I have many other problems with the pacifist use of the idea that force is solely the dominion of those in power. It's certainly true that the master uses the tool of violence, but that doesn't mean he owns it. Those in power have effectively convinced us they own land, which is to say they've convinced us to give up our inalienable right to access our own landbases. They've effectively convinced us they own conflict resolution methods (which they call laws), which is to say they've convinced us to give up our inalienable right to resolve our own conflicts (which they call taking the law into your own hands). They've convinced us they own water. They've convinced us they own the wild (the government could not offer "timber sales" unless we all agreed it owned the trees in the first place). They're in the process of convincing us they own the air. The state has for millennia been trying to convince us it owns a monopoly on violence, and abusers have been trying to convince us for far longer than that. Pacifists are more than willing to grant them that, and to shout down anyone who disagrees.
Well, I disagree. Violence does not belong exclusively to those at the top of the hierarchy, no matter how much abusers and their allies try to convince us. They have never convinced wild animals, including wild humans, and they will never convince me.
And who is it who says we should not use the master's tools? Often it is Christians, Buddhists, or other adherents of civilized religions. It is routinely people who wish us to vote our way to justice or shop our way to sustainability. But civilized religions are tools used by the master as surely as is violence. So is voting. So is shopping. If we cannot use tools used by the master, what tools, precisely, can we use? How about writing? No, sorry. As I cited Stanley Diamond much earlier, writing has long been a tool used by the master. So I guess we can't use that. Well, how about discourse in general? Yes, those in power own the means of industrial discourse production, and those in power misuse discourse. Does that mean they own all discourse--all discourse is one of the master's tools--and we can never use it? Of course not. They also own the means of industrial religion production, and they misuse religion. Does that mean they own all religion--all religion is one of the master's tools--and we can never use it? Of course not. They own the means of industrial violence production, and they misuse violence. Does that mean they own all violence--all violence is one of the master's tools--and we can never use it? Of course not.
But I have yet another problem with the statement that the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house, which is that it's a terrible metaphor. It just doesn't work. The first and most necessary condition for a metaphor is that it make sense in the real world. This doesn't.
You can use a hammer to build a house, and you can use a hammer to take it down.
It doesn't matter whose hammer it is.
...
There's an even bigger problem with the metaphor. What is perhaps its most fundamental premise? That the house belongs to the master. But there is no master, and there is no master's house. There are no master's tools. There is a person who believes himself a master. There is a house he claims is his. There are tools he claims as well. And there are those who still believe he is the master.
But there are others who do not buy into this delusion. There are those of us who see a man, a house, and tools. No more and no less.
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2 comments:
I think, in some hard to remember type-of-way, I once considered myself a pacifist. Jensen dispelled this idea handily.
It's a relief, I'll tell you. Pacifism looks ugly to me now, disfigured and bloody.
Your blog is rather meticulous... may I ask: do you — more or less — always clean up dinner dishes before bed? I'm trying to discipline myself (I am hopelessly untethered and adrift, a wanderer... shaping oneself is tiring)
A frustrating point to me is how the analysis Jensen lays out above is obvious to me and I've spent time discussing it with smart friends, but they always look at me like I'm Kaczynski when I talk about how "laws" are illusory accessions of personal power, etc.
The great majority of Americans, regardless of IQ or inclination toward introspection, do not think deeply enough to begin questioning the fundamentals of how "society" came to be and how "civilization" depends on arbitrary rules chosen by the tiny few to maintain their own personal power.
Most people accept government as a given, laws as proper, and courts as the best meters of justice.
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