The Love of Violence - an opportunity for Love?

I came to England and discovered a real love for violence and was surprised, astounded. I had never experienced anything like it before. This lust for killing our fellow man, I discovered, flows through all levels of society here.

The most useful thing an heir to the British throne could think of doing, after leaving the confines of education, was to rush off to a foreign country to try and kill as many strangers as he could. If the newspapers are are be believed, he came back a very sad boy for he didn’t get to kill anyone. The nation grieved for him – how dreadful not to have the experience of killing some stupid kafirs. The poor boy, fancy having been denied such sport! It’s just not fair, just not cricket.

When the men go off to do their killing, the priests bless them, giving them God’s permission to wreck havoc on lives, families and communities. Then, when they return from their carnage, the priests bless them again, saying, in effect, that God approves mightily of their murdering. Their god must be bloodthirsty indeed!

Then, I discover, there is widespread sympathy for these murderers because some got hurt while killing others! What did they expect? They went, quite voluntarily, off on their killing sprees, as a burglar goes on a robbing spree, knowing there are risks. These risks go with the job.

If they were plumbers, accountants or truck drivers and got hurt or sued while doing their work, would we feel sorry for them? Many would think they deserved the pain they suffered. But if they’re not plumbers, accountants or truck drivers, but people trained to kill others, we are supposed to feel sorry for them. These killers are special and we should feel especially aggrieved for them and, for that, we should petition parliament to give them special compensation, special awards and a special place in our hearts.

Forgive me, oh Bloodthirsty God, but I just don’t get it!

Now, I know that Britain has been under threat for thousands of years. Its people have attacked and been attacked since time immemorial. The vibes of killing emanate from every pore of every Briton and from every acre of this land. The residue of every battle, victory, defeat, lance-pierced chest, bullet-smashed skull, painful cry, sorrowful widow, lost limb, fatherless child and from every other effect of this attack of human upon human. It’s all here in this little land and it shows itself in the blood-lust of everyone, from the crown and the church on down.

Now, that’s the moral insanity, which is equalled by the economic insanity.

Over the last year, most western countries have dropped their petrol prices by nearly a half. So why not Britain? Simply that the nation is so massively in debt, because of three things, mainly:

1. The foot and mouth (Mad Cow disease) fiasco, an attack on the animals (feeding them toxic food) which cost the islands dearly,
2. The purchase of British banks in dire financial straits as a consequence of abuse (greed) of their customers, and
3. The Iraqi war which Britain entered because of a sinister obligation to America, one that may never be disclosed to you and I.

So, here in Britain, they abuse animals, themselves and strangers. And who suffers? Why, the attackers, who will be suffering for decades to come. That is the nature of attack – the attackers suffer financially, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Every time.

Because the British attacked Iraq, they had their cities bombed. And now their rail and bus stations have no rubbish bins as bombs were hidden in them. Sorry guys, the rubbish bins aren’t the problem. People are. People who attack other people are the problem – royalty, clergy, politicians, newspapers, everyone is the problem while minds are so distorted as to allow the possibility that killing, murder and attack are OK.

We all know, deep in our hearts, that no attack is justified, is ever justified, and that the real sufferer is always the attacker. Attack is a boomerang and it always returns with more speed and savagery than it was thrown.

Now, I can hear you cry, “But Britain has been attacked and under threat for millennia and so that’s the national psyche – an attack mentality that glorifies killing, rewards mass murder and uses euphemisms like war and soldier for savagery and murderer. How do we assuage that hysterical fear, passed down from frightened generation to frightened generation? How do we reverse centuries of conditioning?”

“The first thing,” I would say, “is to accept what is. Like the alcoholic who must accept that he’s an alcoholic before his cure can start, so the murderer must admit to his murdering can never reform while he justifies his savagery. Just admit it. Just stand aside from euphemisms and excuses and stand in the space of reality.”

The second step is to recognise the real consequences – murder of others is killing this country.

Then decide not to do it. Like the alcoholic who decides not to enter a pub or to accept a drink, so the murderer must decide not to go near the tools of destruction – the hardware, the excuses and the minimising.

Mass murder, like alcoholism, is an obsession, an addiction, and can be treated similarly.

There are but two types of actions – calls for love and acts of love.

Attack is a call for love – the world is not as I expect it to be (it doesn’t love me) and so I’ll force it to be so and then I’ll feel love. I’ll also remember to forget that as I attack, so will I attack myself ... and so I‘ll continue my need to keep attacking, forever and ever. This is a choice I make.

My other choice, my act of love, is simply to stand in the open space of truth, know who I truly am as a child of God and ask love to guide my thoughts and actions. This does, of course, ask me to give up control, to give in to the goodness that I am and become defenceless.

This act of love is the course of strength for it is only the weak who feel vulnerable and, therefore, the need to attack. And so it is that we must not expect our “leaders” to move from fear to love for most of them (though, not all) have elbowed their way to the “top” to avoid feeling vulnerable.

This move from love to fear – calls for love to acts of love – starts with you and I, individuals, one by one, standing in the strength of defencelessness and innocence, asking love how it would act and be in every given moment.

I’ll leave the last word to A Course in Miracles:

Into this empty space, from which the goal of sin has been removed, is Heaven free to be remembered. Here its peace can come and perfect healing take the place of death. The body can become a sign of life, a promise of redemption and a breath of immortality to those grown sick of breathing in the fetid scent of death. Let it have healing as its purpose. Then it will send forth the message it received and, by its health and loveliness, proclaim the truth and value it represents. Let it receive the power to represent an endless life, forever unattacked. And to my brother its message be, “Behold me, brother, at your hand I live.”