Violence Is Our Way: The Great Delusion of Civilization

Beneath the pretense of benevolence lurks savage conquest.

Naïve positivity — the unilateral proclamation that ‘everything is alright with the world’ — forms the foundation upon which our understanding as individuals and society of individuals, i.e. civilization, stands. To be a pessimist, to be a realist, is to be shunned from said society, referred to the perilous métier of the mental health professionals. If you can’t be positive and hopeful about life, humanity, the future, then remain silent and suffer in solitude. Do not pester the normal ones. Be the burden on society you so obviously wish to be.

Many philosophers throughout the ages have concluded that life, in general, is not the great thing made out to be. But even more so: humanity, society, particularly its modern capitalist-imperialist interpretation, are, all in all, a net negative to our short stint in conscious existence. For one reason or another, we have decided to spend our lives as rats participating in a race that knows no winners and ends only in death. The theatre’s dire…