I read on Wales on Line of the jailing of a former leader of the Conservative group on Swansea City Council. I read the comments made by people on the story m. However repugnant and vile the crime I find the comments following the story even more so. I look at the two pictures of the individual concerned on one hand we see a persona and another a Dorian Grey like picture. There is something in the nature of the p.o. ture that reveals the darkness in us all. The reduction of an individual either to a perpetrator or to a victim says much about us all. Given the right circumstances we all could become a picture in the National Crime agency press release. I look at the profile pictures of those calling for hanging, lynching and castration. These are people who carry fluffy pictures of their family and pets . They look kind and caring yet on this story the monster within stirs and projects their inner demons on the perpetrator . Yet this is simply a fear of what lies deep within ourselves The origin of the demons within that crested in both the use of power and of patriarchy in particular. It lays in behaviour and outlook that reduces others to objects to be used. It starts with ambition and control and those who call for lynching know well that they too fear these monsters. How many men who download pornography may not too have downloaded pictures of under age females?. How many men have had sex with younger women not clearly aware of their age?. How many men have used power and manipulation for sexual purposes?. It's ok to lynch the other but not to examine the strange thoughts and fantasies that exist within so many. Many people reading this have much to ask themselves of their Id and shadow. All men who use power over others could so easily be reduced to a surname and a monster in thus way.. Yet we are all both victim and perpetrator. The key is to understand that and not deny it the politician with a loving family so we policies that cause bombs to reign down on loving families in the Yemen. The Councillor who reduces women to objects at a stag party or the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons fueled by alcohol and a hidden sexuaility from his parents and the world leader who allows children to starve are all as worthy as Renee Kinzett for a lynching.
Those us who have come near to bring the victims of abuse must reflect.
We all must ask what events cause people to become abusers. This is not
to excuse it merely is a chance to realise and understand that all of
us could become an abuser or indeed a victim of abuse. Perhaps all of us
have measures of both abused and abuser within. Perhaps that is where
the call for castration, lynching and hanging comes from. Its just too
uncomfortable to own up to it. We all could be in a cell this morning.
Look into the eyes in the National Crime Agency picture...you will see
your own eyes looking back at you . I have sat with both perpetrators
and victims and I know....it's easier to project ourselves onto
others...is it not?
Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.
You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone
+
If any of you would bring to judgment the unfaithful wife,
Let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.
And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.
And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;
And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.
And you judges who would be just,
What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?
What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?
And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,
Yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?
And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?
Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.
Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.
And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?
Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,
And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.
Kahil Gibran
Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world.
But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you,
So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also.
And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,
So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.
Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self.
You are the way and the wayfarers.
And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone.
Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone
+
If any of you would bring to judgment the unfaithful wife,
Let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales, and measure his soul with measurements.
And let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended.
And if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree, let him see to its roots;
And verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad, the fruitful and the fruitless, all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth.
And you judges who would be just,
What judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit?
What penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit?
And how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor,
Yet who also is aggrieved and outraged?
And how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds?
Is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve?
Yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty.
Unbidden shall it call in the night, that men may wake and gaze upon themselves.
And you who would understand justice, how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light?
Only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self,
And that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation.
Kahil Gibran
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