Flavors of Violence I

Violence

vi·o·lence

   [vahy-uh-luhns]  Show IPA

noun

1.

swift and intense force: the violence of a storm.

2.

rough or injurious physical force, action, or treatment: to die by violence.

3.

an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws:to take over a government by violence.

4.

a violent  act or proceeding.

5.

rough or immoderate vehemence, as of feeling or language: the violence of his hatred.

Violence is an easy term to understand. But it also comes in many flavors. They are all harmful in one way or another. Let's consider a few. 

Direct Violence - This is the version we are all most familiar with. Violent crime or person on person violence. The amount of direct violence we witness every day via the TV is unreal. Consider this, by the time a kid reaches elementary school, they have seen 8,000 murders on TV and 100,000 acts of violence. No, I did not make this up, look here. Check out this as well. Violent acts make up a huge part of TV news as well both local and national. This helps build ratings and profits, yet only a fraction of violence makes the news. We rarely hear about the child facing verbal and physical abuse day in or day out or the wife or girlfriend caught up in an abusive relationship. Their suffering is no less tragic and needs addressing. Despite violent crime going down, fear of violence is alive and well.   

Here in the USA the fear of violence is a driving force. How can we call ourselves "The Home of The Brave" with a straight face?  Fear drives much of our obsession with guns and the military. People keep loaded guns in both their homes and cars, more often than not ending in tragedy. If you are a gun owner, you are statistically more likely to be harmed by your own gun than use it defending yourself. Simple truth. We would rather have the illusion of safety than real safety it seems.  More guns do not translate into less violence and a safer world. We Americans are proof of that. We have by far and away the most guns and the most murders in the entire world. I don't blame it all on the guns but easy access to firearms exacerbates other problems with deep roots in American history and culture. We are not only afraid of each other, we are are also afraid of everyone else. 

We outspend the rest of the entire world on our military. 9/11/01 gave the powers that be a justification for dramatic spending not only on the military but law enforcement as well. What sense does it make to fight terrorism with the terrorism of state sponsored war? Many died on 9/11 from some assholes flying planes into buildings. Many more have died in the wars that followed and are still on going. How does continuing The War of Terrorism  stop terrorism when war is terror by another name? State Violence anyone?

State Violence- Occurs when the state uses it’s powers to harm own citizens. There are the obvious examples, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia and Pol Pot’s Cambodia. These are extreme examples of states turning on their own citizens. State violence can be measured on a spectrum with the three already mentioned on one side and Western Democracies on the other. Now, this is not to say Western Democracies are without their fair share of wrong doing. They too have plenty to be held accountable for but killing massive numbers of their own people is not one of them (except the US). The US practiced what we would today call ethnic cleansing and genocide on the native peoples of this continent. No one was held to account for this horrific wrong committed against an entire culture. I think one could argue this rises to the level of a Hitler or a Pol Pot but the passage of time along with the winners writing the narrative makes it somehow seem less so. If you disagree, I’d ask you to look here and here. The numbers are pretty bad. Murdering people in huge numbers is still a crime against humanity no matter when or where it takes place. States don’t just murder their own. They use other forms of violence as well.

Minority oppression is all too common among existing states. There may be countries that have no history of minority oppression right down to this day but I cannot think of one. While people may not be out right killed, in too many places (one is too many) minorities face beatings, police harassment and structural violence. There are numerous examples of this going on all over the globe as you read this. Vietnam and the Montinynards, Central American countries and indigenous peoples Israelis and Arabs, America and black Africans, the list could go on and on. The violence is similar in each case and while in many places progress is being made, there is still a very long way to go. State Violence can also be unleashed on people with different ideas.

The idea of a more equitable and just world put forward by Occupy movements the world over have met with violent reactions here in the US. When discrediting, mockery and ridicule fail to work the back up is force. Massive amounts of resources are arrayed against largely peaceful demonstrators. Police armed better than a lot of armies are deployed against loosely organized peaceful demonstrators. Demonstrations are broken up and key people are arrested (sometimes even before a demonstration occurs). The state uses media influence to put fourth an "official" narrative about what happens from the law enforcement / government's point of view. Few if any questions are raised about why the protests are happening in the first place.     

In the next post, we'll examine the following: 
Sexual & Domestic Violence

Structural Violence 

Slow Violence 

A little longer post soon.

Doing a little research on different types of violence. Look for a post in the next day or two.

