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The solution to war?
Thanks for posting, Patrick.
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Patrick There is no solution. Just bigger band-aids. A photog with his camera never solved anything. Lots of great pics that the general public never sees or cares too much about when they do. They just want cheaper gas for their fucking SUV’s.
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I am already against the next war…..
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Patrick, I haven’t had a chance to read this yet, so excuse my delay in answering your thread more succinctly. I have this deadline that I cannot stand and is due on Saturday. It has been haunting my life for a year…. making it a ruin…literally.
You sound fed up with war, Greg, as we all are and should be….but who is going to have the energy to stop it?...certainly, not us….. Patrick has a few years on us, at least to go before he is throughly discouraged, so we need his freshness, maybe he can make a difference, before he gets jaded and discouraged like us…. n’est pas?
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dunno.. (gayle.. you are certainly the most supportive optimist on here anyway…so apreciated..!!!!) but… perhaps its time to get beyond the media..
ive reached my end with war… i can barely stand the headlines.. how funny.. i set out to see war because i felt no response to the mass media.. wanted to make alternative mechanisms.. and now.. im so sensitive to headlines.. i cringe and my head shakes.. more cameras??? dont think for me….. although i will love all of you dearly for your work…
patrick.. i appreciate all your words.. but watch murder…mass murder…. cameras??? i hate to be sour.. (gregory i believe there is an end…a solution…).. there exists a world without war and poverty.. i believe this much… i just would not esteem cameras the ability to achieve this…. ever watched murder?? ever thought it was natural?? multiply… multiply.. multiply…war??? cameras?? hmm.. does not seem the tool…
i am completely ashamed to be human.. find it absurd to even think of the idea of america.. let alone the fact…
i have said on other posts that im done with cameras… dont know how this will work..
but certainly.. for me.. it has been the moment when people abandon there faculties and allow me in.. to speak to them.. this is where i can mediate..
i have no solutions..
cameras stop wars.. cameras do not stop war…
(i have had recent luck using spoken word coming out of speakers.. embedded in tea pots… in dark spaces…..maybe i just need to distribute this on a mass scale)
subject/object
mind/body
i/society
war/peace
wealth/poverty
i see a teeming totality of madness.. bursting at the seams.
since 9-11… dare we count?
will we look bck on this as wwIII?
what will we say of bush?
rebels in darfur asked me why we did not overthrow him when we had the chance..
i said..
when we had the chance
they thought it was a lost cause…..
the shame began…
650,000 in iraq….
“that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.”
then i realized you cant kill for peace…...ill have the following online soon.. but heres a bit of my thinking on this as of late.. there are references to things not listed…things missing from the rest of my thesiserino….... but anyway.. ive kind of hit a counter productive (for photo purposes) space re the media…................ im drunk.. enjoy..at least think…... im utterly sickened by war and delighted that all of you are too… we must be optimistic.. sleep comes easy.. long or short…. ahem www.greatsit.net ahem…
“the wind the wind is blowing…through the graves the wind is blowing.. freedom soon will come… they will come from shadows”
War as Modern Ritual
Although a seemingly simple statement, almost beyond the point of signification, there remain four words that explain the driving force behind my work: war-is-not-natural. While I realize that my hypotheses in ACT 1 were doomed to ‘fail’ as a result of my confusing means for ends, it remains ever critical to understand the path that these means provided. After witnessing the indiscriminate bombing of innocent people I feel, rather than think, the sheer absurdity and alienness of war. If I know nothing else: war-is-not-natural.
I do not believe that anyone who has ‘seen’ war would claim it to be “part of humanity.” As such, I find conclusions such as Thomas Malthus’ regards for population naïve verging on absurd, negligent verging on criminal. For Malthus, after all, sat in an academy while debating starvation. While I acknowledge that such ‘macro’ considerations provide critical theoretical discourse for our world I remain bitter on one point: no one making such ‘naturalistic’ claims has seen war. While I am not wishing to advocate an end to academic discourse I believe that we must demand those making such bold claims to do so from experience. While Thomas Malthus’ claims have in many ways become the bedrock of western apathy to famine, epidemic, and war he made these without ever once witnessing such calamity. Academic discourse inevitably influences the world; the world should be the basis for academic discourse.
