The World is Decentralizing, and Some People Can't Handle It
An Open Letter to Elizabeth Spiers and the New York Times
It is the function of cults and religions that demand from their followers belief. Did you notice the repetitive evocation of right-wing politicians and so-called journalists, or rather, mouthpieces of our oligarchs, begging to remind us of our duty to believe? The level of desperation matches the level of absurdity and blind faith that one must evoke to fight against the mountains of evidence.
So-called neutral privileged Instagram accounts are reposting guest essayist Elizabeth Spiers on New York Times, “I don’t have to post about my outrage. Neither do you.”
Her essay returns to the BLM era’s frustration of privileged complaints of “Silence is Violence,” as the article reminds and coerces the reader that we shouldn’t all be voicing. (For if everyone does, what would be the point of the New York Times?) For a group so insistent on liberal democracy and freedom of speech, values so important that they must invade and commit war crime after war crime, there is a palpable panic from those holding the microphone that others might be constructing their own podium.
No one demands that everyone posts or reposts. The post-BLM corporate world has created its own nightmare of ESG scores, which insist on maintaining the correct profile. For those birthed into corporate slavery, Spiers does not understand the difference between the expressions of an individual and their moral outrage with the failures of their government and parroting propaganda rhetoric for the maintenance of genocide.
These propaganda wings of our feudal lords will remind us about the “difficult” topics of genocide and the difficulty of picking sides of evil, like flavors of ice cream. But of course, Spiers is not bothered by “knee-jerk social media posts” but the guilt she is experiencing of not posting. Forgetting momentarily that she is a digital media strategist, she is paid to ensure the constant outpour of opinions to keep the machine working and her lords happy. But god forbid, should the system be decentralized, as it promised us, god forbid that each of us should have the capacity to think and feel. Empathy is now called a “knee-jerk reaction,” as she projects her guilt and silence as universal.
Let me be concise. We are not here to “sit with uncertainty,” and your silence leading to blood on your hands isn’t just a metaphor. None of this, of course, matters, for the Nakba happened 75 years ago. The Dutch East India Company had violently invaded Cape Town 371 years ago. France had already invaded Algeria with a violent colonial occupation 193 years ago. Britain violently invaded Australia 235 years ago and subjugated India 266 years ago. America had already violently invaded the Philippines 125 years ago. There is no uncertainty in the books of the oppressors or the oppressed. You are uncertain. Propaganda, also known as Public Relations, teaches us to be uncertain. The blood has been on the hands of your ancestors, and you are the benefactor of the spilled blood.
The Global Majority has been asking kindly, gently, without violence, an acknowledgment of their history, their value and their dignity as human beings. We have been asking for self-determination. We want employment, we want participation. We want a cessation of the robbery and the oppression. We want housing and shelter fit for human beings. We want education and the right to learn of our true history. We want free health care. We want a cessation of police brutality and violence. We want a cessation of wars and aggression. We want freedom and the dismantlement of military human cages.1
But instead, you lie, deceive, and dangle in front of us the promise of good faith. But you are surprised when humans can no longer endure the torture you put them through. Your pets are treated better than the Palestinians in the last 75 years. You call them ungrateful when they say no to mistreatment. You call them animals when you put them in cages. You call them terrorists when they defend what little humanity they have left. And now, for the rest of the world watching, you urge us to replace our eye masks and return to sleepful consumption and entertainment.
So, after hundreds of years of hypocrisy, you decry any reaction as violent terrorism. That is where you are wrong. You wish for nothing but the continuation of the same existing terrorist act. You are the terrorist. You are the one continuing the violence. You are paid to insist on the silence, the negligence, and the stupidity of people to ensure you receive your menial salary. And as your system fails to protect you from hyperinflation, you look for scapegoats to blame.
Once upon a time, you may have been a corrupt clergy, insisting on the stability of your feudal lords for the benefit of your established order. But today, gone is the church and the promise of an afterlife. The superego function of the Bible has been replaced with Coca-Cola’s mantra, Enjoy! You accuse the Other of sloganeering masquerading as moral clarity. But which side is begging for belief? Who’s job title is “digital media strategist”?
It’s not too late, Elizabeth. You, too, can do a little soul-searching and history learning. You also don’t have to parrot the knee-jerk slogans of ignorance, for what is the price of your soul?
As declared by Black Panthers: Ten Point Program