pinkfloydpsw's Blog

This is a possible explanation, not an excuse, nor a mitigation of wrongdoing..

The problem is this….

Given what we know of people who do harsh things as a living or a vocation, the human deprivation they witness, the suffering, the injustice, the loss and pointlessness and hopelessness ordinary people just walking through their daily lives are forced to face and maybe live within for extended periods of time, how can we expect them to be normal like those that define normality from the comfort of a TV studio, the green chairs of commons benches, the spaces between the magnolia walls of a campaign office somewhere in a disgustingly ordinary part of a city?

I put it to you that if you were a combat soldier that had seen death and injury in the theatre of war, or a firefighter who had regularly cut the screaming survivors from the wreckage of the car, a warder that has been assaulted many times with hazing (shit thrown by an inmate) or beaten up or been a hostage, or if you were a policeman that had seen the indescribable terrors of what people can do to their own family or neighbours or loved ones, then you too might have an insight into whence the darkness comes.

Nietzsche wrote that if you stare long enough into the void the void will stare back into you, what this means is that if you are a way for a purpose, and for long enough, then that way will become what you are, we cannot be immersed without getting some of what we are immersed in upon us. Miserable people make miseries of their own lives, confident people are happy and remain confident even if they are not successful, happy people cannot be made unhappy by anything other than loss of the things they value or need. What we may speculate of harshness of personality is that it can be a product of nurture and experience, if we accept this then how can we expect them to be other than what they have been immersed in, as if they also are a victim of it?

It may be a mistake to make a comparison between your comfortable life and the lives lead by others where their experiences are possibly grotesque or harsh. If you had experienced what they had would you be strong enough to maintain your perspective?

I am from a place where people blew each other up with bombs for the sake of the implications of a battle that happened 300+ years ago, one that prevented a catholic king from taking the English throne. The justifying reasoning given for this ongoing struggle is mooted as one of the loyal political union of the North of Ireland with the English parliament being maintained at all costs, or the restoration of an island of Ireland that is one single nation. In truth it exists on one side to prevent democracy from containing the mere possibility of affecting political change and leading to the reforming of land borders, and on the other side it was often an opportunity for some to have a power they could not get by other means and to come to prominence because of a willingness to engage in violence. I will not dismiss the strongly held feelings on both sides as being less than important, but I will also not shield them from the scrutiny they deserve. We look at this situation with reason and understanding now rather than belligerence, this has lead to forgiveness and ultimately change, but when we look at the police, the fire service, prisons, and whole load of other situations, we do not allow mitigation, why is that if we recognise that we are often the products of circumstance?

I would say, before judgement first try to imagine what it is like to be them and why have they become so…

Paul S Wilson