People Don't Understand Violence: Part 2 - It's Not Just Physical

Freedom isn’t violent, violence is violent…

It’s not just war, bombs, hate crimes, murders, fist fights, assassinations, violence is so much more. I don’t think there’s a need for me to explain how beating your wife or war is bad. So, we will pass these things. As violence is every present everywhere you look. But people will not seem to face that fact because it feels like they like to relish in that type of violence. Be it because they take part in it, or they enjoy it as it is targeted towards people they do not like for any arbitrary reason that makes no real sense. But we need to unlearn this, violence is not just one that is seen.

A. Verbal Violence

Violence comes in so many forms. Verbal, is another popular form of violence. Whether it’s verbal abuse of a significant other, racist, xenophobic, hateful stuff, slurs and their use. There are so many ways of being violent through words. But, luckily, lately we being to understand that and fight back against such behavior or at least label it correctly, such that we can say “this is bad”. Which means we can do something about it. And if we can understand this, we might understand others as well. For example, it seems that a great subsection of abuse, which is political or systematical abuse is still a mystery for many.

B. Political Violence

Policy makes system, system makes policy, it’s a vicious corrupt circle. But we need to understand that these two things are tied together. One can not be without the other. If violence is present in one, then it is present in the other as well. Same goes for corruption and everything that is bad, not just violence. But let us start with strictly policy…

1. Strictly Policy

Contrary to popular belief these days, assassination attempts are not the only type of political violence. Policy and law can be violent as well. For example, the UK and France restricting the right to protest. That is a violent precedent that steps on the rights of these people. I don’t think I have to explain to you how apartheid is bad, how the Holocaust and genocide is bad, how the Jim Crow era was bad, how war is bad and that all this usually starts with policy and law. The Holocaust was legal, and you’ve probably read that multiple times. We’ve talked about this in the previous post about Historical Consequences. So, hopefully you understand how all that is violent. Because otherwise we’d be stuck here for eternity. But, if you understand those things, you understand the base level of political violence and how it can have many forms. 

So, now that we get that out of the way, there are plenty of other ways policy and law can be violent. Basically anything that restricts your freedom and makes your life harder is violent. For example, if you have rights, and a certain group of people do not have the same rights you have, that is political and systematical violence. Why? Because they do not have access to certain rights. And anyone against that, is violent against said group of people. Red lining, a thing that happened in the US where if you were of a certain color, you were not able to buy a house there. That is also political violence. Here’s another example, let’s say you were born in a city. You went to school, you got your degree, you work hard, but by the time you started school to now, the price of housing has gone through the roof. That is political violence, as it is tied to directly to policy of your government and it affects you directly. The government could do something about it. Plenty have done so, there are studies on this which could bring a solution. But the people in charge have an inherent interest in not doing something, because they are systematically using the excuse of a free market to plump their pockets and those around them in order to profit. And it’s really difficult to think they are just incompetent when we have too many examples, studies, exposes of them doing these things on purpose. And not with just housing, food, water, and pretty much everything else that could make our lives better, which got harder and harder to attain. Just like creating a family, pollution, global warming, these are things policy could change and make our lives easier and better. But the violent system will not accept such a change for the loss of profits.

2. Strictly Systematical

So when everything is for profit, and profit comes at the expense of workers, what is this system if not violent against the cogs it uses to function? A corporation can bribe officials, to get a license to dry out a lake, put a fence around it and sell the water to the locals. Something Nestle is really good at. That is violence. And it is brought on by this system. A system in search of maximizing profits for the shareholders. It doesn’t matter if an African village is left to die or walk 1.5 km to the nearest water source, if Nestle can sell you that water for 1 dollar when the salary there is 2 dollars per hour, that’s all that matters. Now, I don’t think I have to explain to you that worker exploitation is bad. But while this is a real extreme example. Just like the children making your iPhones, picking your cocoa and coffee beans, you are also exploited. If a corporation makes 4 billion a year, pays out its CEO with 3 million dollars, yet you make 600 bucks a month, you are being exploited. And the governments allowing this, makes it legal. Thus this is a violent systematic problem, affecting us all. So every single thing an employee can do to profit and not pay you, is inherently violent. And when this is at the very core of the philosophy of everything we do, then everything is violent by its nature as this is its system. And you can’t change your jobs out of it, or bootstrap yourself out of it. You can only join in the violence and start your own business, if the entrance level is low and exploit others.

You can mask it as incompetence, corruption, the free market, freedom of expression, political freedom, religious freedom, whatever you want to call it, this system is one with violence at its core. Remove the violence, the system is suddenly called something else. Because this system needs profit, profit needs exploitation of workers, exploitation of any kind if violent. So if we want to change this system, we need to change. We need to stop making excuses for what is. In no fair world, no matter how responsible one is, one should have access to everything and have all their rights, if they do not impede the rights and freedoms of others. And no, there is no right to be a bigot.

I promise we will talk what you can actually do and solutions some other time. But this two parter was about violence and most its forms. 

You can read post early on Nobody The Extra Blog with the tagline “I actually do love people very much, but…”

People Don't Understand Violence: Part 1 - History of Consequences

Everything is history and everything is context, including you.

