War

Eryk
In my experience every act of protest , of resistance
makes a difference.
Furthermore every act of resistance is a living
memorial to the Rachel Corries of this world.
Here in the UK it's clear that protest has made the
prosecution of war harder for the government and hence
made it easier for us to go on resisting.
In Turkey it's abundantly clear that the popular
demonstrations stopped the first attempt to station US
troops there.
People should not forget the experience of Vietnam:
the most powerful nation in the world humbled by a rag
tag peasant army, a protest movement at home and a
revolt in it's own armed forces.
Nothing has essentially changed -it still remains the
case that "we are many -they are few". What we mustn't
do is either lose heart, believe their "we are all
powerful" propaganda or start to feel guilty about the
amount that we are able to do -through guilt lies
paralysis.
So concretely what can people do ?
Find fellow minded war resisters, build activity
against the war, however small ( the first
demonstrations against the Vietnam war were tiny),
link up with other local and national organisations
who are doing the same thing, draw ever widening
circles of people in.
Sounds simple, and in one sense it is, but in
practice it requires thought and perseverence.
Actually this time in terms of the movement we start
from a much *higher* level than ever before: 15th Feb
in particular was a world historic day.
Of course the movement in the real world is messy , is
awkward and is populated by human beings who
consistently fail to conform to our preconceptions but
of course it is precisely the murders of those sorts
of folk we are struggling to prevent.
I was out this morning handing out flyers at our local
college to organise a protest rally the day when ( as
it now looks will happen) war comes.
The response from the 16-19 year olds was brilliant.
Here are some jpegs

http://www.somedancersandmusicians.com/picket/picket.html

of a picket of our pro war MP that happened here on
Saturday - about 70 people at it's height,
overwhelmingly supported by passers by, a modest event
but one which forms a further link in the chain of
resistance.
If I thought it was not possible to struggle ( and
eventually successfully) for a decent world I would
not want to be alive.
best
Michael


