PSST: if you’re waiting on part 2 of my series on the history of zionist propaganda in media, that will be released this upcoming Friday! For now, please enjoy a more classic RC essay.
Everywhere I look, people are avoiding the world.
This is a learned behavior, an encouraged coping mechanism in the West.
Allow me to quote, once again and forever, the great Byung-Chul Han from his book, The Palliative Society.
Today, a universal algophobia rules: a generalized fear of pain. The ability to tolerate pain is rapidly diminishing. The consequence of this algophobia is a permanent anaesthesia. All painful conditions are avoided.
Indeed, we have developed a generalized intolerance for what hurts, what may hurt, and what should hurt. We are detached, overly medicated, consumed with narcissism and individualism, and waging a war on our humanity and on our capacity to exist as a whole, as a collective.
We insist on living with tunnel vision. We want quick fixes, whether a prescription, a phone, or an app; any exit, for however long, provided it soothes the discomfort we keep misdiagnosing as an individual failure.
Some even hide behind so-called intellectualism, performing as many mental gymnastics as possible to reach conclusions that absolve them of engagement or even empathy. This kind of repulsive nonsense is everywhere lately — I’m seeing it from artists & academics alike, careerists who must justify their inability to stop.
No matter what form it takes, algophobia serves the ruling class and has serious counter-revolutionary ramifications.
As Chul-Han puts it:
Algophobia also takes hold of politics. The pressure to conform and to reach consensus intensifies. Politics accommodates itself to the demands of this palliative zone and loses all vitality. ‘There is no alternative’: this is a political analgesia.
Palliative politics is incapable of implementing radical reforms that might be painful. It prefers quick-acting analgesics, which only mask systemic dysfunctionality and distortion. Palliative politics lacks the courage to endure pain. So all we get is more of the same.
This is what we are witnessing right now: this liberalized, status quo fantasy of ceasefire now demands, which read as quieter genocide now! Never mind that Israhell has never observed a ceasefire, sometimes even going as far as using them to their advantage. Never mind that. Never mind the fact that the moneyed liberal & careerist organizations that are pushing such slogans have ties to the ruling class and interests in maintaining the status quo.
Never mind the facts and realities.
This is motivated by algophobia: the average Westerner fears true revolution and liberation because some of part of them recognize that if revolution happens, if U.S imperialism is addressed & rightfully attacked, they will lose access to what Western imperialism has provided for them, thus robbing them of their material coping mechanisms and rendering them exposed and afraid, vulnerable to pain.
Rendering them human once more.
This is the Western nightmare: to exist without the buffers, without the ability to hide. For an algophobic society, it is preferable (safer) to reach for the demi-mesure and performative tactics; “quick-acting analgesics.” The goal is ultimately to quiet down the genocide and return to when it was easy to ignore the occupation of Palestine and easy to forget the world. After all, most people in the West have spent their entire lives either dodging the issue or not engaging with it at all. This is what they are comfortable with. The goal is to return to this quiet, to be able to pat oneself on the back and say, I did my part, and now I can go back to focusing on Me.
And so, people continue to reach for the easier option because it provides the comfort of the status quo while allowing the comforting delusion that political representatives are capable of anything to persist. The paternalistic hold of so-called democratic leaders continues to manipulate the people: no one wants to take responsibility, no one wants to get their fucking hands dirty, and it is entitlement and spinelessness that allow this semblance of power to continue unchallenged.
Asking for more, daring to dream, and waging a war on imperialism these actions require us to step outside of our comfort zones. Lately, I see people asking questions like: how can the ruling class sleep at night? They sleep very well — medicated and insulated, but more importantly, comforted by the uselessness of a sedated, spineless population, the cowards who cling to bad situations because they fear losing what they have accumulated in a broken system.
As it stands, we do not pose any real threat to them. Our refusal to risk has become a dependable constant for them.