Blood in the Forum

A friend asked me a question today.  "Can violence ever be good?"  Can such a totally evil thing ever be used for something good and pure?  My heart screams "NO!"  My spirit rebels against any contemplation of the fact.  Is violence ever good?

There were two brothers, oh so long ago.  There names were Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, and they had a goal.  A master plan, that would liberate the common people from the oppression of the aristocracy.  They each, in their turn, assumed the sacrosanct, the inviolate, office of the Tribune, protector of the Plebeians, the common people.  Each of them had the same goal, in the long run.  The redistribution of common land. This was not some radical scheme, as many would paint it.  This was not even a step towards a new society.  This was, in no manner at all, any change from past policy.  All they were doing, was enforcing an old law.  It was a law that not many people in the aristocracy, the senatorial class of Ancient Rome, lied at all, and it was a law that not many among the common people new about at all, any more.  But it was a law nonetheless, and as Tribune, these brothers were among the most powerful people in Rome.  As tribunes, they could veto any act or decree of the Consuls or the Senate, they could institute ordinances and prevent individuals from being brought to death.  As such Tiberius and Gaius, in turn, tried to enforce this ancient law.  They tried to ensure that public lands - lands technically owned by the government - would be available to the citizens of Rome and of Italy for a small charge.  This, however, angered the Senators.  Many of these fine citizens of the republic had a large stake in this public land.  Indeed, many of them treated it as their own.

As you may have guessed by now, this conflict does not have a pleasant end for Tiberius and Gaius.  Each brother met his bloody end in broad daylight, in the streets of Rome, torn apart by the supporters of the rich.  The sacred office of Tribune, up until that point untouchable, became another simply disposable formality, and for the first time since the founding of the Roman Republic, politics and violence were joined in that most abhorrent of unions.

You can see why this event drew my attention.    There will always be violence.  There have always been those who will use force to achieve their end, whatever the cost.  I would point out, though, that those who would use violence, such as the soldiers who broke the Pullman Strike, or the judge who murdered Sacco and Vanzetti, have generally been on the opposing side.  It is too easy, for them, at least, to point to one bomb throwing radical, and damn the rest of the proverbial bunch of apples.  It is their violence that upsets the world as it is, and it is their violence that prevents the world as it should be.

As it went with Tiberius and Gaius, so it has been throughout history.  We are never free.  Not until the last soul in prison will see the light of day again.  We are never free, not until the last repressed man, woman, or child on this earth will join us on our search for a new tomorrow.  We are never free.

And to all of those who would repress these freedoms, for all of the senators and governments who would kill Wikileaks and the Gracchi and all of the fallen martyrs of our cause where they stand, I say this:  There is blood in the forum, and it is on your hands.

Do I condone violence?  No.  Do they?  It would appear so.

/D