Violence and the Christian Trauma Bond

For people unfamiliar with domestic violence and phenomenon such as Stolkholm Syndrom; the Trauma Bond occurs when the abuser creates a traumatic situation such as beating you or threatening to kill you.  After the abuser has calmed down, they deflect all blame and seek to soothe you with attention.  At the same time, the abuser tells you that you need to do better to prevent the abuse and that they love you more than anything.  Thus creating a bond in which the victim seeks to please the abuser to get positive attention.  This cycle is replayed over and over again until the victim leaves or is killed by their abuser.

The high levels of abuse in society mean that millions of people are susceptible to abusive cycles, yet little society does to curb domestic violence.  As with many of the US’s social and economic problems, we can see the perpetuation of abuse and violence is part of the bedrock of US society, which began as a nation that enslaved people for life.  Christianity certainly plays some role in the abuse and violence prevalent in US society today.

The far-right is replete with god loving jew hating christians.  Furthermore, scores of people have died since the 1960’s alone at the hands of violent abusers who were christian white supremacists.  From Timothy McVey to the QAnon insurrectionists who broke into the Capitol on January 6^th white supremacist christians have done significant damage killing adults and children and leaving wakes of trauma behind their destruction.

While people in the US, especially the white people, are happy to justify the endless prison hell of Guantanamo Bay and violence against Muslims because they are Muslim and therefore violent; we fail to account for how violent white christians are in the US.  Besides the millions of domestic violence cases, white chirstians have killed thousands of US citizens since 1865.  I find this peculiar given the similarity between the two faiths and the long history each has of conquest and murder.  Perhaps this is why when the mainstream media discuss white supremacist terrorists in the US; their religious affiliations are often ignored.

I keep thinking about abuse and christianity and terrorism and violence and always Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling pops into my head.  Kierkegaard focuses on the seminal biblical story upon which all Abrahamic religions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim) praise deep faith and commitment to god.  In the story of Abraham god, via an angel, tells Abraham he must make a sacrifice to him of his son to prove his love for god.  The son that Abraham received after he pleaded with god.  Abraham dutifully takes his son up the mountain, places him on an altar for burnt offerings and is about to plunge the knife into his child when god tells him to stop.  He pleases god, and everyone lives happily ever after (no one really talks about how much PTSD this caused Issac). 

Kierkegaard reckons that the story shows how you must leap into the unknown with faith to have a genuine relationship with and love of god. Sound familiar?  Kierkegaard seems to be describing the Trauma Bond as an ideal model of christian faith.  The powerful god gives you what you asked for, but only if you acknowledge the complete control of your life to god.  Those that give control are punished, psychologically like Abraham and Issac or physically like Jesus and then rewarded with the promise of eternal bliss.  Those that doubt are also punished until they relent or die with the promise of eternal torture.  The prevalence of violence in US society cannot be fully understood without understanding white christianity. 

Spectacular Capitalism and Social Media

In the last year, I have spent significant amounts of the pandemic online, looking at Face Books posts from my small group of friends and scrolling Twitter.  I think a lot about equity and white supremacy in the US, and the problems that non-white, non-cis, non-hetero, non-christian face economically. 

The founders of the US were white supremacists; many had enslaved people working their plantations.  The US began when monarchies across Europe were losing power, and capitalism entrenched itself in the west.  Enslavement of the “other” allowed capitalism to flourish, and as the triangular trade waned other commodities and cultural artefacts became commodities in the US and Europe. 

In DeBord’s work, he explains that capitalism is tied to spectral as various markets and sellers compete against each other.  Spectacle feeds several human desirers; visual entertainment, dopamine kicks from surprise and awe, and escape from the everyday.  DeBord speculated that as the need to sell increased public spectacles and advertising pushed to supply increasing amounts of visual imagery that was increasingly symbolic and emotionally exciting.

The current trends show how correct DeBord was.  Most social media is heavily visually driven.  Sites make it easy for anyone and everyone to upload photos and videos of their daily life.  Those who post visual content are rewarded with more shares, more views and a chance to “go viral”.  Likes deliver little jolts of dopamine and provide a sense of connection to others.  During a pandemic, this becomes amplified.  The longing for connection prompts competition amongst those posting to social media to drive towards visual content.

It is not surprising to see how social media has contributed to the spectacle of Capitalism.  Social media has influenced language itself as millions of users engage with emojis and short acronyms instead of text.  The prevalence of memes, gifs and short videos has become such that they regularly make mainstream news reports. 

In spectacular capitalism, we are lured into consumer action and visual signalling in the name of good.  We are told that buying the symbols of Blackness and banning those of white supremacy helps solve racism and makes us moral citizens.  There are so many problems with this…  Symbols are powerful tools for human communication, but you cannot appropriate other peoples cultural symbols and remain a good citizen. 

White people have no business wearing dreadlocks or Native American War Bonnetts.  Changing your avatar to BLM or a section of Kente Cloth is not being an ally.  Buying exotic clothes, art, or furniture is not being an ally.  Engaging with visual symbolism is neutral at best but mostly harmful.  Because it allows people to feel good without actually knowing anything about the symbols.  Symbols speak to the superficiality of white political commitment to equity and justice.  Without understanding the history of white supremacy and working to undermine white supremacy, you are merely seeking attention and congratulations for your “wokeness”.

