Concerning Violence

 

Concerning Violence is a documentary film from 2014 by the Swedish director Göran Hugo Olsson. It is highly acclaimed and has won three major international awards. How it came to my attention is unusual. I found its DVD lying in a box outside a house; one of those "please take" kind of things. The film is rated "E", exempt from classification. The movie consists of a series of scenes consisting mostly of archive footage of various wars for independence in Africa during the 1960's and 70's. Accompanying this is a narration by the American singer-songwriter and actress Lauryn Hill. She reads passages from a book called The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. The author was a political activist from the Caribbean who one might describe as the first "new leftist" or "wokie". By that I mean he builds on the ideas of Karl Marx, but instead of seeing society as a product of class struggle, he believes it is born out of racial struggle. The bourgeoisie and the proletariat are substituted exactly by different demographics. Today this is one of the most widespread notions in the modern Western left; but Fanon, writing in the 1940's and 50's, pioneered the concept. The film is extremely well edited. It shows various scenes of colonial infamy with white people generally behaving badly, as we are wont to do. That is hardly original in this day and age, but it is depicted very powerfully. One scene that is etched on my mind is a heartrending shot of a young woman, probably just a teenager, nursing her baby while having just lost an arm. There is an older black-and-white video of some white South Africans patronizing and demeaning their black servants. The main thrust of the narrative is that guerrilla warfare is justified and good. It "gives a man back his self-respect" as the author puts it. It is released by a distributor with a great name: "Dogwoof", see here for the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLmYWL4TIEc. It is now available on a number of streaming platforms.
 
As I've said many times, the fixated sense of victimhood is a major malady, even if it has a legitimate cause. This is because it is highly addictive and often becomes central to the addict's identity; and even, in a strange way, their self-esteem. People dosed up on victimhood will often sacrifice everything, including their best interests, to any player who promises to rid their lives of whatever finger-pointed boogieman they have decided upon. That player is very often worse than the boogieman and knows very well the psychology of its targets. There are too many examples in history to list, including some of those featured in Concerning Violence, in which a manipulative Third World grievance-monger wins support by promising to free the people from "oppression!" They then institute a regime more terrible than any European colonial government. This pathology is not confined to the Third World, in fact it is a problem in my own country, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2025/02/irish-cvd-bull.html. The film is also a spiteful and frenzied white guilt trip, one of the worst I've ever seen; and, let's face it, they are everywhere! I reject and defy that call to self-loathing I constantly hear because of the colour of my skin. I should also emphasize that I oppose terrorism and political violence; not because I am a "privileged white male!", in fact I don't believe such an animal exists. I oppose it because, leaving aside the moral issues, it is impractical. It cannot work in the long-term. The state can do violence so much better than anybody else that is it invincible at that game. It's a battlefield we must never enter. "What is your solution then, Ben?" I hear you ask. I think because the current conflict is so unique and unprecedented in history, its solution has to be too. It is something we have not yet thought of; but it is there. I am looking out for it every day. I promise I will be writing about that very subject in the very near future.
See here for background: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/political-correctness-portal.html.