and the governments that either back them or are enthralled to them- think they can slip their chains around human beings without so much as a peep? Just wait. Better yet, don't wait. Support your sisters and brothers in their quest to remain in existence."
-Soror Nyx (in a private correspondence that thoroughly wrecked my recent mental tendencies)
"There can be no peace without justice first."
-EZLN saying
I have recently become infected with an insidious idea that seems to say that all violence is wrong. (As evidenced in several previous rants.) But I must be clear and bring my attitude (recently corrected a bit with a dose of reality) to the fore: It is not that violence, especially the violence of those who are in resistance and who are struggling against oblivion, is wrong. It's just that I live in a country where it appears that the socio-political processes are such that violence is counter-productive. It infuriates the masters of society that there are hordes of people who are up in arms, literally and figuratively, all around the world. As the Global Project metastasizes, it seems that resistance to it has proven to be just as non-local. From the small groups of anarchists and anarchist sympathizers to the larger groups of labor unions and various ethnicities that have been nearly ground up in the so-called "Free Market," the past few years have been uncomfortable on the masters and their free-lance terrorist counterparts. (Both of whom have tried to reclaim the world stage and the media spotlight-and their efforts have succeeded in many cases.) Because the masters get infuriated and have much armed force to back up their will, people who are sick of being pushed around and slapped have every right to arm themselves and ensure that they will no longer be pushed around with impunity.
While you were away, distracted and worried about the Iraq war, or the Islamic terrorists, the contracts that are going to limit your future options and the quality of your lives have been silently snuck on through faster than ever before. (Where was your chance to vote on those, huh?) There is the rapidly expanding growth and gain in power of an all-encompassing economic system that will continue to strip away your rights to even your own freely and naturally developed genetic material. And as you run from leader to leader, trying to vote for the good guy who will finally make all right in your world, you have been hoodwinked by the shill of the war on (some) terrorists and the bloodbath of Iraq. Meanwhile farmers and indigenous people and workers and other people loose more and more ability to choose their own destinies.
As hard as it may seem to some people in comfortable Western European nations, people who are threatened with oblivion, slavery, and voicelessness will use "violence" to ensure a proper balance can be achieved. Despite what all the ideologues and brown-nosers of the Bush government would have you believe about violence (in the supposed world of the War on (some) Terrorists), for many people it becomes a way out. Despite the fact that religious fundamentalists who like to blow up innocent people or who like to bomb and invade other countries without even a moral pretext have hijacked the global media spotlight, the struggle between the Globalizers and those who reject being globalized is the major struggle of our times. If this struggle is lost, you better get used to always being told what to do, how to do it, and who to do it with. Despite the fact that I prefer other less violent methods to contribute to change, I am now holding my tongue on those who use more violent tactics. And besides the whole violent/non-violent argument is really a semantic trap foisted upon us by those who still wish to control us.
You can say that it is useless to struggle or to rage or to do anything against the so-called and proverbial "machine," but what right have you to get so down and defeatist about that? In many cases, overt armed struggle or resistance can be pretty stupid, but in other cases it is the tactically superior method. Can you live with the implications of that? In my railing and ranting about seeking more intelligent means to free yourselves, or whoever you deem needs or wants freedom, I was merely trying to point out that it is best to look at all of the options, from the personal efforts you can make to the more social or political. (Or at least I was trying to say that. The rant complex and myself have been at odds, leading to the mixing of certain signals and messages lately.) Most of you reading this can thank your lucky stars that you are not forced to use violence to exist or to press for your right to freedom. Who knows about the future, though? The point is to be flexible and to try being nonjudgmental when you encounter others who may be using methods you don't, at first, understand.
The resistance to slavery links us all from many walks of life and from many occupations into a sort of spontaneous world-wide counter slap in the faces of the masters of World "Trade" and those who would be masters. The fight against being made into faceless automatons is something that is catching on, despite the odds and the dangers. We are linked by the tunnels and the bridges and the cracks in the edifice of the "Well Ordered Market" and those governments who seek to further the aims of the slave drivers and the masters. (Perhaps the anarchist contention that the State can only be an instrument of the masters is very well true, considering how the USA is even destroying any shred of the idea of "social contract.") But this is clear and easily enough seen. The chains and the manipulations that are used which you cannot normally see are the real glue that binds you to thralldom. (The ideas, stories, words, religions, entertainment, unofficially sanctioned forms of rebellion, etc. You can probably list so many more.)
What the hell does all or any of this have to do with Discordianism? Not a damned thing, unless you want it to. But for me it does have much to do with it...thus my continued meander about it. I may not ever like violence in and of itself for whatever reason, but I have come to the place in life where I know that it is just my own opinion. I remember back before all of this, when I pointed out in the early nineties that; One: The Mayans of Southern Mexico would revolt using both traditional violent methods and many more methods never before tried; and Two: that there would be massive protests and resistance directed against the Global Marketeers themselves...I was told that I was unrealistic and had no grasp on reality. Capitalism had won against any and all progressive struggles, I was told. Anyone who wanted a better life would have to get with the program, I was also told. When January 1st, 1994 rolled along and the Zapatistas became famous, some of the idiots that argued against me came asking me how I knew. "The writing was on the wall," I said. When the Battle of Seattle rudely interrupted the American media on November 30th, 1999, again some idiots asked me how I knew it was going to happen. "The writing was on the wall," I kept saying. But this time, I was one of the people writing on the walls.
I'll keep writing on the walls, and I'll keep trying to clear my head to get a better picture of the things I have no direct experience with. And that's that. To speak for some of us (or at least those that like what I say sometimes), we are sick and tired of the rats and those who live off of others' sweat and blood. We are sick and tired of the mindless lies that are being peddled as measures to have a fulfilled and better life, even as those lies destroy any means of gaining such a life. If we are forced out, then to the sewers and the walls we will go, cracking through the floorboards and the drywall. Gnawing away at the ignorance that is the mortar of this metastasizing Global World Border- I mean- Order. If the masters want to keep trying to force us to choose their products and their lifestyles, we will still make our own damned choices and options. No matter how infuriated THEY may get when we walk with our heads held high, we will still practice the art of validating our own damned existence. All of us who walk with our heads held high are linked inextricably, whether we even like some of the others or not. Sometimes it's good to remember that.
<Since the truce between myself and the rant machine has allowed some fresh air into the mix, the tone of future rants may be more resistant. Who can say?>