I don’t know who needs to hear this right now…but violence is bad.
It’s bad when it’s done by police. It’s bad when it’s done by protestors protesting injustice. It’s bad when it’s done by teenagers against rioters. It may be justified or even legal. But it’s never good. People who think it is have never seen it or are broken.
Once the chaos of violence rolls out, it rolls where it wants to until it doesn’t. Violence begets violence. And the obstacle that keeps small fights from turning into big fights or small wars from turning into big wars is chance. Dumb luck. No one is in control unless they can respond with more violence…and then it’s up to them to stop.
There’s a secret that healthy people who’ve spent time around violent men don’t like to talk much about. It’s something buried deep in our primal wiring from our distant past; from the thousands of years we were some version of us that hadn’t yet understood the transaction costs of destroying other people. Before the ideas of charity, mercy or goodwill towards our fellow human turned us into who we are now in our best moments. That secret is that violence is seductively contagious.
If you’ve ever watched a SOF element get ready to go out the door, you know what I mean. I had a chief that used to call it “getting our hate on.” It was like plugging into a high voltage power source. You wrapped it around you. You wore it as an armor against fear. The music. The nicotine and energy drinks. The drums of war will get you lathered.
Rally round the family…with a pocket full of shells.
Violence...is bad though. It’s one of the few unambiguous truths of the human experience. We shouldn’t tell ourselves lies about violence or justice or militias or vigilante justice or riots in the name of justice.
It’s not a means to an end. It is the end.
I’ve got one deeply controversial opinion. It’s that this place we all live in, America, in a relative sense, is an amazing place to live. And this time that we all live in, now, in a relative sense, is an amazing time to be alive. It is not perfect. It is not devoid of injustice. And we can and should do better. But we’ll never get there with riots or guns or militias. That way lies ruin. And we can’t follow those who would lead us there.
I share a text chain with a close friend that has brought 4 people from far reaching backgrounds/viewpoints together. I rarely comment on social/political matters as too often people allow emotions to escalate a conversation into an argument, a fight....a war. Our chain dove into the Rittenhouse trial and I'm sharing your essay with them as it encapsulates the final question I had for them...who is our current day MLK?
It has to be each and every one of us
Always good to hear you, Sean. I’m fighting this awful feeling that this is not a good time to be living in. Mostly as I’m raising nine year olds. All they’ve remembered is the disrespect and violence. Our neighbor down the street has a plethora of flags, Trump as Rambo, standing on a tank, holding an automatic weapon, an upside down flag, Fuck Biden. We walk past this house everyday to school. I have perspective, they don’t know any different. I know we live in a great country. I just hope my kids can see the better parts over time.