I had a beef with Andrew Badenoch way back when over esoteric issues surrounding freedom, i.e……………anarchism.
I really didn’t explore the issue with him enough before I got pissed off and basically ignored him. And then months later, the Ancestral Health Symposium happened, I met him in person, and consequently felt embarrassed that I hadn’t taken the time to get to the gist of our disagreement before that. While we were very cordial to one-another, I feel and felt as though I lost an opportunity to do us both a little better.
I took steps to rectify my shortness with him immediately after AHS and that continues because Andrew is sort of a kindred spirit — to me — in my enthusiasm for motivating the Paleo community to at least consider and discuss issues beyond fat loss and bodily health. We have a complex mind; and complex social systems…none of which are being regularly addressed by anyone but, in my humble opinion, myself, Andrew, and a small few others, typically focussed around evolutionary psychology, such as Emily. While I applaud being healthier and happier in any context and I applaud those — many my friends — who are helping to drive that forward, I just — forgive me — want to be on the cutting or bleeding edge of The Whole Monte, always. When hundreds of bloggers and book writers dive into the space I have been part of for so long, it’s my nature to further be part of driving it to the next level. And I still have a further level to two in mind.
I posted my latest: Are You More Moral, More Benevolent and More Competent Than Any Politician? Then Act Like It. And Andrew has posted something that while having intersecting ideas and principles, really touches deeper into Paleo on the one hand, and politics vis-a-vis primitive social organization on the other. And he does all the references shit, too: Foundations for a Hunter-Gatherer Philosophy II: The Libertarianism Question.
You can read those posts if you haven’t, and I encourage you to do so. Homework assignment, but only if you’re willing to take on mind and society, now that you’ve cured, or are well on your way to curing body. If not, I will be the first to say that this can wait and there will be more opportunities. Have more to look forward to. Don’t worry about it and you have important things you’re working on. Stay tuned. You’ll know when you’re ready for more.
I wanted, just for a bit, to really shake you up with something. This should come as a big surprise.
Killing and murder happens.
Always has, and always will. You can take any number of positions on all of that and it will still happen. There will always be very bad people, and psychopaths. People will still kill people and your choice is to live in bedtime story fantasy about it for comfort’s sake, or confront the reality of it. Here’s an off the cuff stream of consciousness sampling, referencing modern times:
- The Duel. Perhaps the most “gentlemanly” form of killing, where both participants are willing, with witnesses, and all is clean and tidy. Such a form of resolving differences over honor — or even more petty — strike me as conditioned by social dynamics far removed from the human animal sphere. It’s merely a way to defend an already baked in the cake dynamic, though at least it was manno a manno. In the Middle East, honor killings are…well, you know what those God loving savages do to girls and women. So there’s that.
- “Coon Hunt.” I don’t know how to draw any valid distinctions between that and those God loving savages. That’s likely because there’s likely none to draw.
- Wildwest Gunfight. I’m too un-stoked in boring American-West mythology — and don’t know whom to trust — to comment on it, without spending countless hours in the library. I dunno, do you? I never have cared if they all killed one-another. Wait. I have sometimes wished they had, if nothing else, but to relieve us from the prospect of boring and pointless movies. OK, Big John Wayne was pretty cool. And a few others I guess.
- The Random Murderer. Small potatoes, but shit happens and there are no guarantees. You would do well to choose your friends, acquaintances, lovers and friends circumspectly. Still no guarantees, because when seconds count, the cops are only minutes away. Have a gun, or two, or six; I do. Don’t you?
- Gang Murders. Why do you think there are gangs there? Because there are people there to dominate. Unless they have you in handcuffs to your kitchen table, get out, with your 10 welfare babies in tow. Otherwise, in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 years in succession, you’ll have blood on your hands.
- Media Motivated Execution. It’s sensational and all in vogue, now, but I find it difficult to care much about the proponents or opponents alike, because I find it difficult to distinguish their true hearts from their overpowering minds; which minds might — merely — like to make things easier on their hearts from here out — or after another > 10 executions for the proponents, and < 10 for the opponents…and which it is? Personally, for me, the notion that it might be wise to end the life of a predator for everyone’s sake gets totally tarnished and indistinguishable from lynch mobs in today’s unserious flash and sparkle sensationalism, over serious substance, and even with real lives in balance — but it’s sure entertaining; there’s that. And there’s momentum. That too. I think we’re fallible, so there’s no such thing as an “objective” death sentence short of a conviction beyond any possible doubt.
- Soldiers, Sailors, Marines & Airmen. So noble. So many get to kill by remote control, now, or at least kill the most by means of various lethal technologies. I have never decided if I was really fooled or not. In the logic of geopolitics, it seemed sensible to do my part at the time. When The Wall came down, I soon submitted my resignation. I didn’t like the trend I saw towards creating new enemies to replace the old ones.
- The Government. I had to save the best for last; the winner! Now, I know this is very unpopular. The government is so popular, it’s the most ingenious marketing plan ever. Let’s see, you control everything through force and coercion, erect laws to fine and imprison, spice it up with with prosecution of the unpopular (one assumes real bad guys will always be dealt with anyway) and then, you execute people here and there to hand clapping. Don’t worry. Let God sort it out. Winner.
God Bless America.
There will always be killing and murder. Those who propose solutions that involve eradication are deluded, or worse, scamming you. Have you paid them anything or donated?
I have a modest proposal and it’s already in the title: if you want someone dead, then just kill them yourself.
You see, it’s very difficult for me to assume that many people don’t want one whole fuck of a lot of people dead. Isn’t that part of the reason why so many agitate, then stand in line at a voting booth, to vote death by proxy, “support the troops,” and all thayt? Do they go home and wash their hands?
If you want someone dead — and I’m certainly not saying there’s not valid reasons for that — then kill them yourself.
Just kill them yourself.
Imagine a world where that was the creed, and you had to live with, or got to enjoy, the real consequences of your deed. Might you be a little careful?
I saw people today in the latest go-round over an execution being impotent as always; pathetic, some admonishing that it’s better for 100, 1,000, 10,000 guilty men to go free than for one to be executed unjustly.
That’s a sucker’s hope. People will always be killed. Some unjustly. It happens. It will happen. But how much more likely is it when real culpability for error is nowhere to be found?
So just do it yourself when you think it’s warranted, and face the consequences if you’re deemed wrong.
Of course, there is an alternative, which would be simply to stop killing people because they think and act differently from you, or are in the way, or whatever. But yea, that would never work.
Update: I neglected to mention that the title phrase is not original to me but was something a long time anarchist friend, Greg Swann wrote years ago, in 2005 (final paragraph). Visit his current blog, SplendorQuest.