After reflecting on the enduring tendency of people to attempt to undermine media structures in the pursuit of ends, it remains difficult to see where a ‘belief’ in ‘ends’ leads. As stated, I believe there to be a critical danger in pursuing means. I believe we must remain focused on the ends. Yet, how does one begin to imagine this scenario? How does one avoid the trap of pursuing different means guised as ends? Furthermore, how do we reconcile an awareness that there exist mechanisms for human fragmentation and war and that overthrowing these does not correlate to ending these problems? How do we proceed to engage the human war through a focused awareness of ends? How do we actually ‘achieve’ peace by ignoring inevitably problematic means?
As I concluded in ACT 1, the 500 years of misrepresentations of the African continent is neither a conspiracy nor isolatable to a specific origin or regime. The human war, Colonialism, and modernity, exist as arbitrary, contemptible, and intertwined by-products of human fragmentation. The mass media systems that ‘balanced’ and continue to ‘balance’ this fragmentation are not the result nor the origin of ‘the’ problem. I believe the horrors of human fragmentation are ontologically determined by the denial of our being. The mass media as we know it, like all ‘mediums,’ is a ‘logical’ extension of the collective mind/body. In our present state, in fragmentation, we should expect nothing more from our mediums. I can see no point in pursuing means; means can never be more than fractured extensions of our base. Yet, to repeat myself, how does one pursue an end without a means? How do we recognize our being and end human fragmentation? Are we ready to end the human war?
Further complicating matters, I do not wish for my conclusions to depoliticize war. I do not wish to remove agency from individuals seeking to end war and the unnecessary suffering endemic to it. Yet, I believe that we must pursue ends without distraction and that ending the human war necessarily results in ending war. Ironically, though, the statement “we must pursue ends” seems self-defeating. We must pursue an end to the human war; if nothing else I believe this. Yet, as I believe that our ability to perpetuate war lies in our ‘ability’ to deny our own being it might seem that I am suggesting an internal pursuit of self-awareness/actualization. This is not the case.
While I believe that there is no ‘medium’ for peace, I remain certain that many of those successful in their fight against the human war were in fact artists. Yet, conversely, very few “artists” have ‘fought’ for an end to the human war. The predicament is paradoxical: to end war you must have one recognize in ‘themselves’ the suffering of others. Yet, in order to maintain the modern ‘self,’ one must deny that the suffering of ‘others’ is in fact their own. The pursuit of an autonomous, contented self is a lifelong process of ritual denial of human fragmentation. To recognize the shattered state of (human) being is a brutal shock to those ‘fortunate’ enough to have avoided it prior; the path to peace is necessarily painful.
The Mass media ‘object,’ in its many forms, acts as a ‘fetisimo’ for the mass ritual denial of the ontologically internal origins of the human war. As one performs the outward in, object-to-subject, decoding of isolated, indexical signifiers, one not merely perpetuates their fragmentation but disguises this process behind expressions of “being informed.” It is not that we should not know about the suffering endemic to the human war; rather, we should feel these things internally without illusions of otherness, object, or ego distinctions such as nation, race, gender, or class. In the past I have been criticized by those wishing to claim that my belief that we must engage war viscerally, as it exists, would cause ‘one’ to suffer mental anguish, perhaps direct breakdown. While I hesitate to wish further pain and suffering on an ‘individual’ it remains that we suffer necessarily as a result of the human war and our fragmented pursuit of self. It is not that I wish ‘breakdown’ upon anyone but rather that I acknowledge this as an inevitable, yet temporary, result of the awareness of our inhumanity. Should we, engage our fragmentation we will suffer but a moment of hysteria as though a baby born naked to a new world. I believe that this awareness must give way to peace. The human war does not exist in fragments, nor in isolation, but is perpetuated under such pretenses. When we can recognize the human war as it is, as part of our essence, we will engage the choice to experience peace. We must necessarily undergo a swift trauma as we recognize the human suffering that we have perpetuated in our slumber. When we recognize that the human war is killing each and every ‘one’ of ‘us’ we can begin to have peace. When we can recognize an-other’s suffering we will have no choice but to laugh at our prior foolishness; the human war will stand in all of it’s absurdity. We can end the human war.
