Re: 'advocating violence'

I think that is a deliberately obtuse way of describing my philosophy. My belief is that violence is inherent to society, and that's because of the violence that I've experienced. As Marama said, any person can be a victim of violence. - Prison is what one might call the elimination approach to violence in society; though not all prisoners are violent criminals, there is an expectation that violent criminals should be incarcerated or removed from society for their crimes. That's why things like the David Bain case capture the popular imagination. - Yes, I noticed that Three Strikes is back on the agenda: fucking ACT! 😠 - So, if violence is inevitable, what's to be done about it? This is where cultural anthropology and altered states of consciousness enter the debate. Papua New Guinea, among many other Indigenous groups, have these dissociative trances that people enter on ritual occasions. This is essentially the purge debate: by inventing these events where things are turned on their heads and violence is ritually enacted via some other method (ie dance, gender reversals, sports etc.), this dissapates those urges. However, I would also point out that many of these rituals were in fact virgin sacrifices. Have you ever read up on what the ancient Aztecs did? - I doubt that Indigenous cultures are murder-free, so how does one account for that? Some people are just jerks, to quote The Simpsons. There's a reason that stories like A Clockwork Orange and 1984 exist: it's because, despite the amazing success that governments and dictators have had with manufacturing consent, the human will is essential to our sense of self and individual freedom of thought is a treasured value of a liberal society. I'm sure that Mr. Seymour would agree with that. - While Mark Mitchell was talking about facial recognition in the very next segment of the AM show... AMPP is strongly opposed to the use of facial recognition technology, as it's basically a tool to discriminate against activists and criminals. I'd rather not end up like UK activists, who use face paint to confuse the sensors; that's way too Matrix-like for me. - I don't have an answer, but I think it opens a door to realise that some social ills are byproducts of society itself, and therefore inevitable. I feel that vice is another inherent ill. Regardless of the type of society, there is almost always a ritual substance that people consume (and it's often some kind of hallucinogen). Gary sent me a link to a good location for the safe consumption center; it's a council-owned building on Oriental Parade. I'm still on holiday for another 3 weeks, so I'm not really rushing into getting in touch with people. 👋🏻