If Everyone is Guilty of Everything, is Nobody Guilty of Anything?

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punditman says…

We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

To anyone paying attention, Gaza is a total horror show. 

Both the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) have taken action. First, there was the landmark ruling back in January, based on an 84-page brief submitted by South Africa, in which the ICJ found Israeli actions created a “plausible” risk of genocide and ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent acts of genocide.

Attempting to alleviate the ongoing death and suffering, the IJC has subsequently issued preliminary orders three times to Israel, to halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The court has no enforcement mechanism.

Then in May, the ICC announced it is seeking arrest warrants for war crimes and crimes against humanity against Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of Hamas. 

Following this one-two legal punch, in June, the UN-backed independent Commission of Inquiry into events since October 7 found that Israeli and Palestinian groups have committed war crimes and that Israel has perpetrated “crimes against humanity" including “extermination.” 

If that’s not seriously alarming and depressing enough, indications are that Netanyahu plans on expanding the war into Lebanon this month.

No wonder many people simply turn away.

Sure, there are plenty of protests calling for a ceasefire, and boycotts and divestment encampments, but I’m still struck by the level of ignorance and nonchalance about Gaza amongst normies.

How do I know? Casual chats, anecdotes, and some of the most unhinged online chatter I've ever witnessed (a low bar, I know).

How can this be?

For starters, each of our news feeds reflects our searches, likes, comments, and the sources we consider reliable, forming online profiles and placing us in customized silos, as our habits influencing what we continue to see and not see.

Hands up everyone who knew that already! Yet we can be aware of it and still succumb to the confirmation bias of these algorithmic entities.

I'm just observing the state of our observing, and I have to say I have found it wanting. Because when you reach population-level annihilation, I think we’ve passed a threshold here.

Let’s dig into the hows and whys.

Conditioned for Callousness

Forty-two percent of Canadians have cut the cable cord and only those over age 142 (and Punditman) occasionally read a newspaper. Similar stats exist in the US and elsewhere.

This means many folks don't even see the old-style slanted version of international news anymore—maybe a headline here and there on the “bad news” ticker tape channel while doing errands.

So there's that.

Meanwhile, Western mass media routinely excuse Israeli atrocities, either through omission or obvious bias towards Israel's version of events. This is consistent with a consensus within the halls of power that assures there is little accounting for the history and power relations present in the current situation between Israel and Palestine.

If someone expresses interest in knowing more than what CNN spoon feeds them, I may suggest al Jazeera or some independent sources, but unless there’s healthy skepticism, it’s an uphill battle. And frankly, I’m sick of telling people about where to get news they’d rather not know about.

Then there are those who have all the buttons to push, all the smarts, and all the resources, but “don't harsh my mellow” is their default. This is understandable on one level, because a constant diet of horrific news is detrimental to anyone’s soul.

Oh, I get it alright.

But I wonder: where’s the fine line between taking care of one's mental health and being inexcusably oblivious? Should such a line exist? I’m just asking questions.

I can report that many on the radical right have aligned with fanatical Zionists and fundamentalist Christian fascists (who cheer on Israel's ethnic cleansing as part of the biblical end-times narrative. Who would Jesus bomb? Babies, that’s who!). There’s an abundance of such lunacy sentiments in online comments. Israel could literally nuke Gaza and this cohort would somehow blame Hamas.

Imagine this weird alliance being led by the always disordered former President Donald Trump, the “true protector of Israel” who clearly could care less about the Palestinians.

And so one week ago, two old fools running for the most important job on earth, both funded by corporations and the war machine, stood before the American people and the world, and each boasted about who is better suited at supporting the continued pulverizing of Palestine.

Western Civilization: A Good Idea!

When asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Gandhi replied, "I think it would be a good idea."

Corey Balsam would like to see us live up to our supposed high-minded values. He’s the national coordinator of Independent Jewish Voices Canada. In this clip he outlines Canada's deep complicity in Israeli crimes.

So again I wonder: Since our leaders are providing the military, technical, diplomatic and propaganda support for Israel's lopsided slaughter, how complicit is the average schlep?

This question reminds me of a famous interaction between William F. Buckley Jr. and Noam Chomsky, in 1969, concerning the Vietnam War (edited for clarity):

Buckley: You say the war is simply an obscenity, a depraved act by weak and miserable men.

Chomsky: Including all of us. Including myself...

Buckley: Oh, sure, sure, sure. Sure, because you count everybody in the company of the guilty.

Chomsky: I think that's true in this case.
 
Buckley: Yeah, but then…
 
Chomsky: You see, one of the points I was trying…
 
Buckley: This is, in a sense, a theological observation, isn't it?
 
Chomsky: No, I don't think so.
 
Buckley: Because if someone points out if everybody is guilty of everything, then nobody is guilty of anything.
 
Chomsky: No, I don't… I don't believe that. See, I think that the point that I'm trying to make, and I think ought to be made, is…what seems to me a very, in a sense, terrifying aspect of our society and other societies is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe such events. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler or LeMay or other that crops up. These people would not be able to operate were it not for this apathy and equanimity, and therefore I think that it's in some sense the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who share a very serious burden of guilt that they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme and more violent.

Circling back to the present, there’s literally a live-streamed genocide happening at the end of our finger tips and yet a great many people act as if there’s nothing to see here, move along.

How will history judge us? 

Bound Together by Shared Humanity

No one goes through life without hardship and suffering. But none of us are islands. Only the strictest empiricist would believe we can remain immune to the Zeitgeist (the spirit of our times). Obvious connections exist between poverty and mental health, between the gig economy and the angry guy who cut you off in traffic, and between corporate domination and militaristic ethnic cleansing abroad. 

But oh how they gaslight us into thinking no such links exist.

We are all part of a larger human community, influenced by a collective consciousness. I don’t care if that sounds like “woo”—it’s true.

And on that upbeat note, Happy Fourth of July to my American readers and a belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian readers.

Please consider giving to these humanitarian organizations:

International Committee of the Red Cross

Humanitarian Coalition

Doctors Without Borders

United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR)

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