— Eryk Salvaggio <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> Rachel Corrie got run over by a bulldozer when she
> stood with a bright
> orange jumper and a bullhorn in front of a
> Palestinian home that was being
> demolished.
>
> That means I have lost my right to sit around and
> complain whilst doing
> nothing. In fact, in light of Rachel Corrie, I have
> to wonder if I actually
> even give a shit about war. Because if I cared, I
> could be in front of a
> Palestinian bulldozer too.
>
> I would love to think I do, and I think a lot of
> other people do too, but I
> for one do nothing except write emails and complain
> about it, and that seems
> to me, a hell of a lot like not caring. This is not
> something I am proud of,
> but it is something I want to understand. If I knew
> what empathy was instead
> of pretending I knew what it was because I know how
> to commiserate, I might
> be better at it, but that is an essential gender
> difference between men and
> women. It's no excuse though, however I can say that
> I don't really know how
> to make myself feel empathy.
>
> Rachel Corries murder to me is as huge as September
> 11th. It is the totally
> comprehensible sequel. An American who has no ties
> to Palestine except for
> her own outrage at Palestinian slaughter goes to a
> non violent protest in an
> area that most people literally kill to get out of,
> and then she is
> deliberately run over by an Israeli Tractor. Our
> "allies" are Nazis, and I
> am sitting outside Auschwitz writing emails about
> how bummed out I am by it,
> pretending that makes a difference- or that any
> action "against war" is
> going to make any difference. Maybe there is
> something beautiful in false
> empowerment, but I don't know what it is anymore, in
> fact, all of it seems
> like pissing on thier graves. I want to know what
> the alternative is to my
> own apathy, the apathy I have when I am not
> pretending I am a compassionate
> person, because a compassionate person does more
> than this. Is it part of my
> own work to just sit aside and look at how I look at
> it until I am blue in
> the face? The desire to rush out and control the
> things I don't like is
> overpowering sometimes. I don't know what the right
> thing to do about it is.
> But I know that it isn't writing about it on a
> mailing list, which seems to
> be the big thing these days.
>
> Iraqi men and women may be huddled together waiting
> for bombs to drop on
> thier heads; or to have all your oxygen sucked out
> by a "daisy" cutter, but
> thier life means so much to me that I- a moderately
> well known internet
> artist- wrote an email about it, so they should be
> grateful. Better yet,
> maybe I will make some art about it. That will
> really elevate thier deaths
> by transformation.
>
> I have this creeping suspicion lately that GW Bush
> actually "knows" that war
> is bad! Also that war is pretty useless, but that he
> is choosing to do it
> anyway, because he can, and because he really
> believes it is better for the
> world that he does it, and that he isn't even really
> thinking about the oil
> so much as what a good place this planet will be
> when Saddam is gone. So I
> don't know if GW Bush is "overhearing" our
> conversations at rhizome, but if
> he is, I think I should try to say something even
> more relevant than how bad
> war is, since like I said, I think he knows, in fact
> he probably knows more
> than all of us know. But you know what, I know
> pretty much a lot of stuff
> about war, and GW does too, and I am not doing
> anything, so I guess I can't
> expect GW to, either.
>
> What I would like to be is to simply become a place
> where war stops. Because
> peace is pretty awesome, sure, people know that,
> too, usually. Peace is cool
> because no one is trying to control anyone and no
> one is super crazy hung up
> on right or wrong or what should be or what
> shouldn't be and what roles
> people are supposed to play in thier own lives. But
> like I said, people know
> peace is cool and they know that clouds are nice to
> look at. But peace is
> awesome because you can do it yourself by creating a
> place where there is no
> war. For me, that is going to be my head. This is
> probably going to be
> pretty hard really, but I have a sneaking suspicion
> that even working on
> that will be a lot more productive than what I have
> been doing, which is
> sending emails to a bunch of people who have no
> power over the course of the
> war, and reading a lot of stuff so that I can be
> well informed about the
> stuff I am doing nothing about. I think between the
> two choices, the
> decision I want to make is pretty obvious.
>
> Cheers,
> -er.
>
>
>
>
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: "Rachel Greene" <[email protected]>
> To: "rhizome list" <[email protected]>
> Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 6:14 PM
> Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: New Art Ideas Update
>
>
> > > since it seems to be a slow day here on Rhizome,
> > >
> > thanks dude. I don't know about anyone else, but I
> am so gutted by the
> news
> > I can't really think straight.
> >
> > We didn't even elect this guy! And his arrogance
> and disregard for public
> > opinion – it often doesn't seem real.
> >
> > My last white hope is that senators will en masse
> resign causing an
> internal
> > crisis, a la British Minister Cook, but that IS
> completely unlikely.
> >
> > politically depressed, rachel
> >
> > + ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup
> > -> post: [email protected]
> > -> questions: [email protected]
> > -> subscribe/unsubscribe:
> http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> > -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> > +
> > Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms
> set out in the
> > Membership Agreement available online at
> http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
> >
>
> + ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gniht ym tup
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe:
> http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set
> out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at
http://rhizome.org/info/29.php


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eryk wrote:
The desire to rush out and control the things I don't like is overpowering sometimes. I don't know what the right thing to do about it is.

++++++++++++++

Some things I do when feeling impotent against evil:
1. search my heart and see if there's anyone i've offended or wronged. contact them and ask their forgiveness.
2. ask God (I believe in God, sorry) to show me anybody whom I should pray for or call. Pray for them or call them and ask them how they are doing.
3. figure out a way to prefer my wife over myself (washing dishes, watching a chick flick with her, taking care of the kids so she can nap, giving her a back massage).
4. do right by the students I teach. prepare for class properly, take plenty of time to evaluate their projects and give them individual feedback, figure out what they want to achieve and come up with creative ways to inspire them
5. feed hungry people. prepare food and go with my family and church to downtown Asheville on Saturdays and feed lunch to whoever shows up. Talk to them and pray with them. Get to know them.
6. do right by my kids. leave what i'm doing (if it's not too pressing) when they come into my office, take time to listen to them, play with them, take them hiking or out to eat. Spend one on one time with them.

you get the idea. Before I was married, I taught English at a boys and girls ranch for orphans and I was a live-in houseparent at another orphanage for a while. Both those jobs were pretty intense, but fruitful. Sometimes I'm on task loving others, sometimes I'm selfish.

Personally, I'm down on a lot of slacktivism (signing a petition to boycott starbucks, wearing a t-shirt that says "end racism."). Rather than being harmless ("every little bit counts"), stuff like that acts like a placebo. It makes me think i've done something when i haven't, and i stop at that. It can't simply be about making people aware. All that leads to is a bunch of well aware people, ever making others yet more aware. It's about loving people in my immediate sphere of influence.

