Choosing Sides Is Choosing War

There is only one side.

Therefore those who divide us into sides -

Repudiate the truth of one side -

For the lie of war.

Choosing Sides Is Choosing War

*

Though I have been exploited - many times over -

I am not for the side of the misused.

Though I am no saint - by any stretch of generosity, whatsoever -

I am not for the side of the errant.

*

Why?

Because peace matters more.

More than persuasive reason and emotional appeal.

More than entitlement and privilege.

More than the sake of one side over the other.

More than right and wrong and which side is which.

Because -

War never actuates peace.

*

Lest we find our selves a hair's breadth away from barbarism -

Let's reconsider sides -

Lest we find our selves plunging into the determinism of nihilism -

Let's reconsider divisiveness -

Lest we find ourselves hurtling towards the certain devastation of mutual assured destruction -

Let's reconsider war -

*

By whatever shred of dignity remains within the mettle of human kind -

Despite all that we have wrought -

Upon all -

Let's find something to hold fast -

Abreast this tumult of wretched depravity -

This corrupt wasteland of self anointed -

Upon platforms girded by astounding hubris.

*

For me -

That something is truth above all.

In lesser measure -

That something is also - hope and trust and faith -

That truth will prevail - that justice will prevail -

In merciful measure -

Semper et perpetuum.

*

For all -

Lest the temptation to champion crusades of fanatic adherence to extremism -

Beckon like sirens whose promises swell forth, beguiling and irresistible -

The compelling temptation to mete 'justice' with brutal fervor -

Is savagely indifferent to peace for all.

*

There is no truth -

There is no justice -

Without mutuus et aequum -

Without vivo et liber -

*

Such that truths sans mutuus et aequum, vivo et liber -

Are lies and fictions - myths and artifice.

Such that justice sans mutuus et aequum, vivo et liber -

Is tyranny and injustice - totalitarianism and despotism.

*

Verily - experiences of exploitation and mistreatment -

Confer no special dispensation of automatic authenticity or inviolable credibility - 

Regardless of whether the misused avow one side, as the side of the unassailable -  

While the other is vehemently denounced as that of the accused reprobate.

Verily - approximate sainthood or lack thereof -

Confer no unequivocal legitimacy or illegitimacy - 

Regardless of whether the unimpeachable proclaim one side, as the side of the infallible -

While the other is vociferously condemned as that of the deplored profligate.

*

In the end:

Sides are not the truth.

Sides are arbitrary positions -

That we condone -

That we sanctify -

To justify and defend - divisiveness and war and discord and conflict -

On the basis of sides -

Rather than truth and justice.

*

Verily:

Truth and justice - are indiscriminate - with respect to sides.

Verily:

Every side for sides -

Is neither for truth nor for justice.

Every side for sides -

Is for war.

*

Insofar as war deprives all of mutuus et aequum, vivo et liber -

War advances no truth and furthers no justice.

Insofar as war advances no truth and furthers no justice -

War actuates no peace.

Insofar as war actuates no peace -

War actuates narcissism.

Whereby endemic solipsism and virulent fanaticism -

In the name of me me me and my side over them them them and their side -

Stand for war against peace for all. 

More

Every one is choosing sides.

Here, there, every where. Now, then, every when.

Because this battle. Because that war.

Advances this platform. Furthers that position.

Uplifts the miserable here. Elevates the tragic there.

But -

In the clamor of bombast and vitriol -

Will truth prevail?

Will justice prevail?

If no one chooses the truth?

- M.

*

Addendum

In our zeal for 'justice', we determine guilt and innocence. Often sans the whole truth. Often per 'sides'.

Even though the whole truth often inconveniently illuminates how imperfectly human all of us are, regardless of 'side'.

Which is the point of the whole truth.

Because partial truths invariably skew our perspectives vis a vis different lens, that differ based on which truths are known and which truths are omitted or obscured (i.e. vis a vis context and nuance), for example -

Such that partial truths inexorably evolve (or devolve) into lies, fictions, myths, artifice, etc. -

That all too often serve agendas (of entitlement and privilege, for example).

We further judge human intersections and execute justice. Per nothing less than our qualifications of fairness and infallibility. Often sans credence. Often per 'sides'.

Except, insofar, as our credence is self conferred per self conceit.

Which is no credence, at all.

Moreover:

When we choose 'sides', and subsequently determine guilt and innocence, based solely on 'sides' -

When we choose 'sides', and subsequently judge each other and mete justice, based solely on 'sides' -

Rather than acknowledge -

THE TRUTH -

That - we do not know the whole truth.

That - we are not infallible.

We vehemently insist our truth is the only truth and vociferously demand our justice as the only justice.

As if -

The right to do so is ours and ours alone.

Because - we ourselves have been exploited and misused.

Because - we ourselves have inexpiably erred.

Because - our experiences are the only experiences that matter.

Much like our truths are the only truths that matter.

Much like our justice is the only justice that matters.

As if -

We and we alone - are the measure of truth and justice - for all.

Even as - we obstreperously object - to measures of truth and justice by mobs of vigilantism - when justice is exacted against us and truths are exposed against us - by mobs of vigilantism that are not our own.

Such that -

Even truths -

Even justice -

- are manipulated, distorted, perverted - to serve agendas - of others as well as our own.

*

Which begs the question -

Does such zeal for justice really serve truth and justice - much less us?

Or does our thirst for truths that are facilely manipulated and effortlessly distorted - as well as our appetite for justice that is guilefully perverted - serve other agendas as conveniently as those that are ostensibly ours?

*

So long as scripts are written - scripts serve agendas.

Such that - scripts of demands for 'justice' by mobs of vigilantism - serve agendas, too.

Not unlike - scripts of side mongering that pit 'sides' against each other like entertainers in rigged wrestling dramas.

So:

What agendas are served by all the scripts aforementioned?

Surely the crows who feast on war profiteering - at our expense, no less - are not wholly idle, to leave their fattening to chance.

Especially when our expense is eagerly and wholeheartedly contributed in service to agendas of our own.

- M.