Rant 123: WTF?

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

Rant 123
WTF?

"Father Patrick Peyton in the 50s campaigned at encouraging the recital of the Rosary in the home with the famous slogan, "The family that prays together stays together" and "A world at prayer is a world at peace." How in the world can anyone justify such fake sentiments in light of the fact that Christians have prayed for peace ever since Christianity's invention without a single lasting result?"
-Jim Walker (No Beliefs Website; "Christianity in Europe During WWII")

"The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance my deride it, but in the end, there it is."
-Winston Churchill

"I am anarchist because I feel it's better to be fellow travelers than to play the game of leaders and followers."
-What I said this past spring (when asked to explain why I wouldn't cooperate with certain anarchist "leaders" in getting others to fall in line)

<The Discordian Jihad never really died out. It just metastasized beyond the Discordian Society and became known as the monstrosity called the Counter Evangelism Brigade.>

I learned something about chaos today after realizing that my low grade upper respiratory infection (caught sometime earlier this week) had gone away because I smoked five cigarettes in a row. (Not a very smart thing to do in any case.) The medicine was overpowered by the nicotine and the latent caffeine and stood back as the infection was destroyed. Against the advice of every sane person (health-care related or not), my bad habit somehow cured me. My conclusion: I still need to quit smoking. If that's not chaos, what is?

But we are here not concerned with URIs or my accidental remedies. We are here concerned with an even more sickening and virulent plague which masquerades as world peace and manifests itself through various religious dogmas and political ideologies.

Christians, and their Islamic counterparts have the hidden and not-so-hidden agenda of converting the world to their religions, which many of them assure themselves is the way to world peace. But looking at the history of Christianity and of Dar al-Islam, any think human being can deduce that both of those religions are untrustworthy in the cause of a world peace that would respect the humanity of individuals in their own right and not as mere souls to be saved or converted. Their peace, much like the peace of those who fight wars for peace or stability, is the peace of the sword or gun. The believers have the notion that all of those masses of people who do not believe are simply fodder to either be converted or destroyed. Don't believe me. Research this for yourselves. (And if you do find any evidence that could derail this present train of thought, I do want to know about it.) This same attitude has been exhibited by the professional politicians, whether authoritarian, democratic, or revolutionary: The masses are simply potential converts who need to be drawn into the correct ways of seeing the world and then the so-called utopia will come to pass. Uh-huh? You know what that sounds like, don't you? Another pyramid scheme. (In fact the pyramid scheme was borrowed by certain corporate hacks from religious games.)

Believing or thinking that the 'masses' are stupid or useless or need to be 'educated' as to their true desires is a function of authoritarianism, whether it masquerades as a revolutionary movement or ideology of the Left, a Conservative or Liberal movement on the Right, or as religious, 'scientific' or occult theory that masquerades as other noble-sounding causes such as world peace, human welfare, or other things. Every time some part or much of the masses rise up in indignation against some stupid policy or practice, they are counseled by all sorts of media experts and religious leaders and politicians to "remain peaceful." As if the masses are blind and stupid to their own needs and desires. As if the "masses" can't really figure out what their "real" best interests are. This idea is anathema to the survival of democracy anywhere.

When the Founding Fathers of the American Republic (and the untold Mothers who supported their asses) talked about eternal vigilance being the price of freedom, they weren't talking about enemies from foreign countries. They were talking about the enemy from within: The persistent need of government and the elite to try to control and manipulate its citizens. In this context it is up to the citizens themselves to be vigilant against any manifestation of that tendency of government and the elite. In this day and age of terrorism and all that it has become clear to citizens everywhere that our leaders can't protect us but they can get us killed. We need to be unafraid, not because it is the correct patriotic thing to do, but because we are human beings who will not be coerced by any other human beings, ideologies, or religions.

A lot of people who believe in world peace would be horrified to learn that they share some ideas in common with the so-called authoritarian warmongers. The warmongers claim to wage war for peace. The pacifists claim to resist war and practice civil disobedience for the cause of peace. But world peace as a cause has been the immolation of millions of lives. Don't get  me wrong. I am not saying that those truly concerned with the individual liberty and dignity of human beings should give up their struggles. I am saying that as of late, it seems they have been taken in and duped by a cause that has seemed to take on greater importance than the actual human beings many of these pacifists claim to be fighting for.

I remember the "We told you so" cliches being slapped onto the Global Justice activists during each one of the several demonstrations from 1999 and on up after heavy handed security-force responses were blamed on the actions of the anarchist black bloc groups and others. The pacifists turned on their fellow resisters and protestors with a vehemence that would make even Fundamentalist Christians who preach against Wicca blanch. They took control of the discourse of resistance and yet again managed to shove the ideas of the masters and would-be masters down everyone's throats: Non-violence verses violence; as if things could be simply spelled out in such black and white notions. Such a false choice is blatant misunderstanding of resistance to any injustice, and in the anarchist context it shows a disregard of the basic ideal of anarchy: No individual or group has the right to coerce any other individual or group.

If the world is growing more peaceful, as many people say it is, it is not the result of the prayers and the wishful thinking of those pacifists who claim their religious or spiritual movements have contributed. (Especially in light of the Christians' alleged claims of being a force for world peace and justice in light of historical evidence to the contrary.) Every instance of peace on this planet is in direct proportion to that amount of balance or justice that has been achieved. Sometimes that justice was attained through peaceful means, and sometimes by means that many rich and overfed consumers in First World nations wrongly decry as "violent." Peace on this planet is not going to come about by you posting the correct bumper stickers or by wearing the correct t-shirts, or by insisting that your local Starbucks use 100% biodegradable products (though those things might give you the illusion that you can feel good about yourself). Peace will come about when every person on this planet can have the space to breath and hold their head up high without fear of someone or some group trying to coerce them. Without justice there can be no real peace; only a seething repression that masquerades itself as peace.

This is no excuse to be stupidly violent, either. Since the peace-violence game is effectively played by those who wish to manipulate and coerce people, perhaps it is time to use our imaginations a little to come up with more than just these false choices. Perhaps it is time we reclaim the discourse and the ability to create our own choices without relying upon the tired old platitudes and cliches that have proven time and again to fail miserably. Perhaps it is time that the people who think of themselves as being more intelligent or enlightened than the so-called masses guess again. The pernicious lie that assumes that the masses are blind and stupid is the same lie that unites terrorists, governments, and political ideologies, whether conservative, liberal, or radical. Tunnel vision and lack of responsibility guides them all.

Some issues to think about anyway...

August 29th, 2005

-Irreverend Hugh, KSC

<This rant is published on 100% recycled and recyclable electrons.>