Coddling Cruelty

One of the favorite sayings by sycophants is, “That’s just the way things are.” Reality could dictate a thousand different truths, but when someone is needlessly cruel and relentlessly greedy, folks slip into the narrative of claiming that such behavior is “human nature.” I have recently been surprised at having been preyed upon by a number of other people who claimed that they “supported” me, and when I tried to rally that “support,” those people were nowhere to be seen. Later, the same people tried to reenter my life, making light of their abandonment, and professing that they were still interested in being part of my support system. My thoughts on the matter are this: if society is created by cruel people, many “believers” will justify cruelty and sneer that being kind is “weak.” Those same people are surprised that the world is so hard to navigate, and that their previous survival methods no longer function when insatiable greed is left unchecked for the better part of forty years.

Remember that the United States was created by white men who crafted a narrative of freedom while raping children who could not reject them, and professed to be deep Christians while murdering those who refused their “faith.” When these facts are mentioned, beneficiaries of the dominant narrative are quick to be defensive about the disparities between plantation owners and indentured servants, clinging to the understanding that “not everyone owned slaves.” Current circumstances suggest that people who never owned slaves likely stewed in resentment, rather than stood tall as abolitionists, because if there is one thing about the dominant narrative, it is consistent with the trends. However, to throw marginalized populations off the trail of accountability, people scream about how they “never owned slaves” or that their families were never able to own people because they were migrants.

People get confused about slavery because they think that the horrible atrocities were based only on deep psychosis, but that once the slaves were “freed,” that psychosis was eliminated. Such individuals are missing what slavery stood for, more than wealth, more than even white supremacy–which actually came from Asia, not Europe, based on the existence of the caste system. In truth, slavery was about control–ultimate and unmitigated control over other human beings, even as they lied to themselves and said that such individuals were “subhuman.” The violence of slavery was more about the “freedom” to do whatever someone wanted to do to a human without consequences, and because slaves were forbidden from reading and writing, no one would ever know what was done. Slaves were at the mercy of masters, and such evil was baked into the law. Even among abolitionists, most subconsciously enjoyed the power of knowing that slaves were only free if people would adhere to the whims of abolitionists–meaning even then, hierarchical power was in play.

In the current era, so many employers are looking for ways to incorporate more technology into their businesses so that lower wage workers are dependent of the whims of the wealthy, not to make their operations more efficient. Voting is unnecessarily worshipped because the politicians enjoy the absolute control they wield over the vulnerable, not because the politicians intend to do anything that fails to serve their own interest. Communities beg municipal governments for amenities while local level politics are decided on in predominantly white neighborhoods, funded by those who have no interest in anything outside their own comfort. Monsters buy farmland and water rights while lobbying for tax breaks to starve their “lessors.” None of this looks like the violence of chattel slavery, so people excuse this “nonviolent” control as simply being part of “human nature,” which then gives the manipulators an excuse to continue their reign of tyranny over the vulnerable.

What if humanity looked at the majority of the population, instead of excusing cruelty as “human nature” and coddling monsters? Yes, many of the sycophants and beneficiaries of the dominant narrative are seeking to validate cruelty, but the irony is that most of their targets built communities on scraps. Independent neighborhoods were so efficient and attractive that the government could only destroy them through direct violence, or by policy that stripped resources away, leaving people forced to further strive for the basics. The “elites” may own the media, but no one is forcing us to maintain the narrative, and if the majority of people can let others exist without interference, then maybe autonomy is human nature, and cruelty is…cruel.