To understand all of violence, you need to understand that this world, us people, were always violent, first and foremost. Then we need to understand that violence is not all physical. I do understand that when someone says violence, they imagine someone hitting someone, worst case scenario. Best case scenario, they also include someone screaming at someone, thus verbal violence. The utmost best case scenario is that they include hate speech and race based violence in this. Which is not wrong, but that is not all violence. And in this two parter we will dissect the idea of violence. But, as mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph, we need to understand that our history is one of violence. We will focus on this now, and we will discuss the forms of violence in the second part. 

A. You, yourself and then I.

The history of the world is violent. You were born into it, as the world is violent. If the world, wouldn’t be violent, everyone would have access to everything they needed and there would be no war. But that is not the case. You were born in a world of violence. Diminishing violence, but still violence. You exist in the context of history. What is happening in this world at any given moment, is history. Whether it is notable or not, it is history nonetheless. And if we understand that the history of humanity is one of violence, which makes the world we live in also one of violence, this means we’re victims of violence. I already talked about that before here, so I won’t go into details anymore. You can access the post by click this sentence. 

So, what you have a choice being born in a world of violence. Try to change it or work within it, thus becoming another violent cog in the machine. Yes, you were not born in the Jim Crow era, nor have you passed that law, and all you want is to live your life. But, you are not doing much to stand in the way of the oppressor or the violence, thus you are a cog in the violent machine. Yes, you did not actively participate in the violence, but by feeding into it without pushing for any change, or without calls to cull the violence, you are a part of it. The easiest example would be to think of yourself as part of Nazi Germany. What do you think you would have done, if you knew and saw what was happening? Do you think that the world would have seen you as a moral decent person, knowing that everywhere in Germany people would get killed for simply being different and you chose to do nothing? Of course, if you are a decent person, this question would make you feel uncomfortable. But the answer would be quite clear. If the answer is complicated, then I recommend some soul searching.

My point is that yes, this world and its history is one of violence, you being born into it, so no choice of yours. But, what you do within it, is… And no matter what came before you, while you are born, once you have grown to use your own two eyes and discern what is good or bad, there is a responsibility to be had. Where we stand up for what is morally right. And with the world currently with ongoing genocides, that is multiple, you should see how important this is.

B. History is always in context.

Now, that we understand that you are in context, and the context is violence, we need to understand the following important thing. HISTORY IS ALWAYS IN CONTEXT. There is NOTHING in this world that it is in its own vacuum. A conflict that starts tomorrow can have its roots 20 years ago, 30 years ago, 100 years ago, 200 years ago, even 2000 years ago, it still matters when it started, how it went along and how those events then defined how things are now. You can NOT look at African countries, Muslim countries, Central and South American countries and say “They failed their people”. They did not have a choice in the matter. They haven’t been able to run their own countries on their own for hundreds of years. And then you can say, “But Nobody, look at Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other rich countries.” Yes, what’s the difference between those rich countries and those poorer? The intervention of the global super powers and imperial powers. For example, Iran. Back after world war 2, Iran was a developing nation, that was quite progressive. But in the 60s, due to them refusing to let the UK bleed them dry of their natural gasses and oils, the UK funded a fundamentalist violent man and did a coup d’état. Once installed in power, that fundamentalist gave UK what they wanted and turned the country into what we know today. This happened over 50 years ago, this has consequences today, still. You can NOT look at Iran today and say that it’s because what they decided 10 years ago. This has been a direct consequence of an imperial power. Link to the coup in Iran click this sentence.

The same can be applied to all the regions I mentioned where a global super power or more intervened. You look at all the conflicts and there is a good reason for it. Whether it’s the batshit crazy borders that were drawn after the first world war by literally TWO countries. (Link to consequences) Whether it’s the direct or indirect intervention of powers after World War 2, during the Cold War. Everything that is happening today is a direct consequence of what happened a long time ago. Whatever it is, you can look at history, and neatly point it out from a to z for every single conflict there is right now, to those imperialistic super powers did in the past over 100 years. I could go on and on and on and on, about these countries that were ravaged by imperialism, sucked dry by capitalism, corrupted by money, couped into oblivion every single time they did something a certain imperialist power did not want. And then they wonder why they can’t do much? Why are they so poor? Why are they violent? Why are they corrupt? Why don’t they just fix their own countries? Never to look at the consequence of their own actions. Or look at their ongoing actions. How are Venezuelans supposed to fix anything? They are under an embargo. Well, why are they under an embargo? Well, same goes for Cuba. Which, incidentally in both cases, the only country that keeps voting for those embargoes and keeps vetoing lifting the embargoes is the United States of America. The United States of America also pushed the coup in Venezuela in 2002. So without trade, how are the supposed to do anything? And, if you are going to say “it’s because Maduro” or “it’s because of the cold war or socialism”, you are not right. The US does plenty of business with tyrants, dictators and kings. Just look at Saudi Arabia, who probably did 9/11. So, unless you understand that history is in context, and what is happening now is because of what happened some time ago. And that your actions, lack there of, or the actions of others are going to have long term consequences, you can not understand what is ever going to happen to you or around you. And you will ALWAYS create consent for more violence. 

And now, just because we’re not constantly at war with each other, doesn’t mean that there’s no violence. It’s just that the types of violence we have are now very conniving. But we will talk about that in the second part. When part 2 is published it will be a link here to take you directly there.

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