in the gap between my last post and now, i've made a lot of progress in my life and in my work.
my audio stuff became very productive and i started dialogue with labels and artists who really enjoy it! (before i became swiftly inactive once university started) i feel generally good. i wrote a lot, but have stopped to start at university where i've met many great, interesting people and also been able to develop my ideas.
i felt empowered to write this blog because of a seemingly petty reason - people scare me, or rather, people's views scare me. the amount of people willing to support britain's armed forces, or to 'say no' to anti-war marches. the same people, friends, who would protest the war, the same people that 'hate' the BNP... are in force joining facebook groups to support armed forces, and to speak out against anti-war marches... groups whose admins are even BNP MEMBERS.
i don't understand where people want to draw lines, or if most people's views are actually created by other strangers and friends, and masses choose to agree or disagree to form their individual identities. if the latter is true, i have a suggestion which i hope you choose to latch on to (but i'm not gonna create a facebook group. oh no): DO NOT SUPPORT THE ARMED FORCES IN ANY WAY. it may seem shocking or 'unpatriotic' of me, but... i question what they stand for. i believe any country has an armed force to indirectly threaten everyone else. it is naive to create a world of peace and harmony when we all have our guns pointed at each other. we talk of disarming other nations, but really we must disarm ourselves. it is power which is craved. protection which the people think they have. that's the bottom line, without realising it, most people buy into the idea that attack is the best form of defence.
if no one had the capability to attack, why would anyone need the capability of defence? no one should need either of these things.
it is not moral to support any armed forces and patriotism is a sham. i could choose to be patriotic - nationalist if you will (it is actually the same thing), but i don't believe there is anything within a polyester flag that i find remotely empowering. empowerment comes from within the human, and if anyone believes that a land mass holds magic powers and is worthy of worship, they are, frankly, deluded. don't get me wrong - i like being home, i love it, the place i live in, grew up in... but that could be anywhere in the world. and places change. constantly. most patriots are unhappy with the changes. get real!
i'd rather be at one with all people, and all countries, i'd rather be proud of things which i am actually involved in - my achievements, my work, and being human. i had nothing to do with the second world war (often the centrepoint of the british patriot's trophies) and i do not respect it. i despise violence and destruction, even when it may be 'nessecary' (even though measures can be taken to ensure it never is). i am not proud of it, i am ashamed of britain and it's choice to go to war. logically, i am even more ashamed of nazi-ism and it's choice to begin something so terrible that half the world deemed it war-worthy.
we are not teams. real life is not a game.
if i accept some sort of historic responsibility and have HUGE pride for britain 'winning' world war two,
then logically i MUST accept responsibility for germany and it's allies' actions.
i MUST feel SHAME that humans could ever do such things. things like hate with no reason. or hate, full stop. kill. oh... wait... 'britain' did these things too...
but no! 'we' did it for the 'good' of the world! of course! the winners are never wrong.
i am allowed to associate with germany and feel shame because of it... because it is a human association. it's not about where people are from in the world. that is COMPLETELY ARBITRARY. it's about small groups of people and huge amounts of power. having borders set to make differentiation in people's minds easier. seventy years ago, the borders of countries meant people were forced into sides. whole countries were fighting a fight which never should have started. japan. usa. italy. did the people have a choice about it? no. maybe they had a vote. that is a very very different thing. can you see?
it's true that people live and are brought up in different social climates, but this doesn't mean everyone within each imaginary border thinks in the same way. and increasingly it is not so.
who really wants guns? guns are designed to wound and kill. if not that, they're designed to threaten. if not that, they're designed to be sold for money. money which the consumer's banks (The RBS Group case in point) help pay for.
who really wants violence?
who really wants for there to be killing?
who really wants to threaten others?
who really wants to be threatened?
apparently, almost everyone.
...do you?
the more we set to stubbornly differ ourselves from other human beings, on false pretenses - the pretense that invisible lines exist and make us different, then the easier it is to break down humanity. the less empathetic humans can become to our fellow man - the more racist, conservative, and... patriotic(?) we become.
the further we are from harmony... from association and friendship.
action is needed. it's needed for there to be a re-action.
it may not always be an equal or opposite reaction.
sometimes action needs to happen again and again to make even a small reaction.
to be the change i want to see in the world, i can change my lifestyle from what is considered typical bit by bit.
but i can't do it alone, or the reaction won't be big enough.
but... if i ask others to do it i feel like i will be unjustly affecting their lives, like a preachy (but usually well meaning) christian, or a preachy (and usually cynical and hateful*) atheist.
