The Culture of Violence

With its unmistakable identity, violence is both the essence and origin of politics. It is the proclivity of despots, those in power, to use violence towards those without power. It’s no good pulling the wool over our eyes telling lies to ourselves, we all know very well how things really are, we know that true violence is what the people in power have in their hands. And all the other types of violence have their roots in this fact.

The history of mankind has always borne the hallmarks of violence, starting with the first head of a tribe, through the Pharaohs of Egypt, right up to the current American president, Barack Obama. It is only the methods of governance that have changed, not the contents. The rich and powerful of the past subjugated the weak and poor, and today’s rich and powerful subjugate the weak and poor today. This has always been the case, and continues to be so in the present.

Every political party is a type of institutionalised violence. Democracy is nothing other than power, power which politicians hold in their hands, but not the people who vote for them. The populace exists only and exclusively to vote for the tyrants who will rule over it. This is violence, pure, calculated, legalised, unpunished violence.

If the populace, the citizens, the subjects, whatever we want to call them, do not pay their taxes, just to give an example, democracy, the democracy which they have voted for, sanctions them, threatens them, distrains their property, arrests them and in the end, imprisons them. That’s how democracy treats the people. But is this how democracy works when it is a question of the politicians? No, not at all, because there is no need. Why not? Because Mr Politician does not need to break the law. Why should he? He’s got everything he needs; he’s either rich or super-rich. For him, democracy makes everything possible, even the impossible. He has no need to break the law, in fact, he wants the law, he wants this type of democracy, he wants the courts, the police force, the prisons, the death sentence, because only within these kind of systems does he feel sufficiently protected to be able to enjoy all his privileges and wealth; wealth which has been robbed from those who voted for him, and to send to prison anybody who threatens his immunity and his affluent and privileged lifestyle.

We live in a culture of violence which has been raised to the level of a dictatorship, a kind of studied juridical savagery which is supported by the laws, a culture of exploitation, of justified criminality, of systematic barbarisation. Ours is a human society based on common sense, solidarity, and good customs? No way! Ours is a sad story where the weak are subjugated by the powerful. These are the laws of the jungle, the social jungle in which we live.

 Translated from the Italian by Joy Elizabeth Avery. Tel: 015.703954; Email: joyelizabethavery@tiscali.it