WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE ANYWAY

Christ of Saint John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí [detail]

People were horrified that ISIS were destroying works of art, cultural heritage, and historical buildings.  But denigrating and destroying a mural representing capitalism living off the backs of the oppressed and demonising anyone who is not demonstrably outraged by an imposed interpretation of it, is perfectly acceptable in Britain today.

It won't be long before art galleries are searched and pictures removed and burnt in the streets if they depict a hint of anything that may be considered offensive to Jews.  Gerald Scarf will be up on the public gallows in front of a jeering crowd with Roger Waters beside him.  Pink Floyd, along with Wagner, will be banned in the UK in solidarity with the Jewish State of Israel.

No one will notice until it is too late that we are repeating history with a different set of pawns.  The most startling thing about this anti-anti-Semitic hysteria is the hysteria itself.  If people were less prone to exhibiting their fear via conveniently provided conduits there would be no issue.

Although we talk about the thought police and nefarious operators controlling what we think, there are very few people in the world who understand how it works.  The new connectivity via social media enables powerful interests to control the landscape and artefacts of your conscious thoughts.  They control what you are thinking about, what you are afraid of, what you are indignant about, and where you direct your pent up anger.

The anger is plentiful and, like pollution and the national debt, is still being fomented by a dysfunctional oppressive authoritarian culture.  Like water backing up behind a damn the potential is mounting and social media provides the valves and penstocks for powerful corporations to direct the energy to the desired turbines converting it into kinetic energy to power their own ends.

This latest outburst in the mass media is like involuntary projectile vomiting.  It is indicative of profound cultural distress and a societal nervous breakdown.  Those with obscene wealth in the world can do nothing else but utilise this convulsing to their own ends because they know nothing else.  It is simply another readily available resource to commodify for their own benefit.

Blaming the rich and powerful will never resolve the profound division that is destroying humanity.  If the proverbial meek are to inherit the Earth it is not by overpowering the powerful over them.  We have to begin to resist being manipulated.  The only power 'they' have over us is that their fear is satiated by provoking our fear.  We literally hand over our power by being afraid.  In childhood there is no option, but in adulthood it is arguably an obligation to come to terms with our own fear and not to feed others with it.  With good friends with honest hearts this is not such an impossible task as it appears.  After all - we're all going to die anyway.