When is the appropriate time?
When I share a video of Vietnam veterans explaining the atrocities of war, I
suppose first, it's because I think it's important to keep in mind.
We don't convene war councils on when to discuss such things, so in
the middle of your busy day, haphazardly scrolling through your
phone, crushing candy or liking some article on the wisdom of not
beating your children, I offer an opportunity to hear about a
Vietnamese woman cut from vagina to chest to then have her guts
ripped out.
If that's not so much your style,
perhaps your ears are killing you, the day before I offer you a
chance to, I guess feel sympathy, for the violent and perpetual rape of inmates in a massive industrial prison complex. You can skip down
the road of contemplation about the disenfranchisement of black people, and
sharpen your definition of “modern slavery.” We're certainly
going to dig up information on advocacy groups and you're gonna love
the art supplies I got for our pretty protest signs.
I think you can hear about many things,
but that doesn't mean you're thinking about them. Israel and Gaza are
blowing up the news charts. I'm still seeing very little discussion
as to what and when something constitutes a war crime, why that term
should even exist, or of whom and how we could hold someone
accountable for committing one. It's just a term, at
this point. It might as well exist in a history book list of
definitions lost behind a desk.
When
are we supposed to
suffer our humanity? When do we interrupt our day to reflect on how
little or large we can contribute to change? I characterize myself as
something of a Debbie Downer because I don't know anyone else who is.
I think it's important to be one. I think it's more important than
offering excuses about why people don't want to think or strum the
refrain about their proclivity towards laziness and fear.
Sometimes
the comments section under an article is the most horrifying thing
you can find. More often though, the people with a tolerant or modest
outlook get the most support or likes...right behind the guy with the
smart-ass comment. I use these as a kind of short hand to account for
the amount of people who are wise enough in their perspective to know
how things ought to
be, even if they don't ever talk
or act. I think most people who report on failings of humanity aren't sharing their work so we can have models for how to make those
mistakes bigger later. They're appealing to a kind of cultural
understanding. I just don't know enough people trying to speak to it
as well. I don't know of people really trying to do anything besides
becoming personally satisfied.
My
understanding is that there will always be horrible things happening.
I know of no greater enabler of those things happening than the sin
of omission. Forgetting, ignoring, and pretending are the bedrock of
atrocity. Insistence on thrusting “bad things” at people seems
absolutely necessary in making them less bad or no-longer-bad things.
You have to feel it. You have to feel bad. You have to feel
responsible. You have to feel like your time is running out. You have
to pretend it's your friend getting gutted. You have stew alongside
the body parts of blown up children. Or, I'm just the guy with all
those articles and videos you ignore.
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