The Weapon of Sound
"The weapon of sound…Guerrilla Radio, turn that shit up…” Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against The Machine"
Scream. Seriously, do it. Hear that? If anybody is home then they did too. Now you’ve got their attention. Sorry, you can blame me. But you just proved that riots, violent protests, even civil wars, are useless and avoidable. I read a statistic today that said that “since the peace began in 1949, there have been an average of 2 million deaths per year” So, when the world is not engaged in one war, it’s engaged in many. But why? People have always had the tendency to be violent. And I wont say killing is not part of human nature, because we were hunters, and we still eat meat today. But Homicide is not a part of human nature. Sure there are sociopath who don’t care at all, but they are few in numbers and still don’t always murder. Some of the most memorable and effective rebellions of all time have been made without a weapon. Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt,. Or for an example that we KNOW is fact and doesn’t involve divine intervention, Ghandi freed the entire nation of India, without so much as ever raising a hand for anything more malicious than to shake another. Or one that you may read about right now, the Orange Revolution. If people rally for a cause, their collective voices are enough to be heard. If one person goes down to Parliament and screams at the foot of the hill, nobody will thin, much of it. Some people may stop and listen, but nothing will happen. He won’t even get arrested; that would be against his basic Charter rights to freedom of speech, freedom of public assembly, and freedom peaceful protest, so it would literally be some person yelling at the foot of Parliament Hill, probably most of the people watching more to say they saw some guy make an ass of himself. But you get a crowd amassed like the party there is on Canada Day downtown, you only need one person yelling so long as that crowd is there to back them. Or they can all yell if they want. There will always be some crazy sadistic maniacs, like the LRA in Uganda who kill without mercy, but they do not need to be the dominant numbers in the world. These people who use violence as a first resort do not need to be our leaders. In fact they SHOULD NOT be our leaders. We are living now in peace times, one of the small fragments of history where there are no major wars ensuing the larger part of the world. True that in some parts of the world they are denied the freedoms we have here in Canada, and when that is the case the responsibility should fall to us to do something. Canada is in the G8, the UN, the Commonwealth, and has signed dozens if not hundreds of trade treaties with nations all around the globe. We may not be a super power per se, but if the people of Canada were to truly protest something, the Canadian government would be pressured into taking action. That action doesn’t need to be violent. Passivity is not what we need. Truly we need assertiveness, but that does not mean violence. If Canada ceases trades with a given country, and can possibly persuade several other countries to do the same, then the government in that country might very well give in. Yes I know I’m overlooking the glaring contradiction that it could cause a collapse in the economy and lead to a chaotic and violent uprising, but still it’s an option that isn’t war. The thousands that may die by their choice in such an uprising, against the millions that die because they were thrown into a war they have nothing to do with. Weigh the difference yourself. A human soul is a priceless thing, and the loss of one is something the world cannot bear in good conscience. War and killing will never stop, but the rate it’s at now cannot continue. Every life lost is one thousand relationships ended, and every lost relationship is another reason to end war.
Scream. Seriously, do it. Hear that? If anybody is home then they did too. Now you’ve got their attention. Sorry, you can blame me. But you just proved that riots, violent protests, even civil wars, are useless and avoidable. I read a statistic today that said that “since the peace began in 1949, there have been an average of 2 million deaths per year” So, when the world is not engaged in one war, it’s engaged in many. But why? People have always had the tendency to be violent. And I wont say killing is not part of human nature, because we were hunters, and we still eat meat today. But Homicide is not a part of human nature. Sure there are sociopath who don’t care at all, but they are few in numbers and still don’t always murder. Some of the most memorable and effective rebellions of all time have been made without a weapon. Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt,. Or for an example that we KNOW is fact and doesn’t involve divine intervention, Ghandi freed the entire nation of India, without so much as ever raising a hand for anything more malicious than to shake another. Or one that you may read about right now, the Orange Revolution. If people rally for a cause, their collective voices are enough to be heard. If one person goes down to Parliament and screams at the foot of the hill, nobody will thin, much of it. Some people may stop and listen, but nothing will happen. He won’t even get arrested; that would be against his basic Charter rights to freedom of speech, freedom of public assembly, and freedom peaceful protest, so it would literally be some person yelling at the foot of Parliament Hill, probably most of the people watching more to say they saw some guy make an ass of himself. But you get a crowd amassed like the party there is on Canada Day downtown, you only need one person yelling so long as that crowd is there to back them. Or they can all yell if they want. There will always be some crazy sadistic maniacs, like the LRA in Uganda who kill without mercy, but they do not need to be the dominant numbers in the world. These people who use violence as a first resort do not need to be our leaders. In fact they SHOULD NOT be our leaders. We are living now in peace times, one of the small fragments of history where there are no major wars ensuing the larger part of the world. True that in some parts of the world they are denied the freedoms we have here in Canada, and when that is the case the responsibility should fall to us to do something. Canada is in the G8, the UN, the Commonwealth, and has signed dozens if not hundreds of trade treaties with nations all around the globe. We may not be a super power per se, but if the people of Canada were to truly protest something, the Canadian government would be pressured into taking action. That action doesn’t need to be violent. Passivity is not what we need. Truly we need assertiveness, but that does not mean violence. If Canada ceases trades with a given country, and can possibly persuade several other countries to do the same, then the government in that country might very well give in. Yes I know I’m overlooking the glaring contradiction that it could cause a collapse in the economy and lead to a chaotic and violent uprising, but still it’s an option that isn’t war. The thousands that may die by their choice in such an uprising, against the millions that die because they were thrown into a war they have nothing to do with. Weigh the difference yourself. A human soul is a priceless thing, and the loss of one is something the world cannot bear in good conscience. War and killing will never stop, but the rate it’s at now cannot continue. Every life lost is one thousand relationships ended, and every lost relationship is another reason to end war.