A History of Violence
It starts with the relationship
he’s the captain of that ship
she’s first or second, or third mate
it's obvious that he's in charge
he has the size and the strength
and the economic superiority
to enforce his God-given rights
that are enshrined in the culture,
the legal codes, and the minds of most
he has the tools to compel obedience
the tone that makes her
and the children flinch
the lightning-fast slap
the thump of the clubbed hand
The threat of abandoning her
without a breadwinner
the structure of the family is passed
unquestioned to the state
the rulers, elected, selected, or self-appointed
adopt the power of the father to rule
and use force, when necessary,
to bring the family to heel
The bedrock of this barbaric civilization
is the belief that violence is
necessary for social order
and the most effectively violent
should be the father and ruler
of the weaker purveyors of violence
that’s most of the rest of us,
of course, it is a lot more complicated
seeing the skeleton
is a long way from knowing
the human body
and of course, things have
changed over time
and women and
weaker members of the family
have legal protections
and are making progress
until they don’t and they aren’t
and men who connect their masculinity
to the domination of others
cry crocodile tears, complaining
that women with economic independence
are a threat to their manhood and
and are destabilizing the hierarchy
of the family and the state,
national security issues for sure
the Christian right,
the Supreme Court,
the national guard,
educational institutions,
and federal law enforcement
march to the rescue
to put women and
other subversive
weaklings back
in their proper cages
While Harry Truman,
the atomic bomb president,
backs imperialist France
in suppressing
her Indochina colony
and preventing the growth of communism,
a competing violence-based strategy of exploitation,
Dwight Eisenhower, who ordered the CIA assassination
of Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Congo,
continued to fight communism in Vietnam and passed
the anticommunism torch to Jack, the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy
when President Kennedy was assassinated,
after many attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro,
President Lyndon B. Johnson, the power-broker president,
picked up the torch and used the imaginary Gulf of Tonkin incident
to light ten thousand more torches to bomb, burn, and bury communism
but the Vietnam War defeated LBJ
President Tricky Dick Nixon, promised to end the war,
but secretly expanded it to Cambodia and Laos
before signing the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973.
Communist Vietnam is now a valued trading partner.
This is our pattern of settling differences with father-knows-best violence
in the Congo, Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Iran
I know. I know there are exaggerations, simplificationsn and omissions
in this lullaby, but it is the song we have sung every day of our lives,
and eventually, it will put us all to sleep
he’s the captain of that ship
she’s first or second, or third mate
it's obvious that he's in charge
he has the size and the strength
and the economic superiority
to enforce his God-given rights
that are enshrined in the culture,
the legal codes, and the minds of most
he has the tools to compel obedience
the tone that makes her
and the children flinch
the lightning-fast slap
the thump of the clubbed hand
The threat of abandoning her
without a breadwinner
the structure of the family is passed
unquestioned to the state
the rulers, elected, selected, or self-appointed
adopt the power of the father to rule
and use force, when necessary,
to bring the family to heel
The bedrock of this barbaric civilization
is the belief that violence is
necessary for social order
and the most effectively violent
should be the father and ruler
of the weaker purveyors of violence
that’s most of the rest of us,
of course, it is a lot more complicated
seeing the skeleton
is a long way from knowing
the human body
and of course, things have
changed over time
and women and
weaker members of the family
have legal protections
and are making progress
until they don’t and they aren’t
and men who connect their masculinity
to the domination of others
cry crocodile tears, complaining
that women with economic independence
are a threat to their manhood and
and are destabilizing the hierarchy
of the family and the state,
national security issues for sure
the Christian right,
the Supreme Court,
the national guard,
educational institutions,
and federal law enforcement
march to the rescue
to put women and
other subversive
weaklings back
in their proper cages
While Harry Truman,
the atomic bomb president,
backs imperialist France
in suppressing
her Indochina colony
and preventing the growth of communism,
a competing violence-based strategy of exploitation,
Dwight Eisenhower, who ordered the CIA assassination
of Patrice Lumumba, the Prime Minister of the Congo,
continued to fight communism in Vietnam and passed
the anticommunism torch to Jack, the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy
when President Kennedy was assassinated,
after many attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro,
President Lyndon B. Johnson, the power-broker president,
picked up the torch and used the imaginary Gulf of Tonkin incident
to light ten thousand more torches to bomb, burn, and bury communism
but the Vietnam War defeated LBJ
President Tricky Dick Nixon, promised to end the war,
but secretly expanded it to Cambodia and Laos
before signing the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973.
Communist Vietnam is now a valued trading partner.
This is our pattern of settling differences with father-knows-best violence
in the Congo, Cuba, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, and Iran
I know. I know there are exaggerations, simplificationsn and omissions
in this lullaby, but it is the song we have sung every day of our lives,
and eventually, it will put us all to sleep