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A Peaceful Perspective... June 28, 2010

Submitted by Andrew Suderman on 29 June 2010 - 10:42am
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June 28, 2010, Volume 2, Number 26 Online at http://anisa.org.za/

Anabaptism is a biblical, Christian-faith movement that embraces the life, teachings, and witness of Jesus Christ and strives to embody these as normative in the everyday Christian walk.

Column: Generosity and the Systemic Violence of Money

“At the forefront of our minds, the obvious signals of violence are acts of crime and terror, civil unrest, international conflict. But we should learn to step back, to disentangle ourselves from the fascinating lure of this directly visible ‘subjective’ violence, violence performed by a clearly identifiable agent. We need to perceive the contours of the background which generates such outbursts.” Slavoj Žižek, in his book Violence,* reminds us that there are two forms of violence – 1) the visible and obvious forms of violence that are performed by a clear, identifiable agents, and 2) the not so visible, the hidden, or the systemic forms of violence. This is a fairly obvious statement, yet it is one that is so easily forgotten. This is especially true when we are the recipients of the benefits that violence produces. We are often willing to forget or not pay attention as to how we receive benefits through violence; benefits that are often in the form of material wealth. We often ignore how we receive benefits. In fact, we sometimes accept the benefits and declare them a blessing or we provide a justification as to why we deserve them. I am reminded of Žižek’s words as we heard how Warren Buffett, a renown investor, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates announced on Wednesday, June 16, 2010, that they are encouraging hundreds of billionaire Americans to give away at least 50% of their wealth to charity. more >>
Source: ANiSA News