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| Detail from Dream of Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park – Diego Rivera |
The common thread running through these groups, to my mind, is this insane amount of butthurt privilege. You know, the straight white men who are absolutely, firmly certain that it’s their right, their due to have the bestest, highest paying gigs (qualifications and competency be damned), the hottest, most servile babes (dude charm not required) and worshipful treatment from the kid behind the counter at McDonald’s.
I wonder how many of these militant fucks might be diagnosed with antisocial personality, borderline personality or narcissistic personality disorders.
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| The City Rises – Umberto Boccioni |
I read the news and I’m afraid. Who isn't? Sometimes it feels as though my barely bottled rage will explode. I understand the violence urge (rilly!) BUT, while a bit of the old riot action MIGHT release some of my fury, it sure as fuck ain’t gonna move the equality and justice ball down field.
And lookie-lookie, that's not just a glimmering hunch on my part – there are actual facts backing me up. Waddya know?
Big time political scientist Erica Chenoweth has studied and written about political violence and its alternatives a LOT. Her research is breathtaking.
"I collected data on all major nonviolent and violent campaigns for the overthrow of a government or a territorial liberation since 1900," she says -- hundreds of cases. "The data blew me away.”
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“One thing I found is that an uprising becomes about 50 percent more likely to fail if it turns to violence.” (source)
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| Flower Bomber – Banksy |
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral,Given history and all the research, why are the “bright” beans of the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Nations, the League of the South, National Alliance, Oath Keepers, Stormfront, etc. ad nauseum, menacingly armed clear up to their hate obsessed, crazy eyes?
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you may murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate.
So it goes.
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness:
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community
Oh right, it’s that crazy thing.
The Imperial Wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (nice, desperately tiny-dicked title, dude), Richard Preston just got busted for shooting at a group of counter protesters in Chalottesville.
Richard Preston, 52, was arrested after a video, filmed by the ACLU of Virginia, caught him firing a pistol at counterprotesters. In the video, Preston is seen drawing his pistol and shouting, “Hey, nigger,” then walking toward the crowd, lowering his gun toward the ground and firing before walking away. There were no reports of injuries from the gunshot. (source)Apparently Mister Preston doesn’t understand that most folks have zippy cell phones WITH video taking capability. Shooting off your fake penis in a crowd is, don’cha know, bound to get recorded. Anonymity – it ain’t what it used to be.
How many rage monsters will be caught on vid before we have peace?
I suspect that for a lot of these people, the opportunity to display guns and other intimidating paraphernalia is a big part -- maybe the biggest part -- of the appeal of joining a neo-Nazi or KKK group.
ReplyDeleteWhy are people so drawn to violence and threats even in the face of evidence that they're often counter-productive? It helps to think in terms of primatology. In all primate species, each social group has a dominance hierarchy (especially among males), and males are very concerned with being as high up in the hierarchy as they can get, partly because females preferentially mate with higher-status males. Humans are no different -- our corporate and political hierarchies largely follow the same pattern, though more subtly. Among chimpanzees (the species most closely related to us), males assert dominance by intimidating, threatening behaviors -- screeching loudly, charging, banging things on the ground, etc. Less-educated, low-status human males also tend to assert themselves by being loud and aggressive and displaying behavior or paraphernalia that intimidate others. It's instinctive. It takes different forms around the world depending on culture and technological level, but it's the same primate instinct. There's a primal satisfaction in feeling scary.
I'm constantly reminded of primate behavior when I see groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis and, yes, other violent groups like the Black Bloc. Even things like military training routines that involve shouting while brandishing weapons, demonstrations with loud chants and raised fists, and suchlike. The instinctual legacy of our pre-human ancestors is very much still with us. We're still apes.
Not to diss apes that is.
Deleteand, yes, you're absolutely spot on. Thank you.