Looking on the latest military conflict to hit the news in South Ossetia, a small region of Georgia on the southern borders of Russia. Yet again we see the gargantuan misuse of a state military, bought and paid for, off the backs of individual hard labour. One can only imagine the death and carnage that is going on over there. The systematic use of sophisticated modern weaponry still leaves us gaping into a pit of contemporary human barbarity and despair.
Almost predictably, corny expressions of unease regarding this war are emanating from the west. President Bush has demanded that the Russians go no further than South Ossetia in an almost tacit acceptance of the violence inflicted thus far. It’s at these times that governments show their true colours behind their rhetoric. The west of course is only concerned with the oil pipeline that links Azerbaijan to Europe. As a result Russia sees this part of its old territory as an important pawn in its ever growing power regarding the worlds future energy resources. So the west sits on the fence and throws light criticism at the Russians as a means to shrouding their true position on the matter.
Of course the images we see above
are far worse than we would ever see in Iraq or Afghanistan and are liberally
displayed throughout most western newspapers. This is Russia after all, for
whom the western press is free to condemn and criticise at will. The cursed hypocrisy
of the west is as virulent to see as at any other time before. They use
politics as a means to hoodwinking their relevant populaces into believing
their stories through vague gestures and sound bites. Now I also include the
Georgians in this duplicity, as they are hardly without blood on their hands.
As liberal as the west has been in its coverage of Russian aggression, it has
shown scant regard to Georgia’s mister minors.
'LET FREEDOM REIGN'
As a result of all this I was left imagining a world free of conflict and unnecessary violence. ‘I have a dream’, a phrase that was used by the late Martin Luther King, was steeped in imagery. That imagery was of a future where oppression would no longer be the norm and that freedom would at last reign. Of course, as most modern anarchists, we always have our doubts regarding the eventual shift in the zeitgeist and no more so than when we see these behemoth governments acting in such a wantonly destructive manner, such as we see in this conflict. Our gut tells us, ‘how on earth do we stop these enormous bullies?’ How and when as individuals do we ever see the moment when we can stand up to these tormentors and face them head on in a fair and equal manner?
Stefan Molyneux wrote a wonderful blog recently regarding the safety of a free state society. It may not answer all the questions regarding personal defence, but it’s by far the broadest and most in depth challenge to the assertion that only a state can protect us militarily. It did of course allow me to dream of a society free of the tyranny of state control and coercion. A place in which voluntaryists would roam with complete protection from any force that felt a need to attack them. A world in which freedom would indeed reign and that culpability would be placed upon the individual or entity that committed any act of violence against them.
An overwhelming sense
of sadness fills me now, not just for the poor innocent lives being destroyed
through this current conflict. Indeed I feel a sadness that grows from my yearning for such
a society, for which I am sure I'm unlikely to experience within my
lifetime. However I am quite sure it is a vision of a future, whether near or
far, that will at some dawn be seen as the only possible future worth having.