A necessary ingredient for democracy, at home or abroad: justice
I periodically point out to my peers, upon hearing of some terrible tragedy like a suicide bombing or a violent militaristic assault, that you never see millionaires wiring bombs to themselves. You never see doctors wearing jewelry driving their custom luxury cars into military barricades. You never see brain surgeons in tailored suits rioting.
While wealthy people may direct acts of violence by others, the people who act to harm themselves or others generally are not having their material or other needs met. It is people with no economic or personal stake in the future who feel they having nothing to lose by engaging in crimes of political or personal violence. It is people who have few social or economic options who join militaries around the world, whether for 'good' governments or 'bad' governments. People without hope, who are not invested personally in the future of their society, wind up in dangerous, hopeless situations which threaten everyone.
Being a student of compassionate action, it appears that an obvious solution to the problem of violence by the hopeless is to give them the means to have a future. But many world leaders instead believe that military power and repression can prevent hopeless people from acting violently.
I would be more inclined to believe this if I saw evidence of it working.
A discussion of two approaches to hopelessness came up in a good interview with a great writer and thinker:
AlterNet: Finding Justice with Arundhati Roy. Roy says, in part:
Obviously there are two paths that humanity can choose to take. One is to increase inequality and then bank on weapons to maintain that, which is the project of the New American Century, and the project of any person who bids to be president of this country....
[The second path:] The way we can turn the world around is if we are at least moving on a path toward justice. Maybe it can never be achieved in any pristine form. Right now, the powerful, and I don't just mean the powerful in America, but the coalition of the powerful elites across the world are making it very clear that they are not even interested in justice.
On the same topic of justice and also very much worth reading:
Matters of Justice, an interview with Cornel West, in which West says:
I think that?s a real challenge to the Bush administration in particular and to Americans in general, in their response to terrorism. Terrorism is ugly, wrong and vicious, but you don?t want to get in the same gutter as the terrorist to simply reinforce the same cycle of killing innocent people, demonizing others, losing sight of the humanity of others. You want justice, justice, justice.
I think Roy and West are very much on the right track.
It may be difficult for Americans to see, because the repressive perspective has spread to the populace: many Americans live in gated communities, fearful of the disenfranchised; many Americans support the imprisonment of huge percentages of the population, including impoverished, addicted, and hopeless people, rather than treatment or life assistance; many Americans live in fear of have-nots, building "safe rooms," purchasing guns, subscribing to guard services and alarm systems, driving tank-like vehicles to protect their possessions from those who have no legitimate means to acquire them... Yet none of these actions make American society safer, or the neighbors they fear more hopeful of their futures.
I am not suggesting that money alone is the deciding factor, but I am saying that material need/comfort is at least one factor. Social investment in neighborhoods and intact, healthy communities is another.
Radicalism consistently appears to be a resort of those who believe they have few options. Surely there is a reason the terrorists of Beslan were made up of widows and people who lost their children to Russian military violence. Surely there is a reason that Israel's poverty-producing policies and repeated destruction of neighborhoods that people were socially invested in has produced radically violent responses. Surely there is a reason that the impoverished of America's slums act in disregard to the rules of a society that shunts them aside.
If we want to live in a more peaceful, safe world, we need to consider all approaches. Creating a more just, secure, safe world is a great option.
