Oct 31

 Felt a little less like garbage the last few days.

The allergy like things seem to have toned down, but definitely not gone. And whilst yes, I still am pretty shit, I have had worse, and eh, it's a slightly better patch in the sea of shit.

So, I dunno, small victories perhaps.

I've not really kept track of it, but I see a lot of hand wringing and fucked up statements regarding Israel and Palestine floating around.

The unending utter hatred continues to burn on, causing a lot of lost lives, and further still, no end of animosity and shitty behaviour. Personally I have tuned it out. As absolutely terrible as it is. It's just a perpetual cycle of death and bullshit excuses. If you cannot do anything about it. If the participants don't want to do anything about it. If death seems to be the agreed thing. And no one can, or wants to stop it. Then. It's going to happen. Jesus, people don't even have the guts to stand up and say stop killing each other too loudly, for fear of being cancelled.

For its part, Israel - now in the grips of a very right wing government - sticks to its well worn defences of labelling anyone who dares criticise them as an anti-semite. Practically a Nazi. Whilst Hamas on the other side, seems happy enough to sacrifice everyone and everything in something of a jihad. Neither side cares about who gets caught in the crossfire. It's just a murderous fight for survival. Of which Israel is always going to win.

There are solutions. Of course there are. On paper. But like a lot of things, I don't think any solution actually works in practice. As ever, wherever you go, there you are. The problem is people. Not what carefully constructed agreement you've tabled. We have a bloodthirsty instinct within us. And it's easily fuelled into an unthinking, uncaring, sociopathic murder machine.

The thing that sticks in my mind, is because of the trauma that has been done to the Jews in the past, this means for all time going forwards, they are largely beyond criticism. When it seems like in fact, just like any kind of abuse that once you've been horribly abused, the chances of you then becoming an abuser are heightened. Which, certainly seems to be the case here. It also works the other way around. Because of the trauma lumped onto Palestinians, they in turn dish it out. 

There's a really simple rule of thumb here. No matter what horror was visited on you in the past, as an individual, or a society, a culture, whatever. It does not then forgive you of all sins going forwards. If you don't stick to this, then you will end up with a self perpetuating nightmare. Where one person or people inflicts their hatred and trauma on the next, who in turn inflicts it on the next and so on and so on. Each one having a perfect excuse to behave like a shit to the next one in line.

It's been clearly noted in the past, that you more you oppress a people, the more harm you dish out, the more likely you are to breed terrorism. Whip the animal enough, and eventually it will bite you.

I think overall, the whole situation is the tragedy of humankind in a nutshell. Stuck tearing lumps out of each other in a murderous rage. And to even contemplate saying stop is blasphemy. The rage needs its sacrifices.

I've also seen some related bullshit pieces on querying How You Can Stop Terrorism. Oh me. Oh my. How do we stop the bad guys. All this said with a very serious academic face that entirely misses the fucking point that one persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter, and indeed, just about the whole of human history is written on the back of that power dynamic.

Power structures and the status quo can turn bad. In fact. Most often do turn bad. And. Shockingly. The power structures are never keen in simply retiring, throwing up their hands and saying, ok we're done, and shuffling off into the dustbin of history. Far from it. They want to keep on being the status quo. No matter how many skulls get crushed under the machine.

To stop the skull crushing machine you must oppose the status quo. By definition. You must do something illegal. Wrong. Naughty. Something the status quo has outlawed. Of course. To defy the status quo is to be a Bad Citizen. Duh.

Unless the system is enormously enlightened with a degree of self destruction where there are legitimate mechanisms to undo itself, you're always going to have to resort to something outside the prerogative of the system to tear it down and create something new.

Many would say, ah ha, this is democracy ! By voting, you can affect change ! Except, that ideal is pretty much busted by this point in time, and its limitations were seen as far back as Plato. The US where you can gerrymander districts so your lopsided voting favours you. Or just buy votes. Or cancel votes. Shows how very delicate the flower of democracy is to "shaping". Not to mention that democracy also suffers from the tyranny of the masses. If 60% of people decide that blondes should be sacrificed to the Easter Bunny, guess what ? Democracy says yeah, sure, why not.

