Part Three - Enter the Proxy

1488: 

 Edited by CJ.Tointon

We are continually trying to hide from our own violence-sickness.  We refuse to be directly implicated in violence.  We let others commit violence for us.  We approve of our governments keeping the refugees at bay so we can carry on with our lives unhindered.  We approve of our soldiers bombing the enemy to make us feel more secure.  We let others do our animal killing for us, so we can eat meat and remain ignorant of the suffering behind it.  Nature gives us the clue - waken your conscience.  Once we refer to conscience - we get it.  By disassociating from 'normal human behaviour' we can understand how individual ethical action releases the dormant conscience.  And when one's conscience is fired into action, it wakes another's conscience.  But its purpose is not to covert others.  It is impelled simply by a single principle - the need to take the initiative and avoid violence and especially to avoid proxy violence.  You, me, each of us, can personally set the example for others.  It may take time, but who knows?  These days such initiatives spread fast on the grapevine.  But unless we are prepared to act alone, then nothing can happen and we, as individuals, won't be able to find solutions to the world's greatest problems.

         

Only by actively disassociating from what our appointed proxies are doing on our behalf, can we escape involvement and become free enough to learn what Nature is attempting to teach us about sustainable living.

         

If we attempt to ignore this, our refusal to act will inevitably bring with it confusion and panic.  We look at the crime scene and say to ourselves, "I can't understand how 'these people' can be so violent."  We refuse to believe that we are also condoning, supporting and encouraging an equivalent violence by the simple act of supporting the mass murder of innocent animals.  We refuse to think about that because we're addicted to products taken from these abused animals.  We don't believe we could ever move away from the foods we're used to or address the whole ugly business behind these foods.  The fact is, it's exactly the same violence, only it's being inflicted on victims that have no defence from us at all.  Killing people, abandoning people - killing defenceless animals, abandoning defenceless animals - it's all one and the same thing.