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As I watch day by day the ongoing tableau of almost unbelievable stupidity and cruelty perpetrated by 'ordinary; people on the TV presentations called news and current events, I have come to the conclusion that the recognized barbaric behavior of our ancestors still boils somewhere within us, in each of us, and at times emerges to paint us as we actually are.
So I did a little searching and found some instances which seem to prove (to myself, anyway) that I am right.
In The Black Agenda Report I recently read the following paragraph:
"America is a nation where even its highest government officials, like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, routinely exhibit themselves like bloodthirsty cave dwellers. When Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was barbarically murdered on camera by US financed terrorist thugs, it was Hillary Clinton who savagely proclaimed on camera, "we came we saw he died". Only a nation of mentally moral zombies would condone this kind of barbaric behavior from one of their high-ranking government officials. Americans accept this kind of inhumane behavior because they have been trained (programmed) quite well."
Reading that prompted me to view the short video wherein Hillary supposedly exhibited barbaric behavior:
I also found the following piece:
From: Barbarism In America
"What's wrong with people? This is not therapy, not even in the loosest use of the word. Electric shocks, solitary confinement, stuffing people in bags, beating a person until he dies: this is abuse and torture. I would be appalled to learn these things are happening in prisons, to adults, but we're talking about school children, most of whom, apparently have special needs. The report uses the word "barbaric." That's the word I would use too."
That paragraph is describing disciplinary methods used in some schools and illustrated in a video embedded in the article, a clip from Nightline with Brian Ross, ABC News.
The report shocked me, and I imagine it will shock you, as well, if you can take the time to read it and view the Nightline video.
Again, here is the link: Barbarism In America
There are many more of such examples online, but I hesitate to overdo it here in the blog with too much exposure to the barbaric natures of people, I prefer to think about the good in citizens of our modern civilized societies. Whenever I can.
And, yes, I am working on my next piece of factual-fictional memoir.
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HISTORICAL CLIP
In the American colonies, a posse of New Hampshire volunteers comes across a band of encamped Native Americans and takes 10 "scalps" in the first significant appropriation of this Native American practice by European colonists. The posse received a bounty of 100 pounds per scalp from the colonial authorities in Boston.
Although the custom of "scalping" was once practiced in Europe and Asia, it is generally associated with North American native groups. In scalping, the skin around the crown of the head was cut and removed from the enemy's skull, usually causing death. In addition to its value as a war trophy, a scalp was often believed to bestow the possessor with the powers of the scalped enemy. In their early wars with Native Americans, European colonists of North America retaliated against hostile native groups by adopting their practice of scalp taking. Bounties were offered for them by colonial authorities, which in turn led to an escalation of intertribal warfare and scalping in North America.
From HISTORY
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WORD FOR TODAY
barbarism (BAHR-bahr-izm)
noun
1. An act, trait, or custom characterized by ignorance or crudity.
2. The use of words, forms, or expressions considered incorrect or unacceptable.
Usage Note: There is a significant difference in meaning between barbarism and barbarity. Both denote some absence of civilization, but the word civilization itself has several different senses, one the opposite of barbarism, the other the opposite of barbarity. On the one hand civilization may refer to the scientific, artistic, and cultural attainments of advanced societies, and it is this sense that figures in the meaning of barbarism. The English word barbarism originally referred to incorrect use of language, but it is now used more generally to refer to ignorance or crudity in matters of taste, including verbal expression: The New Yorker would never tolerate such barbarisms. On the other hand, civilization may refer to the basic social order that allows people to resolve their differences peaceably, and it is this sense that is, civilization as opposed to savagery that figures in the meaning of barbarity, which refers to savage brutality or cruelty in actions, as in The accounts of the emperor's barbarity shocked the world.
From: The Free Dictionary
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War is at its best barbarism.
--William Tecumseh Sherman
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