Tag Archives: violence

Zone One: All Places At Once

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Reading Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, I was reminded most of one reading in particular – Rick Mood’s The Albertine Notes. As Colby mentions in her post, I too found myself getting lost amongst the time in Mark Spitz’s world because he so often slips from pre-Last Day to post-Last Day.

What stuck out to me the most was the relationship, if I can call it that, between Mark Spitz and the skels. On one hand, there was this desire to recognize their humanness, and in a sense it is completely unavoidable. There is the fact that he sees skels and automatically associates them with people he “knew;” his desire to leave “Ned the copy boy” alone; his noticing of thongs – all of these things show that, in this knew world ruled by military organization and tactical emotion-quelling, he struggles to reconcile the pre-Last Day with this “new” world.

I did also love the fact that Whitehead doesn’t allow for this novel to become a hack-‘n’-slash, Zombie-hating kind of story, which I feel it easily could have. He instead ties in  elements, like Mark Spitz’s emotionalism, that allow for the reader to feel, and notice, moments of connect and disconnect. There is the fact that PTSD becomes PASD, and that all of the sweepers are heavily aware that their jobs are both allowing some closer and completely screwing up their psychological relations to the dead, the Apocalypse, and their place in this new world.

Lastly, the language in Whitehead’s book is so concise and crisp, which I think fits the processing one’s mind would go through in the new world. One would focus and process things in terms of essential-ness: “What is the essential knowledge about what I am doing? What memories? What thoughts?” in a way that one can easily be thrown off track, but also make associations. I found this interpretation (as someone who tends to dislike both violence and zombies in entertainment) much more rewarding than the more violent, kill-em-dead types of entertainment that often utilize military ethics, control, and violence in regards to zombies and the Apocalypse.

Heaven’s Gate: More Likelihood Towards Violence?

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Having never heard of Marshall Applewhite or Heaven’s Gate before, I was completely absorbed upon going to the main website. In relation to Strozier’s points about charismatic leadership, and how a group member must maintain absolute conviction in a cause, separate to what that cause logically/rationally is, I was amazed at the convictions of the Heaven’s Gate website writers and/or Marshalle Applewhite’s writing.

Upon watching most of initiation tape of Heaven’s Gate, I noticed the elements of charismatic leadership occurring. The idea of self-confidence that a charismatic leader must have is very evident in watching Applewhite. The tape may not be the same as a real interaction with him may have been, but I found myself listening and thinking, “Maybe you’re on to something here!” because he managed to speak in a way that held absolute confidence, yet was not forceful or dogmatic. In general I think that is the kind of speaking that draws people in the most. It is, “Hello, I am presenting The Truth. You may not believe me, and that is fine, but it is The Truth. If you want it, please listen.”

As “The Charistmatic Leader and Total Conversion” (Essay 4) states, a charismatic leader is most convincing when that leader sticks to social norms, lore, leadership styles, and convictions. What was so interesting to me about the way Heaven’s Gate operated was how openly it addresses that, “There will be people who think that you are an outsider, cult member, etc.” By operating in the language that the cult knew it would be addressed with, I found it was able to subvert that label of abnormality that would otherwise prevent people from accessing it. There is this, indeed, paranoia mentioned (to me) in the writing of the Heaven’s Gate website. The cult went so far as to address that they may commit suicide (which they indeed did – it was as though the note on suicide was meant as a pre-nuptial, “We make an acception in case this happens.”). They even said that because member are ascending to the Next Level of Human, before the UFOs and and people are taken to Heaven, that they will have to revoke society’s rules and regulations. They psychologically convince the reader by mentioning the caveat that members may be arrested, and will feel distinctly different and struggle from abandoning society’s rules — this psychological isolation, and separation from society that would normal cause someone to become anti-social, (and indeed I think increase the likelihood of mental stress, depression, anxiety, and/or suicidal thoughts or tendencies) is all addressed within the mythology of this “religion.” By separating from society one is re-accessing one’s soul, and thus experiencing a level completely separate and within the binary fundamentalist mindset of humanity. One is becoming not “the Other,” but “the Chosen.”