*just sayin'!
all i can ask is that one must do further reading, and make your own opinions - try to avoid using opinions of others which you haven't properly understood or thought through (ie. joining a facebook group because you think it seems like a good idea or title). you don't even have to agree with mine. i don't nessecarily want you to. i just want you to understand and gracefully accept it. i think that is a great skill, and i'm sorry i didn't gracefully accept the purpose of the armed forces or patriotism before i started writing this post.
this is a call to you. to realise that there is meaning in everything. and to also realise you can never understand every single one of these meanings in any text, or even any single word. (one reason being simply that you can never comprehend every context. only a few. or technically one. your own)
simply, this blog was to show you how i feel about an issue that rattles my grill, and hope that maybe one day, you, the reader, could change a viewpoint, or, with empathy, help comprehend someone elses. (perhaps start with mine? all you need to do is nod politely and not hate me by the end.)
take action on something that you want to change in the world, big or small, bit by bit.
please talk, i'm not scared to hear what you have to say, and you shouldn't be scared to say it.
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4 comments:
it wouldn't let me reply, too long apparently, so i send it in facebook lul. wow what an anti climax after writing so long haha
Just went onto your facebook and discovered you had a blog! I could not agree more, I am 100% anti-armed forces and I hate how people are like 'respect the soldiers' sure I respect the soldiers that were FORCED to join the army back in the day but nowadays these soldiers have chosen this brutal violent occupation that kills innocent people every day- why should I respect that decision? People don't get that if everybody just said no to joining the army, we would have no armies therefore no invasion of countries etc. There was a group about soldiers on facebook that made me really mad. (I'm usually complaining about sexist groups on my blog! They drive me crazy too) But most people just leech onto idiotic groups even if they don't feel really strongly about the content anyway.
Harriet
x
Isn't it nice to live in a country where you can express these kinds of opinions without being dragged out into the street in the middle of the night and beaten to within an inch of your life? Where you can express any opinion, no matter how extreme or insane, without fear of reprisals? Where you can openly criticize the government, the armed forces and even the leader of the country?
Do you know why we can live in such a place? Because everyday good, brave and decent men and women fight and die to protect your rights to voice such offensive and naive statements.
Hi Anonymous,
It's a shame you didn't leave a name, contact details or anything. It would be nice to be able to have dialogue. Maybe you will check back at this blog, I hope you might, so I'll write a response - of course I should defend my views though. I wouldn't describe my views as naive, I've thought this through rationally over a long period of time. I know people who have had family and friends fight and even die, and of course I have my own family members who survived fighting in the world wars, and those who I never knew who died.
I am not trying to disrespect any individual soldiers, as I do try to judge people on their individual merits, and it's unfair to be so blase about this sort of topic in that sense, at it seems like a generalisation of a whole group of people who are really varied. And it deals with death, which is pretty heavy and can cause people to question what I'm saying. If you think about it, I'm against the death of these soldiers. I'm against the soldiers causing death for others (which, when in action, must be one of their top responsibilities).
To answer your first question, yes the world is really nice. I detect that you believe my views about disarmament and stopping mass violence were what you were hinting to be "extreme" or "insane". I'd like to disagree with you. I would describe these views as challenging, because it's taking the status quo and changing massive parts of it and people, you for one, might find that difficult to understand. The views aren't extreme as they are awfully pacifistic, so to be honest you could probably get away with calling them "wimp-ish" if anything. I don't really think you can chastise me for holding these peaceful views, because I do not have power to change the world to how I see fit, and that is a good thing. I believe that the democracy we live in lets many live comfortable lives, a lot better than many other places in the world, and the political and electoral system though flawed, is a part of the nice world we live in, and I wouldn't want to impose my views on people as most will probably disagree and be unhappy with them.
I'd quickly like to touch upon your last paragraph. Why do people have to fight and die at all? It would definitely be a nicer world, for you and I, if you and I didn't have to lose our friends and families. You seem to be implying that to live in a nice world we have to make people die. For some imaginary 'greater good' or a 'God'.
I doubt the armed forces want to protect my rights to say I don't like the idea of the armed forces. That is not at all the reason why they fight. I don't know if you can logically connect those two things. I'd say that the armed forces are currently, and so sadly, fighting and dying because our government are allies with the U.S which had the great idea to go on some perfectly respectful oil stealin' mission. There's lots of different ideas about why british soldiers are fighting other humans, but none of them are to protect my right to free speech. That's not being at all put at risk by the humans that british soldiers are fighting. Just to spell it out, as the original blog might seem rather negative: I DON'T WANT ANY SOLDIERS TO DIE. What I want is for there to be no need to have any soldiers, essentially world peace, so that people won't be fighting and dying at the hands of other people. I really think it is such a shame when people see violence as a necessity.
I'm sorry that you find my message of peace (challenging though it may seem, to see it in that way) is offensive.
I'm really glad you've all taken time to read my ranty blog and comment on it. I hope you do check back and read my reply. It's great to get comments on here, agreeing or disagreeing with what I say, so thankyou!
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