On Fear and Violence

I have been wrestling with our stance on fear and violence for some time, turning back and forth. And once again I must be guided by the space between, the simplest answer, and the goose and the gander. 

When I have sought wisdom, those three things tend to guide me. The space between refers to looking for the common denominator between two combating ideas to seek a deeper truth. For instance, the question of whether gods exist. Either they exist or they are simply faces we give form to. I wrestled with that for some time until I realized that the two were not mutually exclusive - they were connected. The gods are faces we give them and very real. In our faith, for instance, we are presented with the common debate of science versus faith that is so very prevalent in our society. But the truth is something much more interesting. The two are completely inextricable from one another, and both true - the more we explore and discover, the more we fulfil our purpose, the more we deepen and enrich our faith. Faith without growth or the ability to accept new truths is dead, and truth without faith is hollow. 

Second is the Simplest Answer. I remember Akosa the first year I held it, and throughout the year there had been songs flowing into my brain for us to learn and sing. I tried for six bloody weeks to find something to do for Akosa. Songs became choruses. Choruses became chants. And in the end it was the simplest incant that worked, and I felt foolish, because of course it was. DOAT HA A I A AKOS MATA HOM. Literally the simplest answer possible. I've found this to exist multiple times. I tend to complicate things, and I am reminded to keep it simple to find the deepest truth. Why do we have the names we do? Why not have Latin or Greek or Egyptian names? Why not delve into the deepest mysteries of other paths? Because that is not necessary. The ancient civilizations did not do so. China did not take a Latin name for a deity because it was "occulty and cool". Greece didn't name their sacred clothing after some Native American deity. No. They named what they saw and needed in their language. Taurus literally means "bull". It's a bull. Look into the stars, see that? It's a bull! So, we name things in our language. Polestari is just the word "polestar", or home stone, with a part of speech that transforms it into something lyrical. Primali. Primal I. 

Third is the goose and the gander. I think I've written about this before - that what is good for one must be good for all. And since these blogs are statements of what we believe, I have to examine if what is good for one is good for all...or if it something between that's a deeper truth. 

And so we get to fear and violence. All faiths have to answer these questions eventually - are they pacifist? Are they warlike? When is war acceptable? What responses to fear are acceptable and which are discouraged? How do we live together when we are such a violent little species?

There is certainly much to fear. The country is swiftly becoming divided, unbalanced, and particularly scary for people like us. The Polestari and those we know are, for the most part, representative of some of the counterculture of the society - queer, or pagan, or of an alternative family shape or style. We have AFAB people, we have people of color. We have people with indigenous roots. And the recent turn of events in our culture is absolutely terrifying to the vast majority of us. So, what does our faith tell us about how to deal with fear?

We know that fear, scientifically, is extremely useful. Natural selection does not favor the universally bold. They tend to get eaten by saber-tooth tigers. It also, however, does not favor the timid. We must eat. And so, we are gifted by our natures the ability to reason, to plan, and to adapt. We use tactics to ensure a victory, and we use tools to make us stronger. We work together to achieve a goal, and nobody in the history of anything did anything important by themselves. Has one person created damage occasionally? Certainly. But it did not happen in a vacuum. So how do we handle fear? We accept that we feel it. We let it make us aware and strong. We let it wash over us and realize we are still standing. There is no shame in fear. There is no shame in the moment you lie frozen and feel like the world is collapsing. But there is victory in the moment you move again. The moment you look for real solutions and neither go screaming at the tiger nor huddling in the cave. It is the moment you look around to your tribe, nod, and get to work. 

And what is getting to work, then? Violence is something that I have been of two minds about, and I'm finding that the space between is the simplest and most true answer. If you look at the paths of history, we are a violent sort. So much so that we have a different relationship to death than nearly every generation before us. The idea that one third to one half of everyone we know will have died by the time we're 35 is alien to us - it's horrific in our minds. And yet, this has been the case for some places in human history, and some places still exists. We are excellent at hurting each other. It's a talent that has lined us up for atrocities that can be spoken from the human timeline. But at the same token...sometimes it is all we understand. It's fairly well agreed on that the movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. would have not had teeth had there not been other factions that chose violence. The moment of liberation in the gay community is a riot. We shoot fireworks on the 4th of July to celebrate an independence won in blood - it is so amazingly rare that blood is not shed to change society, for better or worse. 

That same gift we are given by the Universe is to reason. Our curiosity and creativity are as much natural impulses as feasting or mating. Or fighting itself. And the result of millenia of reasoning is that we can find better ways to express ourselves. That people shouldn't have to die to evolve. That right action is not determined by the one who can win the fight. We know this on a fundamental level - you hear it every day in our schools. We don't hit. Use your words. And yet our society does not bear out what we teach our children, because some people don't listen, don't stop hurting others, until they are stopped. 

We are all entertained by the idea of being a warrior. I know I am. Much of the pagan community is given to the desire to embody that which we exalt in warriors - their strength, their ability to act and protect. The recent surge in Heathen worshippers stands testament to that fact. We need to believe we're ready for anything. I know I stood South and Warrior for a long time. But we fail to remember sometimes that that same warrior eventually must beat their swords into ploughshares and that they are forever changed by the fight. We are forever changed by the fight, and it is no small thing to throw ourselves into battle. It must be understood what we shoulder, and it must have worth and meaning.

So I have to believe that one day we can evolve, that we can believe what we tell our children and make reasoned decisions. We'll have to dedicate ourselves to the idea of a populace educated from birth to be critical, empathetic thinkers. And yet, that isn't the world we have. Violence is not wrong action in the society we live in. Violence without first trying everything to avoid it is. It must be accepted, if we believe ourselves to be primal creatures in a modern era, that sometimes violence is the last dying ember in Pandora's box and it's time to rip off the lid. 

Try everything. Try compassion. Try honesty. Try personal responsibility and holding others accountable. Try distancing and de-escalation. But if it comes to it, the Universe gave you the means to fight. 

Fight with your words. Fight with your actions of defiance and protest. Fight with your hands and hearts. Fight with your community and be kind to each other. Respect each other's priorities. You have everything you need.