Genocide: Second Fruit Rotting on the Vine from My Christmas Meditations
The Gaza affair and beyond, far far beyond. Perhaps no where near Gaza.
I really did not want to think about this subject, not only because it was going to do a number on my desire for inner peace, it also was a subject so full of connections, to so many atrocities, perpetrated under one guise or another, of one sided pretense to virtue, that, makes this subject difficult to take on. However, I did promise myself to look into this dark chasm and meditate on it. I hate to lie to myself.
In my short experience of life, there never is, and, never has been, virtue associated with mass murder, or murder of any kind. If we cannot even draw the line at this statement, then, my aversion to considering this subject is fully appropriate. Because, it becomes evident, the idea of being human has become a race towards our worst impulses. I am not sure I could continue if that is the end point of our social evolution. However, I am not there yet. So, I will continue with this exercise. One might ask, if there is a difference between murder and genocide? According to wikipedia genocide is:
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part.
To me, the type of destruction we are considering, I would called murder. So with the exception of the distinction of “of a people”, murder of a single person and genocide is a matter of bean counting. In my opinion, the mind set needed to perpetrate murder of a single victim or a host of them, has the common attribute of seeing the victims life as less than some inner desire or ideology of the murderer. If that is the case, I find it appropriate to conder the idea of murder as central to genocide.
Given my statement about the lack of virtue and murder, I think it is a good idea to start with what I have found as a counter argument to that concept.
There is the argument, that, we have to kill the bad guys in order that greater crimes will not be committed by them. This is a very simple yet compelling statement for the taking of life. I admit, many times, I have struggled with this viewpoint. The obvious analogy of cutting out the poison that may kill a patient, comes to mind.
The way I process this point of view, is to realize that it’s not the removing of poison, or, the removal of a toxic individual or individuals, to effect healing for the body or the body of humanity, that I should to concentrate on here. It is the individual doing the removal, that is crucial. I must place myself in place of the faceless person holding the scalpel, the gun, the button to launch hell on earth. Once you are able to move to a vantage point where that can be considered, it opens one up to considering the motive behind the act.
I will choose the scalpel for this exercise. My surgeon avitar’s scalpel cuts out the cancer of a nameless patient, or a thousand patients, with your inner conviction, to prolonging life. That same scalpel could also be the instrument, of an unseen hand, which directs you to cut, the purpose is not yours to consider, you are a small part of a larger entity, whose purpose you are not to question. In both cases, considered here, the patient could live or die under your minds scalpel. Is there any difference?
The first case, there is a realization that you wield the scalpel, you have a choice to cut or not. If prolonging life motivated your actions and a death occurs, you understand, the operation over all saves more than kills of the faceless patients you attend to. You are not playing god with the lives of all you touch, you do your best and the outcome is as it should be. It is a part of life, in which death is just a small part.
In the second case, you have abdicated any responsibility for your action, you need not have any concept of prolonging life, except in some shallow self-gratifying way. All the hard thinking has been done for you by unseen hands, you cut for your masters and are rewarded with 30 pieces of silver. A butcher of human flesh is all you are.
The thing is the puppeteers do not mechanically control your hands that holds the scalpel, they control you through indoctrination, through propaganda, through your greed, (at least for now). This is something you can try to see through, you can, even under this system, hold on to your principles, adhere to calling of your inner compass. You can do this even if you risk your 30 pieces of sliver. We have all seen the murderous hands of the puppeteers, in both the medical as well as the wider world. Unquestioning obedience, for me, makes the holder of the scalpel, an accessory to murder, at best, or a murderer, at worst.
I may have seemed to be placing the difference between murder and healing (in a abstract way) in the hands, or more importantly, in the intention, of the individual performing the act that results in death. That is true at the personal level, however, the premeditated and un-coerced promotion of genocide and killing in general of the elitist puppeteers is murder plane and simple. If you think that we always need to be goaded to perform the good killing, your rationale is certainly nothing like mine, I don’t believe that at all. I also don’t think my reasoning is the truth, in any absolute sense. This is just my struggle to live up to being a better human being. I do not need someone else to tell me why I need to kill my brothers and sisters. I will take action, and take responsibility for my action, as my inner compass directs me.
The elitists have shown themselves to be murderers, by and large, their motives are the worst that humanity has to offer. I will never consciously do their bidding.
You might ask, why have I not said anything about Gaza? I have said what I think, is for me, the key to what has occurred in Gaza. I have talked about my relationship to the horrors in Gaza. However, that is a personal journey. Everyone should have an honest conversation with their true self and come to their own understanding of what about the situation in Gaza is so repugnant, or, not. The articles I cited in my original Christmas meditations article, tells us all, far better than anything I could add, about the details of what is going on there. This is my stance and my refusal to participate in my governments interpretation of what is happening.
Additional after-thoughts:
Having made a small effort to confront the topic on the taking of life, I found it to be a very personal journey. The parts I cling to, at this time, are definitely not a one size fits all, or for all occasions, choke collar sweater. I think my initial reticence to proceed with this meditation because of the deep complexity shows itself the more I delve into this subject. That state is unlikely for me to unravel any time soon.
I do believe we must make our own attempt to come to grips with these issues, no matter how convoluted and difficult they appear. Here is an article which exemplifies why you should not fully abdicate your moral compass to the thoughts of any one or more heroic external individuals. If you cannot make the idea your own, you will set yourself up for disappointment. We one and all limited beings, only the lack of humility, keeps us from acknowledging this. Not only disappointment, you will not see your disappointment as a chance for internal adjustment rather than seeing some short coming as your reaction to an external misdirection. You have a chance for growth if it is internalized as your concept, giving yourself the chance to take responsibility for any shortcoming of concept and attempt to construct a better world view.
As usual, Chris Hedges’s interview with Joe Sacco provides us with more nuanced perceptive of the murders/genocide in Gaza, and, the background from which it arose.