Imposition

The absurdity of violence, of existence.

BY QUINN McCLURG

Existence enables awareness. Suffering is the cost we pay for awareness. The more aware we are of our own awareness and the aware of the world we’re in, the more we suffer. Action is the salve to suffering; the more aware we are, the more effective our actions can be. However, suffering can breed inaction in those unable to act, and the threat of more suffering often makes those suffering less able to act. Here is the rub.

Starting over, we are neither “good” nor “bad” at birth, we just are, and are “natural” and organic beings. Our traits are predetermined by nature, honed by socialization, and enabled by community. Now, to most people, the most abhorrent thing is to experience suffering. However, being conscious beings with potentially infinite capability, we can induce it in others, despite how much we dislike it ourselves; after all, it isn’t you. As infinitely capable beings, we are capable of justifying these actions, usually to the end goal of suffering as little as possible, both physically and psychically. Thus, the ones with the most capacity for violence are the most immediately sustained; they try to bend their awareness at will. This is our origin of “good” and “bad”; we proactively and retroactively apply these to ourselves and our actions. In short: some create more pluralistic suffering to ease their own individual suffering.

However, there are others who are more aware and mindful of others’ suffering, and even seek to alleviate it at the cost of additional suffering on their end. They seek to remove the imposer’s capacities for inflicting suffering, usually imposing their own violence to do so. This violence may be more justified, but it is still violence, and violence creates those hell-bent on ending violence, whatever the cost—justification in itself. In short: violence breeds more violence, and the cycle is as self-justifying as it is paradoxical. When we are born, we stake our claim within this game; it is far more work than not existing at all, but it is the only thing we can do.

To conclude: this was a rushed article—if you have any complaints, file them in the next issue.