Democracy is not the arbiter of justice or compassion or safety. Just a lowest common denominator of the masses. And if the masses are bloodthirsty, god help you.

But back to the ridiculous fucking bullshit about How do you stop Terrorism. Like it in the main isn't mostly a thing generated because one group decides to completely fuck over another group. The world is full of deprivation and excess. The screaming injustices of the have more than they could ever need, versus the have nots is horrific. Justice for one, injustice for another, mostly based on how much money you have. The wanton destruction of a shared habitat to benefit the few. The insidious creep of just wanting people to die through lack of water, supplies, shelter, freedom, whilst others sip champagne from a balcony is appalling. And you wonder why some of the abused don't just lie down, roll over and die but instead fight ?

Please.

The elephant in the room is the fucking hypocrisy that is the modern world. You don't have to sit there and ponder how you can stop terrorism, or just how many security cameras per citizen you need to install, or how many bombs you need to drop on another country to improve matters.

Tackle the inequalities. The injustices. But that of course, takes real effort. And would demand some part with their money and or power. And that, cannot possibly be tolerated. For some. The status quo is peachy keen thank you very much. More status quo please. How can we stop those who don't want this status quo from being party poopers.

Eh. Yeah. 

I am sure Marie Antoinette was very clear about her executors being terrorists. Filthy upstarts. Disgusting peasants.

The peasants however won that one. And they are now the glorious foundation of a more fair more balanced modern French nation. At least if you're the victor describing it. Which they are.

I don't believe humanity is sophisticated enough to come up with a solution that looks any different to mass murder and violence to break out of abusive power structures. It's just how it is.

In theory it could be very peaceful. And rational. And you could pick the options that did least harm and were most beneficial.

In practice there is always ever too much personal greed involved. Laziness. Callous disregard for people you've never meet. Easier to kill than compromise.

It is always going to the way.

And sometimes the status quo will win and put down the filthy rebels.

And sometimes the gloried freedom fighters will win and put down the evil status quo.

Always there will be fighting and murders of which the innocent, those on the sidelines, will take the brunt of the suffering.

Until we evolve beyond it. But. I wouldn't hold your breath.

You can try setting up communal international bodies. Things that are supposed to keep a lid on peace. Curb the excesses of our own worst impulses. But history has shown us these don't work. Toothless. A bit of rhetoric here and there and they deflate like a popped balloon. Just look at the bloodshed in the middle east at the moment. People are dying. And the world can't even agree that murdering innocents is a Bad Thing. And if rhetoric doesn't work, then a bit of rules lawyering, a bit of underhand politics, also undermines the whole thing. Just look at Russia. Or China. And their continual fuckery around the rules. Similar to the annoying sibling who pushes your buttons but shouts are you THEY ARENT TOUCHING YOU whilst flailing about. Same shit.

Humanity is childish, murderous and petty at its worst. This is who we are. It's never going to get better. You just have to try and live with it and mitigate the shit. That's all you can do. And aim for better.

But nonsense like discussing realistically how you can stop terrorism, like it's just a problem of those pesky upstarts, and it isn't a fucking inherent part of the system and rejection of abuses, and that perhaps all you need is more cameras. Or more police. Or more bombs. Is breathtakingly ignorant at best. Puerile and disengenous at the middle. And cynically exploitative bullshit propaganda at worst.

Still.

All in.

Summarised as. Eh. Humans innit.

Fucking idiotic species.

Here are some simple takeaway rules.

Murdering people is bad.

Murdering innocent people is double bad.

Excusing any sin because you've been sinned against in the past is no defence. It's an explanation. An understanding. But doesn't excuse you.

Trauma can be infectious. And generational. Trauma begets trauma. Pain suffered. Can be pain inflicted. Bad pattern. Heal the pain. Don't take it out on others. Otherwise the cycle continues to the next generation.

Here are some other simple observations.

Humans often cannot affect change without murdering.

Murdering is in our nature - hardwired into our biology.

No end of arbitrary social rules, laws, bodies, deals or otherwise can be enough to overcome our basic drives, particularly murdering. Particularly murdering on a massive scale - ie, war.

Human life on this planet is inherently tragic because of its flaws that it struggles to overcome.