New Attitudes

I was looking at a photograph of a man holding a poster on which an image of another younger man was centered...along with the young mans name and the date he was disappeared. I have seen hundreds of similar images as I am a human rights artist and have chosen to focus on a potentially endless project, memorializing the victims of various genocides with my art. Here was yet another image, another brother, most likely, who had lost his brother to a regime that placed its own ambitions above the worth of this human's life and above the lives of tens of thousands of similar victims, men, women, and children. The single thought that came to my head was "shame." I began to write lines beginning with that word, as admonishions... And immediately thought of a list that is reversed in style...the "Beatitudes" of Christ. That list, as I recalled it from my youth, spoke to the same group of exploited, downtrodden and victimized humans. I wanted to review its content. I googled the verses. "3Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled. 7Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. 8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. 10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Taking nothing away from the author who's words and life I respect, as I re-read the words, trying to understand how these promises would come to pass, I was left with the conclusion that the promises...of kingdoms of heaven, of comfort, of inheriting the earth, of being shown mercy, etc... were all promises to be filled in the next world...in an afterlife. The basic sense I read is not directed towards changing anything in this world but rather toward,at least tacitly, acceptance that, while vast injustices occur in this world, there will be compensation for this in the next. Christ goes so far as to say the victims should rejoice when they suffer here, since the return in the next world will be great. Of course these are not the only words of Christ and, his words address many topics at different times and situations. I am not criticizing the Beatitudes in what follows. At many times throughout its history, large portions of religious orders have allied with the state in collaborations with horrific consequence. I am not excluding other mainline religions ins saying this. From the Ayatollahs in Iran, to the religio-State persecution of Palestine, to the imperial agression of the proportedly Judeo-Christian super power, the United States of America, the degrees of victimization cloaked in religious terminology in attempts to get a spiritual rationale for wanton cruelty have differed only in the scale of the crimes against humanity, not in kind. A common feature espoused by clerics of all stripe and scripture is the promulgation of this notion that suffering in this life, even unnecessary suffering, is inevitable and that recompense will be found following death. I think that submission to the inevitability of unethically induced suffering is wrong. And I think that these teachings on patience,on meekness, even on joyful suffering, are often twisted, perverted in this sense, to mollify the masses and critically to ease the conscience of those who live on the exploitation of the very people Christ addressed. The skewed message to the victims becomes... "You are fortunate to suffer. Do not protest this! It is God's will for you and those who do you harm will one day burn in hell." The message to those who are not directly effected, who are not persecuted is, " Dont worry about the millions on millions who are being slaughtered, who's lives are shattered, who's hearts are broken. This is inevitable...its all in the Plan! Justice comes in the next world so there is no need to work for it here." Nothing need be done in reponse to even extreme atrocities, let alone in response to individual acts of cruelty, exploitation and wanton injury. The perpetrators need to begin to hear from those who are victimized by their quests for absolute power. We need to stop giving them huge salaries and medals and monuments... to cease awarding Nobel Prizes to murderers and building Presidential libraries that serve, as President Clinton said recently, to give Presidents a chance to rewrite history. The masses who are not directly persecuted need to join with those who are realizing that what happened to the least of them can happen to anyone and does effect all. So I want to try to write another list of admonishions. It is not a parody on the Beatitudes I write but a message directed toanyone who complies with the predators of this world. Shame on those who exploit the poor, who entrap the poor in poverty by controlling their economic circumstance, paying non-living wages, profitting on the penury in which those who build the products of their luxurious lives are filled. Shame on those who place their personal ambitions as above the value of the lives and well being of any of their fellow human beings, who profit by exploitation, who live in health through profits from those forced to accept the meanest work conditions, the lowest incomes, the most degrading circumstances. Shame on the liars, the false orators, the spin masters, who deceive the public with sophisticated propaganda packaging their unethical goals and methods in the finest attire of virtue, patriotism, even love of God. Shame on leaders who rise to power on clouds of lies, false promises and deception. Shame on the bankers who enslave masses with economic coercion, economic warfare and economic terrorism. Shame on creators who devise the machines and technology of decreation, the killing machines, and who do so espousing interest in self protection while pocketing billions of dollars from instruments used to slaughter their fellow human beings. Shame on all those whohave interest inthese companies and who profit from blood money. Shame on leaders who are swayed by the lobbies from such companies and the organizations that support and protect them. Shame on the willfully ignorant who sense,at some level, that "normal life" in their culture comes at the huge expense of "others," but who will not learn more about this, will not trouble themselves to understand the dynamics that support their relative comfort, willnjot lift a finger to work consciously to a more ethical world. They suppoort the injustice by default, by deciding to do nothing. Shame on them. I would like to ask you to add your ideas to this list. I am mindful of the fact, very mindful, that none of us, myself included, is innocent in these regards. None can cast the first stone, nor is stoning a method for positive change. Yet I am also very mindful that as long as we remain blinded or acquiescent to the dynamics of these wholesale atrocities and crimes against humanity...dynamics that are institutionalized...they will repeat and increase in scale. Unless we take serious stock of our actions...our intentions are trumped by action, we ally ourselves by default with much of the worst of what human kind has done and will achieve. I believe it is possible to make this world a better world.