Enough!

published Apr 16, 2013, last modified Jun 26, 2013

Statement from a voluntaryist regarding the Boston bombing.

After having witnessed several people die and many more become irreversibly wounded in a despicable bombing, our sympathy and deepest feelings go toward the victims. And, of course, our deepest reproach and disapproval go to the perpetrators of this malevolent act.

If I may for a second speak on behalf of me and the people I love: we recognize the perpetrators' evil for what it is. We most certainly hope they are punished, in fact, as much as we hope that someday there won't be need to punish perpetrators since we know (hope?) that, in the future, no one will conceive of murdering and terrorizing other human beings to get their way. In the future, no one will conceive of that, just like no one today even conceives of owning a random black person or arbitrarily punishing a gay person.

As of right now, multiple theories to explain the events are being developed as we watch the events unfold. Shortly, you'll be presented with tens, perhaps hundreds of viewpoints. Amidst these predictions, guesses and hypotheses, however, I can confidently assure you of one thing: contrary to various early media reports, this act was perpetrated by no anarchist.

While many destructive ideas have been written and lots of lives and wealth destroyed by self-styled and self-professed "anarchists", every anarchist I personally know -- all of the voluntaryist variety, like me -- is a decent and peaceful individual who fundamentally understands that aggression (especially indiscriminate, senseless and terrorist aggression like this bombing) is not only counterproductive but it's also flat out evil. Accusing them of an evil they did not, and never ever will ever intend to commit, is corrupt and evil as well.

Evil. That is one word that was not said often enough today. That is what bombing random strangers is. Whether they are white, or brown, or black. Poor or rich. Obedient or disobedient. As anarchists, as voluntaryists, we are probably the only group of humans who consistently says that.

And we wish people would listen. But people mostly don't.

See, most people have no trouble condemning other people such as these bombers, who (irrespective of who they are) clearly don't understand that the most elementary feature of what makes us all human is cooperation -- the ability not just to get your way, but to get everyone's way.

And, you know what? They are right about that! All we wish is that the condemners would universalize their condemnation to everyone.

But they don't. These people, stuck in the Statrix, still believe that when a certain group of people (whom they worship) commits the exact same massacre -- or worse -- the act magically becomes "heroic" and "necessary". When we dare to speak of such acts in plain English of people doing things -- thereby exposing the raw malevolence of the acts -- we're called crazy, insulted, sometimes even brutalized on the spot. What primal fear prevents these people, caged in the Statrix, from realizing that they are pro-terrorism, when the terrorists happen to be the people they admire and worship?

Repeat after me: A bomb thrown at otherwise peaceful and decent people will never achieve any good. Ever. Whether it's fired by a ragtag group of sociopaths, or a pompously costumed one.

And here's the cruel reality: So long as we grow up in a mythological climate where it's perceived as "okay" and "necessary" for certain people to aggress against other human beings, there will be people who believe terror is also a legitimate action for them. "If these other criminals can bomb people with impunity, why can't we?" will be what the small-time terrorists think, before they decide to massacre people. Having learned that aggression is okay as long as one is an archon, these mentally damaged people will attempt to impose themselves as archons through aggression.

Thus, terrorism only ever ends when the biggest terrorist, the one that sets an example for all other wannabe terrorists, vanishes. And that, in turn, only happens when the delusion that certain terrorists are saviors and protectors, shatters.

Meanwhile, let's continue showing, by example, that terrorism doesn't work. Let's prevent the next massacre, by living the principles of nonaggression, and showing the world that it can be done.

And, to anyone who still believes that bombing others is okay "if papers order it and costumed sociopaths authorize it", let's tell them what they need to hear: what the fuck is wrong with you?

Again, our deepest condolences for the victims of the Boston bombing.