-Paul

Readings September 14, 2012

A Terrifying Way to Discipline Children

 

Romney losing Deep Red?

 

14 reasons why this is the worst Congress ever

Japan unveils plan to phase out nuclear power

The Muslim Protests: Two Myths Down, Three to Go

Private Prison Industry Grows at Our Expense.

That's right friends, we can now make money off of putting people behind bars. Where else could lock 'em up and throw away the key laws come from? In case you have not got the memo on one of the more recent themes of the free market can fix EVERYTHING, we now have the Prison Industrial Complex. The date on the article will let you know right away this is not all that new anymore. Sad to say this is a growing profit center er, industry. Read for yourself here. This is wrong on so many levels and in so many ways, it is difficult to know where to even begin. Let's look at a basic level. One reason for government is to administer justice. If we have no legal system in place, justice becomes an eye for an eye, revenge and or an on going blood feud. It may be entertaining for some in badly acted Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal flicks but this is not a place we really want to be. These male revenge fantasy movies some may find entertaining but they are about anything but real justice. They are about  violent aggression, male power, privilege (mostly reserved for whites) and an abysmal oversimplification of justice. Just consider some of the war torn places around the world that have no set justice system. Yes, our system is deeply flawed (two systems really - one for rich and one for poor) but it is a system none the less. We need to have a functional independent justice system. What is that?

What is a justice system for? Deter crime, punish and rehabilitate those who have harmed others and keep us safe are a few things that come to mind. These should be functions of the state free from undue influence of for profit corporations. They can only make money and "grow" in an unhealthy society with too strong an emphasis on "punishment" or even movie style revenge. How can there not be a huge conflict of interest between helping criminals reenter society and profit maximization based on prison population? Helping produce good citizens (or even okay ones) is totally at odds with cashing in on profits based on the incarcerated population growing. This is the so-called free market solution? Markets may be great for making better cars or burgers but I'd rather pass on a market driven justice system. I hear ya, we got that now! True but that is for another entry later on. Putting private firms in such a position only makes our current problems even worse. Justice is for sale to the highest bidder as it is and those who cannot afford justice become fodder for profits of far away shareholders. Meanwhile, community stakeholders get the shaft.

When these privately run intuitions starts mixing with justice on the local level, the real fun begins. See an example here. Our poor youth, those with mental health problems and even school kids get sacrificed on the holy alter of the "Market Solution." Everything else is sacrificed right along with them. Decent health care, food humane facilities are all out the window. Yeah, prison is not supposed to be a spa but we are talking about flesh and blood living, thinking and feeling human beings. They too are entitled to certain level of safety and security. The rest of us gain nothing by treating them like animals or worse. "The Market" does not give a shit about human suffering. Even the low level people who work for "for profit" justice often lose. They are often underpaid and under trained for the work they are asked to do. The community loses as well picking up the tab for countless shattered lives and repeat offenders for decades to come.  

This will only get worse if we continue to privatize every function of government no matter how important or vital it may be. There is a reason, well many, there is both "government" and "business." Those who think the two are interchangeable do so at their peril.  But that's for next time.        

Readings

After Dempsey Warning, Israel May Curb War Threat

Former GOPer: How Republicans Went Crazy, Dems Lost Their Mojo, and the Middle Class Got Shafted

The Green Alternative

On Forgiveness

I put this on www.getajobwithacriminalrecord.blogspot.com and figured I'd share it here as well.

In my community, one cannot throw a rock without hitting a church. One should not throw rocks at churches by the way. However, this county (Guilford) here in North Carolina is know by too many as "Guilty" County. It may possibly be the hardest county in the state to get a job in with a criminal record. I have no "facts" to back up the claim but I do have a dozen years listening to former offenders talk about their situation. All the world's major religions are represented here but this is mostly a Christian community. One of the most important values of Christianity is forgiveness. We can forgive Aunt Sidney for spilling her tea on our plate at the last family Christmas dinner but can we do more? What about the sex offender who never stops paying for his crime? What about the middle aged man who dealt drugs when he was in his twenty's? How about the woman who stole money from her employer? All have done jail time. When do we allow them to fully rejoin society? How much punishment after jail / prison do they still have to endure? The ex-offender stigma seems to follow one for the rest of their lives.