ps…. did you know arthur rimbuad declared… (after watching the failed paris commune)... “i is another” ??
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Ethan, did you write the above (War as Modern Ritual)? Excellent reading. A lot of things in there that I have tried to express before, but without as much success.
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Gayle, I’ll clarify a bit by saying that war,in my opinion, is not the issue. We all know what war looks like but photographing the causes is like trying to take pictures of a headache. No one confronts the tribal mind set that in the 21st century still obsesses half the planet while the other half builds bigger and better weapons. Maybe aiming the lens in a different direction would help. Over and out. G.
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Thank you everyone for your feedback.
Ethan, very powerful writing. Gayle, you rock times ten always (almost done with the manifesto). Gregory, all excellent points.
With the right equipment anybody can become a citizen journalist. This equipment only becomes cheaper and better with the passage of each day.
I believe the internet has made the opportunity for world peace a very real possibility, and I believe we must peacefully seize this opportunity with all of our might as responsible global democratic citizens.
The US constitution states that all men are created equal (not all Americans) and they are endowed by their creator (not other men) with certain UNALIENABLE rights. Rights which have been recently and blatantly alienated in America and elsewhere.
How will those who support the Iraq war or oppose gay rights now be perceived in 20 years?
Will they end up on the wrong side of history like those who supported the Nazis or opposed civil rights and women’s suffrage?
You can’t stop social progress; you can’t stop tomorrow.
Is the only way to achieve world peace to convince the elite who already control the world to make it happen via the intricate use of language and global conversation?
Must those in power now concede some of that power to the people if they are to ensure the integrity and respectability of their public image?
Is a shallow, hollow, material, vain, self-serving, and hypocritical life even worth living at all?
The day my youthful modern idealism gives way to aged traditional realism…
...the day I care more about financing a mortgage or fueling my SUV over the basic dignity and rights of everyone…
...the day I care more about my personal vanity and luxury over the basic welfare of others…
...the day I decide to tolerate the triumph of blatant evil over the common greater good…
...will be the same day I put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger.
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I have been involved in organizing events featuring talks and films to educate people to end the war in Iraq. I think that here in the US the average people just don’t know the ugliness of war enough to voice opposition to the use of war as means to some political or economic ends. War on terrorism is a very bad idea because you are trying violence to end another kind of violence. It just does not work! In Japan or in Europe there are enough of people who have suffered from war in their lifetime to abhor war, but not here. The idea of fighting in war for one’s country is too glorified in the US.
After having tried a community gathering in a church and at a library on topics related to war, I have organized a series of three talks, one on the historical analysis of war, the Middle East situation involving Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, and a mini teach-in on torture to be presented in January at a church as part of adult Sunday School classes. Photography was only tangentially involved in my chance meeting of the first speaker since I met him through a walk I led to show spots in a city park where I photographed my impressionist reflection photos.
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Thanks for sharing Tomoko.
The following is a repost verbatim of something I posted to the PJ After School Yahoo group on November 12, 2006:
Title: Policing the police; counter-surveillance initiative
Nov 12
Hello all,
I wanted to post a link to an article that I think is a good read:
http://screens.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/policing-the-police/
Supposedly,
ABC Nightly News ran a story on it Friday night as well.