That's just my take on it. Local mileage may vary.

peace,
curt

> Some time ago I was thinking about what Erik Salvaggio points out, that we just write e-mails protesting and do little more. What made me wake up was this e-mail pretending the UN was picking up signatures against the war – it was a hoax.
While the politics prepare their war, all we do is send each other an e-mail that is not even a real act of protest!
Later on I came across a text describing the structure of the spartan society in ancient Greece. I found out that there were basically three social levels: the Homoioi were the rulers, a class of wealthy (according to spartan standards) individuals who had the power and the right to vote. The Ilotas were the slaves who worked on the fields and had no rights or power. In between, not powerful nor enslaved, were the Periokoi ("those who live in the perifery"), who had freedom but no vote. Whilst the Ilotas had to be constantly controlled to prevent rebellions, the Periokoi posed no threat to the rulers.
Sounds familiar? I think this is our problem: we are the Periokoi, in the periphery of power, with freedom but not a real vote, with the capability to express ourselves but not willing to start a rebellion.
Forgive me for this cheap history class, but I think this is more or less where we are now. Still, maybe after the demonstrations on Feb. 15th we cannot say it doesn't make a difference…

On Tue, 18 Mar 2003, curt cloninger wrote:

> eryk wrote:
> The desire to rush out and control the things I don't like is overpowering sometimes. I don't know what the right thing to do about it is.

> Some things I do when feeling impotent against evil:
> 1. search my heart and see if there's anyone i've offended or wronged. contact them and ask their forgiveness.
> 2. ask God (I believe in God, sorry) to show me anybody whom I should pray for or call. Pray for them or call them and ask them how they are doing.
> 3. figure out a way to prefer my wife over myself (washing dishes, watching a chick flick with her, taking care of the kids so she can nap, giving her a back massage).
> 4. do right by the students I teach. prepare for class properly, take plenty of time to evaluate their projects and give them individual feedback, figure out what they want to achieve and come up with creative ways to inspire them
> 5. feed hungry people. prepare food and go with my family and church to downtown Asheville on Saturdays and feed lunch to whoever shows up. Talk to them and pray with them. Get to know them.
> 6. do right by my kids. leave what i'm doing (if it's not too pressing) when they come into my office, take time to listen to them, play with them, take them hiking or out to eat. Spend one on one time with them.

All of which are placebos.

If one is to close one's eyes, then sedating oneself into victimhood
is a pitiful way to do it. Of all humanity, only << 2% become genuine
egotists, and << 0.002% have what it takes to face Reality.

One may wish to observe how Curt Cloniger has dictatorialy
attempted murder toeards [posters] threatening his "christian"
mentality. But Jesus Christ was not a victim + what he taught
is liberation not bleating victimhood + the ignorant twit
shall attempt to murder all + all who speak of the "real thing".

Ach + ach. "Sheep" never meant a BLIND HERD of victims.
And "wolves" never meant the asshole-sheep who fancy that
damaging others is either a. elite (esoteric) or b. righteous.

Both of the latter driven by the same impulse of self-importance.

Deleuze and Gutarri have identified the use of the word "war" in todays media and politic in detail.
But the word "war", like any word can go through revision, redefintion and change.
we can't eliminate the word from the vocabulary,and we can't alter the the minds of people that employ the word to describe their reaction to a human interaction.
What we can do though, is change the meaning of the word.
What does the use of the word mean in a phrase like "the war on drugs"?
Does it mean we have divided society into enemies, friendlies and prisoners of war?
How do we expand the meaning of the word to disarm it?
Can there be war likers, war lovers. war intermediates, war reluctants, war dislikers, war haters and anti warriors?
How about war dislikers under most circumstances.
Or better yet, "mostly dissinterested in war…."
These meanings don't exist in the mass media.
In the mass media "war" equals polarity.
If the word is stripped of its polarity can we change the outcome of our behaviour?
By changing the meaning and effectiveness of the word can eliminate it?
How about, "a lovely approach to disagreement".
well…, maybe not.
But perhaps, with a concerted effort, the CAE defence fund might be the CAE meaning fund.
someday soon, if we work on it, the word will lose all meaning.