The moto of spectacular capitalism might be summed up as:  all things can be seen and all is for sale.  The white western commodification of other cultures allows places like Black Africa to remain exploited, and aids in the oppression of Black people in the US.  White westerns jump at the opportunity to consume things that will alleviate their guilt of complicity with white supremacy.  The impulse buying of non-white culture by white people contributes to the oppression by making you forget about the actual problems non-whites face and making profits for white people who sell ethnic commodities.  The money and power remain in the hands of white people. 

post-modernity and white supremacy

DRAFT

: political unrest in the US 2021

Post-modernity ideas come out of the late 20^th-century scholarship amongst academics who were engaged in western philosophy.  In the early 21^st century, most people, especially critics, are unaware of the central issues and how they play out in the real world.

For my purposes, post-modernity firstly disputes the Cartesian mind/body split.  Descartes’ notion of knowledge as something that cannot come through sensation (that includes reading) and that knowledge must always be true is rejected by post-modern philosophers.  Descartes was a devout christian and desperately wanted to prove that god exists, so his thoughts on knowledge reflect this stance. 

The second issue that post-modernity takes on is the idea that knowledge must always be true, and that there are absolute truths.  The claim to have universal truth is highly problematic – it might be true at this time and in this place, but it is impossible for humans to predict the future and so it might not be true in a different place or time.  This means that even what humans take as fundamental truths about nature (like gravity) will not hold up through all time and space.  While we like to think that science is indisputable because they use experiments, remember that many scientific ideas have been overturned throughout human history. 

People tend to argue that if there is no truth, then you cannot make a statement that there is no truth and this is misreading what post-modernity is all about, and what claims it is making.  Post-modernity comes from a standpoint that the real problem is not just that truth is unstable but that thinkers in western philosophy see truth as binary.  It either is or is not true.  The post-modern approach would say that there is no binary is or is not, but rather both exist.  People really hate this and usually start yelling about the reality of your death at this point, because it fundamentally upsets the belief system that forms our world, our society and our institutions in the US. 

The US was formed by white christian terrorists and wealthy tax dodgers who attached themselves to christian terrorists to gain power.  The entire western system of binary knowledge embedded in US culture has always broken society between two types of people.  On the one hand, you have the white, moral, intelligent, emotionally controlled, male citizen on the other you have the black, not-white, immoral, stupid and emotionally and physically uncontrolled, non-male.  There is no middle for the white supremacists either you are, or you are not white—[we can think of this in terms of transphobia as well].  The US cultivates identities based on these binary ideas of humanity.  chirstianity cultivates these binary identities as well. 

At the core of the US’s conservative movements, today is the fight to preserve the US as the white christian nation it was started in the 1800s.  Many factors lead up to the current political landscape in which white supremacy is growing more violent and outspoken one factor is that post-modernity is gaining traction in the digital information age.  Digital information exchange has revealed, in real-time, the hidden facets of history and exploded the access to knowledge.

As internet access and communication has expanded the rise in white supremacy has become open knowledge.  The reasons are many and complex, but the violence and cult-like behaviour of white terrorists seems to be linked to post-modern identity crisis.  White supremacy is baked into US culture, the idea that white people are better in all ways is so ubiquitous few white people ever had cause to doubt their superiority.   Christianity is also a crucial cultural force in the US, in which many people believe the bible to be literal history and the ultimate truth.

The post-modern is doubly dangerous to white supremacist christian ideology.  The idea that identity is binary along racial lines is ridiculous in the face of genetic testing and migration patterns.  People are seldom from one “pure” undiluted ethnic stock, and many generations of passing have led people to think of themselves as anglo/saxon whites.  The reality of the enslavement of Black Africans in the US is that many anglo/saxon men raped and impregnated Black African women producing children so that the one-drop rule would exclude probably a quarter of those thinking they were white from the front of the bus. 

Secondly, christian fundamentalism does not hold up well under historical scrutiny.  There is no way to prove that god exists, and there is significant historical evidence to show that the bible is barely accurate historically and that the writings were highly politicized and translations vary wildly.  Saying god must exist because there is a bible is the equivalent of saying elves exist because there is a Lord of the Rings.  The moral authority that christian fundamentalism clings rests on the existence of god and the truth of the bible, in the post-modern era, this is a difficult position to maintain.

The growth in the cult of Tang and Qanon has several factors, but I think it is important to remember how threatened these ideologies are.  Important because when people are faced with the reality that most of the things they believe are incorrect, especially their idea of self, and are raised in a non-self reflective rugged individual culture, they become violent.  If you want to fight white supremacy, you need to understand how traumatic having your entire life of believes disproven is.  Not so we can feel sorry for the white supremacists, but so we can realize how dangerous they are. 

There is a reason why people abuse, torture and kill others beyond money or sex, and that is control.  People who find their entire world view disrupted will find themselves losing control.  This reaction could be small, like being a white woman on the street yelling at Black people for no good reason.  The reaction could be invisible but harmful, like denying someone a job or calling the police anonymously.  The reaction can also be catastrophic, like murdering a man for jogging down the street, blowing up a building or trying to take over the government.