It’s about a bystander in California
who witnessed an act of police brutality occurring,
documented it with the video camera built into his cell phone,
and uploaded it to Youtube to share with the world.
If only we had camera phones and Youtube
during the civil rights movement!
Additionally,
projects like Video the Vote ( http://www.videothevote.org/ )
and Veek the Vote ( http://www.veekthevote.com/ )
were no doubt integral in both preventing and documenting
instances of voting fraud and voter disenfranchisement
on Tuesday’s election.
Never in the history of humanity have these tools been available
to empower and protect us against tyranny and oppression.
This stuff is more than just a novelty,
this stuff is changing society as we know it.
In an increasingly creepy 1984esque era where cameras are everywhere,
it’s comforting to know that we too have the means to keep the government
in check.
In an era where political forces and corporate PR officials like to
limit the access of photojournalists into documenting issues at,
for example,
strip-mining facilities,
government buildings,
or regions like Gaza,
it’s nice to know that there are alternatives to get around the iron
fascist secrecy (be it corporofascist, neoconservative, or otherwise),
to yield greater transparency of government and industry in society.
In any given classroom at WKU,
you can bet the majority of the students have cameraphones.
How much better will these cameraphones be in just two more years?
How much better at filming and editing will these youtube aficionados
be in two more years?
The internet has birthed the world’s first global generation,
and yes,
journalism needs to adapt and reform to better accommodate
not just multimedia,
but global scrutiny as well.
The point that I’m getting at is yes,
anybody can be a citizen journalist,
and yes,
anybody can be a photojournalist.
I don’t mean to sound like a broken record when I say,
“Oh, you journalists need to learn more skills and change your
methodology and philosophy for your own benefit,”
but the reality of the matter is that more and more young amateur
citizen journalists are outclassing you
“the professionals”
a little bit more each day,
and the lot of you are making professional journalism look very bad
by sitting on your ass with a blind eye to reality,
living in the 1950s era of journalism.
The choices are clear.
1) Sink
or
2) Fly
Embrace the change or cry.
Nothing but love,
Patrick Yen
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And also a very powerful essay by Albert Einstein:
http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/essay.htm
Excerpt:
“The trite objects of human efforts - possessions, outward success, luxury - have always seemed to me contemptible.
“My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a ‘lone traveler’ and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude…”
“My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.”
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Patrick,
Your post about policing the police reminded me of the pages I created with photos one member of our community group when she went to the marchi in Washington last year. She sent me a lot , but I edited down to six. I shot the Eyes Wide Open exhibit held at the campus of Johns Hopkins University, which is a conservative campus. Eliot Cohen, a neocon, teaches at the Washington campus of Hopkins.
Washington March, 2005
Eyes Wide Open
There are a lot of things one can do to say no to war. If you volunteer your photographic skills to your local peace group, you might be able to make a powerful message photographing their events.
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You have such great points, Greg. Before I try to see the big picture on an issue, I always make certain to see if I have read all your responses since you have that uncanny ability to cut-right-through-the-cr@p and expose a fresh layer of thought from a whole new perspective. (:(:(:
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Great essay, Ethan! Thanks for sharing it.
You mention an appreciation of optimism to me and so I found you these two quotes on that topic while clicking through Patrick’s links. And I find relevance in these to the spirit of this post.
The first quote recognizes no real distinction between the character trait’s significance and ability to even define the field of teaching. The second quote I don’t know if I should call courageous, smart or really just a challenge to perform gracefully after a long day of fighting in the trenches of the first quote’s vocation. http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation
“Teaching is the greatest act of optimism”
Colleen Wilcox quotes
“Smile when it hurts most.” ~anonymous
Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday spent with Family and Friends! ((::
lol….....http://badaboo.free.fr/merryxmas.swf
And PS, here is a special quote for you, Patrick….
“Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.” ~ Nicholas Murray Butler
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Gayle, Gee Wiz, Gosh Golly! Your check is in the mail…HA! Merry X-Mas G.
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