Some thoughts on the 'violence' issue, prompted by the thoughful
contributions of Anders Sandberg and Kathryn Aegis.
Swiss psychotherapist Alice Miller's horrifying book on the subject
of 'poisonous pedagogy' -- "'For Your Own Good': The Roots of
Violence in Child-Rearing" (Virago, [1987] -- is an inclusive and
comprehensive descriptive and explanatory account, which answers the
basic question: "How would you have to bring up a child, for him or
her to be a violent adult?"
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When I lived and worked at the Alternative Bookshop in Covent
Garden, Central London, I used to go for (unarmed!) walks after
midnight arond Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and other
night-life venues.
With experience, it often became possible to see attackers and
'attackees' seeking each other out, and pairing off. Many of the
'attackees' seemd to give off 'attack me!' signals ('Kick me!'
signals, in Eric Berne's (albeit flawed) Transactional Analysis
theory. Clearly, learning to spot 'aggressor' signals and
suppressing 'victim' flags would be most worthwhile.
I (used to) cultivate 'invisibility' (there's a whole literature on
how to do this in the world of spookdom -- field operatives often go
unremarked, as grey, unnoticeable people). After doing Werner
Erhard's -- albeit flawed -- 'est' training in 1979, I had access to
a further intellectual arsenal of self-defence and self-projective
techniques.
I never did much martial arts training, because under UK law, using
martial arts skills against someone counts as 'assault with a deadly
weapon', and there are many deadlier weapons around. I have a
preference for 'action-at-a-distance' anyway. >:-} In retrospect, I
may also have felt that I would be more aggressive (maybe just a tad
more self-assertive, anyway!) if I had greater martial arts skills.
And I _really don't like hurting people_.
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In my motorcycling days, I had a friend (Dave Watson) who was an
accomplished street-fighter (he took out three 'bouncers' in twenty
seconds in one incident). He gave me some lessons. Yet he ended up
in the 'fastest gun' trap, with thugs looking to make a reputation
who came looking for him. Not much 'deterrent effect' there.
Another friend (Tony Owen) had his girl-friend harrassed in a
coffee-bar by three goons. He was too 'puny' to defend her, so he
just walked out (whereupon the harrassment stopped, AFAICR). Half
an hour later, the goons exited the coffee-bar. A large black car
was parked outside...
As the goons walked up the road, a voice called out:
"Turn around. I'm not going to shoot you in the back."
There was Tony Owen, holding a single-action .45 revolver on them.
He pulled back the hammer, and >click<. Misfire...
The three goons started towards him. He calmly pulled back the
hammer again, and shot the first goon in the face. The two
remaining goons stopped. Tony Owen pulled back the hammer agiain,
and the next goon dropped, clutching his shoulder. The third goon
sank to his knees, and started begging not to be shot. Tony Owen
shot him anyway, got back into his big black car, and drove off to
Johnson's 'Rising Sun' motorcycle cafe. He turned himself in to the
police an hour or two later, and was later sentenced to nine months'
imprisonment for all this. (No-one had died: and it was pointed out
at his trial that his mother had been a victim of domestic violence
during his childhood). People rather avoided him when he came out
of jail...
Many historians have suggested that the origin of English good
manners originated in the practice of duelling. The same may be
true for America.
------------------- * * * * * ---------------
One of my favourite books is "Civilian Resistance as a National
Defence" with a chapter by Gene Sharpe, and another by April Carter
(a relative of mine). I agree, that non-violence is prudent _and_
effective, as well morally acceptable. It _is_ the best policy, up
to a certain point. Social innovation could further enhance its
effectiveness. Ferinstance:
If each of us is equipped with uniquely-coded radio 'panic alarms',
(SARA beacons) so that we can personally summon assistance to our
exact location from our chosen service provider, we would see a
transformation of policing from a useless state-provided
social-control system into a customer-driven _personal protection
service_. Crime would be vastly reduced. Evil-doers would be
massively deterred by fast response times; and harm would be
reduced. It would become less necessary to carry self-defence
weapons.
An illustration: I am a formal external adviser to the Boulder,
Colorado District Attorney's Office (and to the Denver, Colorado
office of the FBI) in the investigation into the homicide of
JonBenet Ramsey a year ago (winner of many child beauty pageants,
JonBenet was just six years old).
It is my hypothesis that the slaying of Jonbenet Ramsey was a
deliberate act of terrorism, planned and carried through by
authoritarians with close connections to 'the authorities'; and that
the slaying was aimed at the child beauty-pageants' participating
parents and their children. The repressed authoritarian mindset
hates the sight of liberated, free-spirited children (it reminds
them of the child they once were, who was destroyed by authoritarian
parenting).
Very recent press reports state that a police-type 'Taser'
electroshock gun was finally used to torture and kill JonBenet after
she had been systematically sexually tortured for many hours in the
basement of her parents' house.
If JonBenet had been wearing a 'SARA' alarm, she could have
instantly summoned help. She might well be alive today.
Three guesses why 'the authorities' aren't too keen on this idea...
------------------- * * * * * ---------------
There are five political dispositions in Britain and America:
disposition: US UK
============ == ==
conservative: 35% 36%
libertarian: 20% 19%
socialist: 13% 18%
authoritarian: 20% 13%
centrist: 12% 15%
The authoritarians were intellectually and emotionally and
spiritually crippled in childhood. In 'adult' life they are hostile
to (and even attack) those who remind them of the free, capable,
spontaneous child they could have been (and in some cases perhaps
even once were). They now abuse and oppress their own kids,
replicating their fell type. They can be found in State employment,
'law enforcement', corporate hierarchies and blue-collar jobs.
How to deal with authoritarians will be the 21st Century's greatest
problem. They killed over 100 million people in this century alone,
and 'soul-murdered' countless millions more.
Understand this: they'll destroy us if we permit it.
Three times this Century, Atlantic liberalism has smashed
authoritarianism by military force. (WWI, WWII, Cold War)
And we'll do it all over again if we have to.
Even better, next time.
/ /\ \
--*--<Tony>--*--
Tony Hollick, LightSmith
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/la-agora (LA-Agora Conference)
http://www.agora.demon.co.uk (Agora Home Page, Rainbow Bridge Foundation)
http://www.nwb.net/nwc (NorthWest Coalition Against Malicious Harrassment)