February 20, 2005

The Lineage of War

Nature makes childbirth as painful as it has ever dared, in any species. The baby=s head

Is maximally big to pass through the pelvis. The baby must be born still very helpless

Throughout his impressionable years, the child struggles within the family hierarchy

His own weakness a painful contrast with the overwhelming power of his parents

The lion in the child=s bedtime stories lords it over all the creatures in the forest

How laughable it is for the rats to decide that the cat ought to be belled!

All existents in the world seem naturally to fit on a vertical scale according to power

Humans, animals, plants, things. King over commoner, society over individuals

All that is good, is up and high B life, health, consciousness, happiness, rationality

The future, control, status, wealth, success, and B and this is the rub B dominance

Parents all too often demand submission, obedience, discipline, compliance

Enforcing these through violence, either to the child=s body or his yet fragile self

The discipline the child endures turns, not into self-discipline, as proposed by his parents

But rather into a desire to discipline and control others, win over them, dominate them

Morality is also vertical. Those who climb the ladder of success must be rewarded

Those who do not, reveal thereby their flawed character and must be made to pay

Misfits include the disobedient child, the loser in school, the black welfare mother

The woman wanting an abortion, the independent wife, the gay, the poor, the criminal

Their very existence threatens the myth of fair competition in a hierarchical system

Rotten apples spoil the whole barrel. They must be thrown out, not negotiated with

Insufficient by themselves to impose their values, the successful and powerful

Call on the transcendent to seal their case, and God is on their side B always

The social narrative now dons religious garments. The rules are divinely ordained

Their revealed truth can no longer be challenged, only interpreted this way or that

But the young, the suffering, the exploited are angry and an outlet must be found

Luckily, resources are scarce, dangers ever present, and enemies usually cooperative

Simple binaries arouse the populace B us vs. them, good vs. evil, virtue vs. depravity

Noble heroes vs. outrageous villains, protectors vs. those who menace the innocent

The unsophisticated, the disenfranchised, the Avirtuous@ sacrifice their lives for a medal

While those who enticed them to the battle continue to enjoy and solidify their privileges

On whom the fury lands matters little, only that its trajectory be directed outward

The killing of soldiers, children or civilians serves the purpose, torture almost as well

War is about the Afreedom@ to conform to the rules formulated by the powerful

About the Ajustice@ to be meted out to those who refuse to play the game

About the Apeace@ achieved when all recalcitrants have forever been eliminated.

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