Weapon are devices
That can harm people
Can also harm property
But that’s less important
Weapons are technologies
Not necessarily physical
As in the Foucauldian sense
In that sense,
They can also
Harm society
And culture,
Civilizations
Humanity itself
And,
More importantly
The very idea of
What humanity is
In the Foucauldian sense, they
Can generate chain reactions
Just like nuclear technologies
And they can destroy humanity
Just like fission-fusion weapons
Weapons or technologies
Are not tied to a particular
Ideology or even a religion
In the Foucauldian sense,
Conventional technologies
Are clandestinely
Or benevolently
Developed, and
Are weaponized
They are proliferated
Then are exposed
Are opposed, and
Then, gradually
Are normalized
Are assimilated
Into our social fabric
The protests against the weapons
And weaponized technologies
As in the world we have made
Not necessarily in the world
That we could perhaps make
Are very predictable phonomena
They can start out very strong
Then they become a shadow of
Themselves, or even a parody
At best they can become, and
Exist for a longish time, even
Perhaps with ups and downs
With limited longish term achievements
Or with very impressive short term ones
Or with no effect on the status quo at all
A connoisseur’s delight
They often are reduced to
At worst they may become
Freak shows on the fringes
As Kipling showed in a story
Even if they are genuine
Not the fake ones: A part
Of Manufactured Dissent
A protest is like a lot like a balm
A protest that is for a single issue
Or, at most, a few such issues
For the people who are hurting
In that sense, they are a good thing
But pardon me, for I feel duty bound
To spoil the positivity with some
Unallied and honest bit of truth
For they are mostly just balms
That give temporary relief
From the symptoms only
They are necessary, but not sufficient
They are not cures in the end
And they come at the expense
Of some other people, who are
Also very much hurting, and
Their issues, symptomatically,
Can be very much different
In fact, they can be the exact
Contraries of the issues of the
First set of people who are hurting
The powers that be are apt to play
The one against the other, and
The little or large bits of evil
In all of us, ensures that we play
That game, of our own volition
Collectively, so that none feels guilty
On our own initiative even, or
So we might convince ourselves
Weaponised technologies then
Not just weaponizables ones
Are morally
And ethically
And legally
Sanctioned finally
That means that
They are approved
By general society
And they become
An integral part
A necessary part
Of the civilization
They are never
Ever sufficient
They become fait accompli
Which is a terrifying phrase
After enough time
They are taken
For granted
Are not even
Noticed in our
Everyday life
Most of us forget what they mean
Or what they are, how they work
They become part of our natural
Reality, our very natural universe
Who can use weapons?
Anyone can use them
If they can get access
To them, somehow, anyhow
And they will be used
Later on, if not sooner
Over there, if not here
At least in the beginning
The good guys can use them
Or those who claim to be so
We all know what that means
The bad guys can use them
The ugly guys can use them
The evil guys can use them
Individually evil can use them
Collectively evil can use them
More likely the latter
Anyone anywhere anytime on
The whole political spectrum
Can use them, if less or more
Individually or collectively
More likely the latter
There is absolutely
No guarantee that
Any of the above
Or indeed all of them
Can’t use them at all
Ever and anywhere
But can the weak and the meek
Or the tired and the poor
Use them as much as the
Strong and the powerful
To the same extent, even
For the purpose of self-defense?
Can single individuals use them
As much as the collective
To the same extent, even
For the purpose of self-defense?
First they are used over there
On those we don’t care about
Then they are used over here
And when that happens
There are fresh protests
We all care about ourselves
Even if we don’t about them
Once again, they
Are exposed: For us
Are opposed, and
Then, gradually
Are normalized
Are assimilated
Into our social fabric
Our very own life
Excluding them over there
They are already included
We still don’t care about them
We still care only for ourselves
Like before, again
They are morally
And ethically
And legally
Sanctioned finally
This time, however
For us, not just them
Some weaponized technologies
Are so totally unthinkably evil
That their existence is not even
Acknowledged, for preserving
Collective sense of being good
Such technologies are only used
Clandestinely, outside all records
So they leave no evidence at all
Who do they mean to target?
The demonized are targeted
Mentally-ill may be targeted
Truly subversive freethinkers
May be targeted, selectively
Misfits and loners can also
Be targeted with these ones
And, above all
The uncontaminated
(Unalloyed, if you like
Or unallied, if you like)
The incorrigible
Truth seekers, As
They may be called
Justice seekers also
Unalloyed or unallied
Can be targeted with
These unacknowledged
Weaponized technologies
In the Foucauldian sense
For The Greater Good
Seems they are called
Coal Mine Canaries
They may not be paid
May not even consent
They don’t even know this
That have been made that
This is the most evil part
Of the scheme, in which
All “schematism” had to be avoided
So they can’t even share
Without anyone at all
Let alone lodge a protest
They become Dead Canaries
If they come uncomfortably
Close to the truths that matter
In fact, these technologies
Are, by their very nature
Made only for selective use
Personalization is their
Key feature, their identifier
One of them had even
Got put on the record
Perhaps due to naïveté
It was called Zersetzung
It specifically recorded
Naïvely, as it turned out
It specifically wrote down
This kind of weaponised technology
Is a collective, organised and mobilised
Version of what is called gaslighting
A later version of it was called COINTELPRO
Who knows how many different versions of it
Exist today in how many places
Officially or unofficially
Recorded or unrecorded
In the original version called Zersetzung
All “schematism” had to be avoided
Because that would make opposition
And protest against it easily possible
It being: The collective using it?
Individual simply can’t use it
Not to the same degree and reach
Not anywhere remotely close
Or the technology itself only?
Or why not both of them?
But we had better not forget
Technologies are the means
Religions and ideologies are
About the ends, not the means
For them, practically speaking
Ends always justify the means
Even if they are, unthinkably
Unredeemably, only pure evil
However, we are all endowed with
The extreme powers of self-deception
Individually yes, but also collectively
So we still manage to think that they
Are still for them, over there, not us
They are within our society, never us
They are still for them, not over here
Over there can be much nearer now
But it is still over there, and for them
Thus, once more magically
They become fait accompli
With a very different context
But actually the same context
They are always necessary
So it is claimed, benevolently
But they are never sufficient
This is a universal theorem
If you like to be very precise
Then it is at the very least
A pretty likely conjecture
And so we march on forward
Or even backward oftentimes
Or sideways, if necessary
Which can be very effective
If you know what I mean
In search of new weapons
And ever new technologies
That can be weaponized
Easily and yes, inevitably
Even if you don’t believe
In Inevitabilism at all
What really is inevitable
However, is the fact that
Some weak, or the meek
Or an isolated individual
Perhaps crazy, perhaps not
Will use them occasionally
Usually after provocation
But sometimes without it
Or some collective
Rogue or not rogue
A matter of definition
Will also make use of them
Regularly or occasionally
That is a great opportunity
A motivation for finding
Implementing and using
Ever more lethal weapons
Weaponized technologies
And some non-lethal ones
In the Foucauldian sense
We find new evils
We define new evils
We create new evils
We get new weapons
To fight newest evils
Which creates even
More ever new evils
Thus the circle of evil
Closes in upon us all
Over there, over here
So what do you think about it?
***
Originally published on 14th August, 2019. Updated on 20th September, 2019.