Indifference is the Opiate of the Privileged

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 7:33 pm by Andy Gill

Indifference is the Opiate of the Privileged 2014-12-04T19:33:44-05:00 Andy Gill

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I’m not sure if religion is the opiate of the masses but I’m convinced that indifference is the opiate to the privileged. It’s the overwhelming discomfortability found in an acknowledgement of our complicity to the oppressed persons reality. To numb ourselves of this pain we willfully ingest this opiate and use it as a coping mechanism escaping to an alternate reality but at the cost of becoming the epitome of indifference and apathy.

I’m lead to believe that after years of the westernized church ingesting unhealthy amounts of indifference it’s lead to a delusional thought in which blames the victims. Quite possibly this is why we have contorted scripture to please our ears; Ignoring the words and life of Christ, disregarding the narrative of Israel in the OT, and taking Christ’s upside kingdom and attempting to flip it right side up.

The upside down kingdom now turned right side up is seen active through a corruption of legal processes. Processes which are furthering a pathological fear that militarizes the police and falsifies information all for the sake of justifying the murder of innocent black lives.

Our addiction to this opiate has made us believe that it’s easier to cast a stone at the oppressed than it is to notice the plank in our own eyes, and when the plank can no longer be ignored we ingest more of this opiate and continue to oppress more innocent people.

We’ve been so delusional that I think we’re beyond the ability to have constructive conversation that would lead to effective nonviolent revolution. What I’m saying is not outside of our given consensual ethic, by no means do I wish to selfishly draw upon my own ethical agenda, but instead to draw upon a traditional and consensual morality seen emulated in the very life of Christ and written in the very word we claim as God’s.

To those less delusional or not yet delusional I ask, “Are we not called to excoriate an exploitative sociopolitical system in which shuns the idea of liberation and equality?” I fear that there are too many of us privileged folk, not yet delusional, quietly nodding but still doing nothing. It is time to speak up.

Does there not come a point in time in which silence is betrayal; Betrayal to your equals, to the man you call God, and to your very own convictions…?

I’m positive that if we lived in a society that was not apathetically silent to the oppressed person’s reality we would see far less violence – violence comes when one feels their life has been robbed of it’s significance, a silence is what communicates to these persons they have no significance.

A nonviolent yet indifferently silent person is just as dangerous, if not more, than an actively violent person. This is not to ignore the damaging effects of violence, but maybe this is why Ghandi said, “Where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence I would advise violence…” because violence implies that there’s a tangible presence and that there is some remanence of those being in control actually care. But please don’t mishear me inciting violence, or wrongly insinuating that Ghandi was for violence. I know that Ghandi was not for violence and I personally am not for violence.

I am simply putting weight into the fact that as much as we are anti-violence so we should also be anti-indifference. Furthermore, if we want continued nonviolence we must have continued progression in regards to socialized justice.

In the same way a faith without works is dead so is a love without action. The US church is so far disillusioned that we’ve forgotten the pursuit of resurrection requires an inner revolution. The fact is justice will not be had without blood. As nonviolent Christian’s this will not be our enemy’s blood, but our own. To seek justice is to seek out and bear the weight of the cross, which we will inevitably be nailed to.

To be clear – the goal is not to hurt the enemy back, but to love our enemy regardless. And we ought not forget: the “enemy” of Christ was not the prostitute but the religious elite. Again, the responsibility of our world’s violence rests upon the shoulders of those consumed by indifference. I’m convinced that there would be far less violence if there was far less indifference. This is not a pursuit of becoming an antihero of the oppressed but rather it is the pursuit of becoming an antithesis of the oppressor incarnating the love and very life of Christ.

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Indifference is the Opiate of the Privileged

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