I was also really interested in how this was different than some fundamentalist Christianity. On one hand, Heaven’s Gate operates within the same binary as “believers,” and “non-believers.” But there is a (to me, huge) difference because Christians believe that anyone can be saved, they just must be willing and open their heart. Anyone is fair game. If someone does not mean to be saved, perhaps they are operating under Satan or perhaps they are just lost. Now, it is true that some fundamentalists develop into the violent idea that anyone who is a non-believers is an operator of Satan, while I feel some think that people aren’t being operators in lines with Satan, but under Satan’s control. However, since Heaven’s Gate contains a caste-like system for a human’s capacity and developmental stages in regards to being saved, I feel like the ideas of violence or disregard of non-believers is even higher. A Heaven’s Gate-r (HG, I’ll abbreviate for now) could in theory commit violence upon a non-HG who is at the age of reasoning/self-control because they are not someone with a soul, or someone who is at level to receive a soul and they are operating for Lucifer. Correct me if I am wrong in this line of thinking, or have missed something that states otherwise. I never found anything against violence (except for suicide) or anything stating, like in the Bible, that one should be good to one’s neighbors, even those non-believers. Also, since people can get reincarnated, an HG who commits violence could argue that the person that the HG committed violence on was not at the level for being saved or ready to receive a deposit, and that violence was done as a way of helping that non-HG recognize his/her Luciferian ways.

To me, this element of Heaven’s Gate, with its caste-like separation and levels, made it both much more compelling and much more easily steered towards mass-violence and violent behavior.

Searching for Sinners in Fundamentalism

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What immediately struck me about this chapter from Strozier was the fact that fundamentalist pastors gain their legitimacy through their knowledge of Revelation.  The ideas and images of Revelation are clearly some of the most popular biblical themes to fundamentalists because it could be about them. Everyone is more fascinated with their own history than with others’, in the same way, fundamentalists believe (and hope) that Revelation is about them.  Therefore, fundamentalists are always in search of and hope that they find the sinners, so that they can be the ones who are saved. Continue reading →

Dualistic Violence in Glorious Appearing

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Clearly, as it was intended to be, Glorious Appearing was the perfect counterpart to the Strozier’s essays on the fundamentalist mindset. It is almost as if LaHaye and Jenkins wrote the book to encapsulate every idea that Strozier links with a fundamentalist Apocalypse. It is hard to imagine that Glorious Appearing was written without thoughts of dualistic violence and an eagerness for the end of the world.

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Violence & End of World

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After reading the selection of A History of the End of the World by Jonathan Kirsch (whose last name, ironically, reminds me of “kirche,” the German word for “church”) and Revelations (KJV), I found myself reflecting on the way “apocalypse” is represented and how it influences groups.

Growing up in Texas, I often found myself among people who are largely Christian, those who believe in most of the Bible and take a lot of its word as their Law. When Kirsch discusses the influence that “The Apocalypse” had on people – and how it often drives certain people, (such as David Koresh, or Al Quaeda), towards violence, I found myself coming to the conclusion that violence seems empowered by Revelation if one reads it from the “right” perspective.

To elaborate, those that take the word of “Revelation,” as truth or as a part of the Bible that they believe in are faced with a set of specific circumstances: 1) If the tribulation is already happening, then they must suffer; 2) if tribulation is happening, then Satan has or shall soon appear; 3) If 1, and 2, have occurred, then they are waiting for their king, Jesus. If they believe that the End Time is not near, then they must endure. Under normal circumstances, we have seen that small-scale versions of “end times,” such as tsunamis, hurricanes, and other natural disasters have driven people to all kinds of violence – when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, people were robbing from one another, breaking into houses, and chaos ensued. I think that if one believes one is acting in accordance to their God, then violence could be seen as “defending” their earthly “kingdom,” or if one believes that Satan has come to power, that one might be faced with “defending” oneself from Satan — and those around one who might be influenced by Satan, or in accordance with him would probably also be something to “defend” oneself against.

I am not defending violence as a logical thing to be done, but I found that violence, from a modern perspective within the end times, was an interesting thing to analyze.