All is fair ….in Love and War

Perspective 4 of 13 | The Slavery Project

There is a documentary on Nat Turner that interviewed a host of historians as they told the story of one of the most famous slave revolts in american history. An enslaved man named Nat Turner organized a posse and carried out a series of murders, going from plantation to plantation and killing every white person they came across. Every one. Even the children. It was rumored he even went back to kill a baby another person did not have the heart to kill.

In relaying the account, an elderly white historian woman shook her head sadly and said ‘He didn’t have to do that’ in her sad and disapproving way, unable to come to terms with the fruits that negative behavior reaps

And so it was something of a coup

A takeover

Of the interior kind

We have seen this many times throughout history, including in Rome where Shakespeare coined the famous phrase Caesar uttered to his best friend Brutus ‘Et tu Brute? [You too Brutus]’ as he was gutted for his part in a political power struggle. A reminder that in a sea of corruption, who can you really trust?

The practice of killing every person in charge and their family and friends is an age old practice,

Lest one of them many years later decide to seek revenge on you. Or to seize power.

There could be a vicious cycle of recurring avengers so total elimination was practiced to prevent that from happening.

For thousands upon thousands of years, horrible behaviors that reflect exactly where corruption and greed lead to are recounted for us as historical examples, patterns if you would, of how things always turn out.

The law of attraction states that which is likened unto itself is drawn.

So when you put out negativity you simultaneously attract it back to you – like a magnet.

In other words, those events are attracted

because negative emotions that have gained momentum will drive people to behave in erratic and sometimes horrifying ways

Hence the phrase “All Is Fair In Love And War”. In other words, when emotions are high, there are no f&cks given.

So when I saw this woman’s reaction, I wondered if she considered all of the black children and people that were separated from their families, beaten, raped and tortured and how this could drive a person to repeat the same behaviors.

Right back at cha

I don’t think she considered that…but it looked as if nat turner and his associates did,

Which is why the event happened.

Those events, and other slave revolts, both at home and abroad (Jamaica hosting another infamous revolt), contributed to the mental torture southern whites experienced at that time surrounding the permanent enslavement and degradation of people, personal fears that blacks would seek revenge for all the wrongs heaped upon them.

Yes, they had created a monster.

Or Summoned one…

Because the monster was within them

and they were, you could say, trapped

Trapped between their belief systems, their greed, their ego.

After all, How do you build an entire society around the degredation of humanity

That is the very foundation for wealth and power in your world…

…And then just dismantle it?

That was the dilemma that was tossed around for years before slavery ended.

Additionally, the idea of race, and the subsequent racism that followed, was introduced into society and people bought into it. Something had to explain away the horrors of chattel slavery by supposedly civilized people and coming up with a new concept, like “Well….they’re actually not human beings, they are more like the animals….” Was a suitable explanation.

After all, who doesn’t like being told they are special?

The holocaust is another fine example of what happens when the common people are told some of them are more special than others.

But Arrogance does not just uproot itself and walk away so easily

Once the volatility of the situation was fully realized, people were want for change.

What’s interesting is change was wanted by both cultures, black and white.

Yes.

Change Was Wanted On Both Sides.

White people wanted change.

Congress wanted change because they felt the south had a never ending unfair majority in the House due to their slave population.

New white immigrants coming into the country wanted change because jobs were not available in the south because of the slave population.

Southern whites wanted change (arguably or not) due to what they felt was impending doom pressing in upon them because of their behavior toward the slave population.

Black slaves and freed slaves wanted change for obvious reasons – no one wants to be enslaved forever to anyone.

Thomas Jefferson said of slavery: “I have the wolf by the neck and I can neither sustain him nor let him go.”

And the desire for change COLLECTIVELY bubbled forth and created the change they were wanting.

Even still, of course, change – whether wanted or unwanted – is not so easy to adapt to.

It’s not like a war was won, a law was passed and all of a sudden whites and blacks were smiling and holding hands while running through the flowery meadows…

So it would take many decades, roughly a hundred years, of addressing deeply entrenched social belief systems before the total breakdown of oppressive laws were willing to be dissolved in America (at least on paper) .

Because Change Takes Time…

Change takes time – Both as a nation and as an individual.

But as Neil Armstrong said when he landed on the moon –

That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind”