Okay, I'll admit it, today I allowed my ire to rise.
It came upon me unexpectedly. What I thought an honest misunderstanding led to all out war and truthfully, and I am telling the truth-would a ginger lie? I really didn't contribute that much to the conversation. I simply stood my ground.
I bring this up because it is a trend. People getting spitting mad just because someone they don't agree with stands their ground. The world is a troubled place, and men, women and children are feeling it in a whole new way.
Their future uncertain, they have more on their plate, less to fill the plates with and more plates to go around. One cannot fault others for taking their sadness, fear and aggression out. However, I am disappointingly seeing people who claim to love peace, follow the 8 fold path and have a conscious regard for all human beings flying off the handle at the slightest provocation.
What is this? Where are we when peace keepers cannot hold their tongues?
I certainly don't think peace keepers are less than human, nor do I expect them to eschew normal human needs and life. However when someone begins preaching to me be it altruism, Buddhism, Christianity or Atheism I expect them to show it in the context of that particular discourse.
We are seeing this outside of our individual relationships too. Our countries are giving with one hand while they pickpocket us like a cutpurse with the other.
Reports out of Great Britain are stating that the country is stockpiling food in order to make sure they can tame the masses if there is an uprising. Food. As if humans are on display in the Royal Zoo. Maybe they are. Maybe it's come to this that this is enough to keep us in our place.
Someone else brought up this week that nobody remembers the riots in Compton and Long Beach following the Rodney King verdict in 1992 ( paraphrasing). But I do. You know who else does? Governments. A lot was learned in 1992 like how to end a riot quickly and more effectively. You didn't see Tottenham burn did you? Yes there was looting, but people were arrested. All sorts of people, people who weren't even directly involved, just regular folks posting stuff they saw on the telly.
You had better believe that American government remembers it too. New York city is currently invoking an ancient law allowing them to arrest those who are wearing masks. They want none of this Guy Fawkes stuff to get out of hand. Also there was the Bart incident last month which had mixed results. The point is that the machine was and always has been learning how to control civilians.
Think the Batterrams utilized in South Central were just so Nancy Reagan and Police Chief Darrel Gates could see inside crack houses without getting shot? Think again. He would never have been allowed to use it if it weren't to test how civilians responded to it and make adjustment.
Be Aware.
Think Batterrams can't come to your suburban or rural neighborhood? Think again. Just give reason for it, like say an overzealous college party. Or maybe protesting at your congressman's office. San Francisco bought one in 2008, check your local law enforcement to see if you have a Batteram for your police force.
Just Think.
John Twelve Hawkes was the author of a Trilogy I love. It deals with this very loss of privacy, state control through computers and the government sending in very nasty people to test out the public. It was first published in 2004, when a lot of this technology was becoming known, we are seeing almost every scary evil bad guy thing in the book play out in front of us.
Anyway, we need to not be attacking one another. We need to protect the weak. Like Robin Hood. Everyone loves that guy right? Except maybe the Ghost of Prince John. But Robin Hood was not complacent, that didn't mean he didn't have pacifists in his group either. We need everyone for this fight and we need to put aside our differences in philosophy for what is right.
Or you can expect a Batterram.
Which is no joke, really. It's damn scary what the powers that be will do to their own.