We, the United States, now have the largest prison population in the world. If I may paraphrase Dr. Phil "How is that working out for us?" Some kid has a bag of weed and it is his third strike in California and off he goes to prison for the rest of his adult life. How is that serving our community? It sure is not helping him any! Plus, the tax payer gets the bill. If this does not sound like Lose Lose Lose deal for all, I don't know what does. Meanwhile the doctor's or lawyer's coke using son goes through the justice system for the rich and avoids a criminal record all together and hopefully gets some help. He is forgiven and his crime forgotten. It does not hurt that he happens to be a white guy. But I digress. Those we continue to punish years and years after they have "done their time" become a burden on society. They cannot find decent dignified work, maintain healthy relationships and dehumanize those who dehumanize them. This is pretty much lose lose lose again!

On Capitalism II So Am I a Commie?? Not Quite.

We tend to focus in on our own little micro-verse making meaning out of chaos via the stories we are told over and over. We are free, they are not free. We are good they are bad. God and the Devil, etc etc  Few people venture beyond this simplistic dualism the universe is divided into for our consumption. If one is to be truly free, he / she MUST always question these meaning making stories. Who gets to tell them, are they true and who benefits? So go ahead and and ask yourself friends, who benefits from the story of capitalism? Is it the starving in Africa and other third world locales? How about those being boiled alive by dictators supported by Neo-liberalism? Could it be the wage slaves right here at home? I'd have to guess these people are not beneficiaries of free markets. Who is? It could be these guys or these guys or this dude. Hell, I'd even include myself. I have a rare full time job with benefits (at least for the time being). I'm an evil faceless low level government bureaucrat. Depending on how the election goes, soon to be in the loser category. But at the moment, the current system is making me a winner! Winner and loser, more simplistic duality. But unlike most other so called winners, I realize the party cannot go on forever. We are hitting the twin icebergs of runaway climate change and geological limits. Our ship is just starting to list to one side more perceptible to some than to others. The size of one's bank account may adversely affect their perception  of danger. Fat bank, 2.5 kids, nice house, cool car, hot wife what could possibly be going wrong? Well a lot. 

Let's step back and look well beyond our small worlds of friends family and day to day stuff. Let's consider that there are more slaves in the world today than ever before. Lets stop the climate denial bullshit. It is changing Virginia and it is people who are causing it. Lets consider how much we are poisoning the oceans, the soil and the very air we breathe. Lets think about all the lives wasted already on resource wars with no end in sight. I think we can all agree something is very very wrong with our world. Well, the world is doing just fine. It will keep spinning around the sun for several more billion years. There is something very very wrong with us. We allow this to happen believing unquestioningly the simplistic stories we are told while in our hearts knowing better. As advanced as we are, can we not do better?  There must be alternative ways of organizing ourselves that do not poison everything and lead to a bottom billion living in hopeless poverty. We need to find it or the ole Earth will find it for us. All we know of is capitalism, socialism and communism. The people who brought us these ideas are long dead. Capitalism is the dominant system now and it is clearly not meeting our needs (read needs of all of us) and in fact capitalism is doing us great harm. Communism has some cool thoughts (collective, worker ownership etc) but has never been implemented successfully. To say the least, it also has an image problem. The old USSR, Cuba and North Korea are not leading role models for a shiny happy world. Socialism, which to me, seems to be a mix of the two has done well for a few rich Western European nations but is still based on global capitalism and all the baggage that goes along with it. For each well to do type living in Western Europe or here, how many are living in day to day poverty? We HAVE the resources to take care of everyone. There is no excuse for starving people, people with unclean water and no health care. These things only exist because of the crazy-ass stories we tell ourselves that we then make "reality."

All I'm looking for with this series of posts is more options. I'm as guilty as anyone reading this. My success is on the backs of poor I'll never know, the faceless unpersons who made my clothes, my electronic gizmos and picked the fruit I eat. I like my nice cars, glad my wife has a good job and my cool little house. I benefit from the very system I CHOOSE to question. I'm willing to trade in some of this (all of it??) for all to have a shot at a decent, dignified and productive life. I cannot pretend everything is fine simply because everything is fine for me. To the greedy bastards out there who think life should be based on self-interest only, I'd like to remind you keeping the business as usual status quo is not in your interest. Where's the fun in driving that red Lexus convertible across a scorched, desolate Earth breathing hot poisoned air?                            

Some links / Evidence? I got yer evidence right here!!
Democrat Republican Duopoly

Boil the Opposition

Climate Change and Geological Limits

Modern Slavery 

Fruit pickers

Lexus