The tragedy of George Floyd’s death, how it exposes our hypocrisy and healing through violence

Our society has sunk in the hypocrisy of denying its own aggressiveness. We declare to stand for non-aggressive civilized conducts. This is a beautiful stance. But the outcome has been that we remain silent in our homes, bending our heads to the normalized absurd statements of our irrational pseudo-leaders and not fighting for what really matters.

George Floyd’s murder by the police in Minneapolis on May 25th 2020 has shed a powerful light over our hypocrisy. The fact is that we have been accepting slavering, violence, segregation and racism against black people for centuries already. Moreover, we — non-aggressive non-violent civilized citizens — have been practicing violence against black people, directly or by just remaining silent. However, while we allow this violence to happen, we stick to the beliefs that our behavior is not aggressive or violent and that we are spiritually elevated. This is pure hypocrisy.

These dynamics became evident when the riots started in the United States after the police murdered George Floyd: the reactions of the authorities were a spectacle of hypocrisy. The police attacked protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper sprays. Minneapolis Governor Tim Walz signed an executive order calling a state of peacetime emergency, but called the National Guard to do it. President Donald Trump used the word “thugs” when referring to demonstrators, glorified violence by tweeting “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” and, again, threatened people with the Military. How can tear gas, the National Guard and the Military be instruments of peace and condemnations against violence?

The American authorities declared to be in favor of peace but reacted violently. They made speeches, they tweeted, they called the National Guard, they threatened with the Military. But they did not do the only thing that was needed: definitive measures against racism, particularly against the police’s and the state’s violence against black people. Much to the contrary, they acted swiftly to suppress protests. They focused on suppressing symptoms instead of treating the diseases — racism and their own violence.

That’s the very essence of hypocrisy: to appear virtuous but to have vile behaviors.

It’s easy to see such a pinnacle of hypocrisy. It’s easy to see hypocrisy in the immense machine that is the American Government because it is still an accusation: they are hypocritical. But is it as easy to admit that we ourselves are hypocrites?

I have heard people saying that black people should have protested in a peaceful way, that that police station should never have been burned down and that looting should never happen. These declarations stand for politeness, civilized behaviors and citizenship — things I surely prefer to prioritize. But the problem is our society is not listening. People, lots of people, are being killed and our society is not listening. Centuries have passed and our society is not listening. Again, some people preach civilized behaviors, but accept the existence of a genocide of black people going on in our society for centuries already as a normal thing. — It is not an American problem only. This genocide has been currently increased in Brazil, perpetrated with the consent of the pseudo-leader President Bolsonaro, who declares to be a devoted Christian and uses the phrase “God above all people” as one of his militarized government’s slogans.

Please illuminate me: how is this not one of the biggest hypocrisies of all times?

The American Revolution and the French Revolution, that made way for democracy and that we claim to admire so much, were made with the use of violence, loads of violence and bloodshed. It is necessary to burn down Bastilles from time to time.

The Gay Revolution started with violence in 1969. Gay men acted violently against the police in Stonewall. This reaction was necessary because the police was being violent against them over and over again. It is necessary to go against the police from time to time.

These violent revolutions were pivotal to establishing democracy. If we admire them so much, how can we now criticize aggressiveness?

Human beings are aggressive animals, should they like it or not. We can either express that aggressiveness or repress it, but it is there. If we choose to repress it — regardless of the beautiful civilized arguments we use to justify this repression — it will explode as violence at some point, for Nature cannot be forever fooled. The less aggressive we are, the more violent we will be.

Aggressiveness is a healthy behavior.

By a healthy aggressive behavior, I do not mean losing control, being rude to people or being involved with petty crime. What I do mean is strategic and strong aggressiveness aimed at destroying what really needs to be eradicated, such as racism, chauvinism, LGBT-phobia and income inequality. And, let’s not forget, authoritarian governments.

Standing for aggressiveness, as I do, is seen as maladjustment. Reading this text, many will think I am a maladjusted guy. Well, they are right. I am a maladjusted guy. I have always been. I consciously choose to be. In order to let you know the reason why I am maladjusted, I choose the words of a man much more elevated than I am, the great true leader Dr. Martin Luther KING, whom I am almost ashamed of quoting in a text that stands for aggressiveness:

“Modern Psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in Psychology. It is the word maladjusted. It is the ringing cry of modern child psychology: maladjusted. Of course all of us want to live a well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But as I move toward my conclusion I would like to say to you today that in a very honest manner. There are some things in our society, some things in our world, of which I am proud to be maladjusted. I call upon all man of good will to be maladjusted to these things and to the good societies real lives. I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust myself to racial segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities of the many to give luxuries to the few and leave millions of God's children smothering in an air tight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.” (1)

Reference:

1. Extracted from The century of the Self, a documentary by Adam CURTIS.