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Over the past few months there has been a focus on gun violence and I think this is a good thing. There are a lot of issues to grapple with however I would like to broaden the discussion to include other forms of violence and our thinking about violence.
Generally as Americans we accept the inevitability of war, terrorism and general violence. We make up reasons why and when violence would be acceptable. Then we make up rules on how and when we implement violence. Having rules makes it seem like aggression against our fellow humans is reasonable when it is not. One violent act precipitates another and it's been that way for thousands of years. But it does not have to be that way. The level of violence in the world has gone down substantially over the past two millennia. We now have the opportunity to limit and end the violence that one human would do to another. We are at a state of societal and technological development where we have the tools to transform the world. As part of this transformation we have to end violence. The only way to end violence is to stop doing it, stop letting it happen, stop accepting that violence will happen. If a majority of people can commit to the idea that violence is never justified, the world can be a better place.
Violence is insidious. It infects all of our daily lives. We use violent metaphors in our daily speech. We watch real and pretend violence in the media. We play violent games. Some of us beat our children and partners. Some of us are or were beaten children or partners. Some people bully and fight others. Some people write hate filled and/or violent things on the internet. Some people are fighting wars. Some people are being killed in wars. Some people are agitating for more wars. Some people are building bombs. Someone is piloting a drone. Someone, somewhere in America is probably killing someone while I am writing and you are reading this. In most places people are concerned about violence but most of them are not doing anything to stop it.
This last week the Obama administration released the guidelines for targeting and legal justification of killing people with drones. I image that we are all suppose to read the document or the reports of the document and judge the process as fair. To judge the process is to believe there should be a process, when there should be no program to kill humans with sky robots.
Killing anyone with sky robots or anything else is wrong. We do not need checks and balances in a system to kill people, we need to eliminate the power of governments to kill people at home or abroad. My problem with almost any discussion about drones is there is almost never a person who denounces drone strikes as wrong. If you get down in the weeds, Drone strikes may be a complicated issue. However, if you let yourself be sucked into the idea that killing people is right or necessary under certain circumstances you might as well not have discussion. Any discussion of this nature is not about whether killing is ethical but about who and why you kill.
The scary thing about the use of drones is that it sanitized warfare and killing. Given the facts revealed in the memo on how they select targets, I foresee a future of administrative massacre for people all over the world. The names of targets and information about them goes through committees and boards, being signed off on each level, until the approved target information reaches the tidy desk of the drone operator who performs his work with efficiency. Thousands and maybe millions could be killed like this. It is horrifying to think about but we must think about the ramification of using drones to kill other humans. It did not take long for the government to start using drones on to spy on US citizens at home and kill us abroad. If we do not stop this now, we will not be able to stop it in the future. Once we are dependent on drone strikes we won’t be able to stop because of all the people who will lose jobs and the corporations that will lose profits. Money is why the war on drugs may never end, even though it is destroying humans.
We live in wondrous times with the ability to do limitless things. We could make the lives of everyone on earth much better. We have a capability to feed, clothe, house and educated everyone on the planet. Yet we do not do it and we still accept the idea that war has a purpose other than killing and making money. If you feel war has another purpose in the 21st century please explain it to me in the comments below.
We need to renounce violence. Nothing good has ever come from it. Getting a beating as child did not make you a better person. Beating your wife will not make you feel better. Standing your ground and killing someone does not make you safer. Shooting your girlfriend does not solve your problems. Violence is never the answer to problems; it makes no one feel better, and only creates a different set of problems. There are enough of us who do not want to live in a violent world. We need to speak out. We need make sure our political representatives know we do not want to make war and bring death to other humans. We who want to live in a world where violence is an aberration not an expectation need to work together to end violence. I do not know how to end war and general violence but I do know that if you change how you think about violence, you and how you see the world will change. It certainly changed me. I know now that all humans on earth deserve to live comfortably without fear of violence. I know that my life is not more important than anyone else’s. I know I can make a positive difference in the world and so can you.
Peace,
Fobbsie
