Irv Ruben tries to kill himself but fails, only ends up
brain dead and on life support. True,
that this is as close to death as one person can come with out actually dying,
but in some sadistic way it’s funny, because now he’ll be forced to continue to
live until someone with authority decides it is okay to pull the plug. A sort of forced purgatory.
If you’re
not familiar with the whole JDL deal you’ll
know that Irv Ruben was going to blow up a Mosque, or
at least is accused of planning to blow said Mosque. In fact he was suppose
to go before a judge this morning for a pre-trail hearing. Instead, he broke apart one of those plastic
razors, slashed at his own throat with it.
He must have done such a terrible job with this razor blade that when
the deputies arrived to lead him downstairs, he had the energy to burst past
them and throw himself off the 3rd tier railing to the concrete
floor below. It could be that there is
foul play afoot, I don’t know. But it
sounds like poor Irv decided that 40 years in the
state pen was to much to take. It was reported that he had lost weight and
was having mental problems relating to the trial. It could very well be that Irv just got it in his head that death was better. Which is the whole point of
today’s reflection. It’s not a
rant, but an ideal.
If you plan
to do something that is both anti-social and illegal, especially if your
motivations arrive from your higher beliefs and feel that you need to do this,
don’t get caught. That is not to say, do
not get caught in the act, but that when the system closes in on you that you
do not give in. Never surrender. I know that it sounds fatalistic and nutty, but
there is a certain logic to it as well.
First off
you must realize of course that laws and the legal system at large (that
includes the storm troopers that enforce the system) are not designed to keep
you from committing crime. Laws are not
a deterrent in the strictest sense of the word.
A criminal who breaks into my home to steal my television is concerned
with capture yes, but it’s a consideration that he is willing to bet against
for the few bucks he’s going to get for my TV.
We ‘normal’ citizens do it every day.
We speed in our cars because we’re late for something. We run traffic lights where a ticket (or
death) could await all because we hesitated when the light went yellow. Common criminal activity is often times lead
up to through repetitive teachings.
Steal a pack of gum. Steal a
newspaper. Steal a wallet….up and up and
up. Just like
us with our own fallible lives. Laws
don’t keep us from speeding around, how are we suppose
to believe that they’ll keep the crack heads out of my stuff. They won’t.
Never
surrender. This is an important decision
to make when committing a crime that you feel has meaning. Something that you believe has purpose. Something that has a deeper
understanding to you. You do not want the system to get a hold of you.
Things
change the minute you are captured. You
go from being a ‘fear’, a ‘danger’, a ‘terrifying menace’, to a simple
suspect. You go from being faceless (or
having your propaganda machine destroyed if you have one) to a mugshotted, orange jumpsuit wearing, number. And the system is designed this way. It is designed to bland you out, to turn you
into vanilla. It is designed so that
when you get caught that you will be destroyed.
That what ever image of yourself and what ever message it was that you
were really trying to get out will be cleaned and pasteurized with a wire
brush, so that what comes out the other end will be nothing but something we
call common crime.
By the time
the trial begins everyone has forgotten about your grand act of ‘godliness’
that you believed was the purpose of your life.
All that remains is a few yes/no situations and another wire brush for
the public, to further turn you back into just some crazed and demented
individual. All of your purpose is
washed away with the defense system, who's sole purpose is to 'create' a reason for your destruction, to completely hide your real intentions. All
of your hope of teaching what ever lesson it was that you wanted to teach,
dashed away by the lawyers slapping your wrists.
Could it be
that Irv Ruben has some recognition of this? That he understood that his whole purpose,
the real reason why he was going to blow up a Mosque, would get lost? That he would be nothing more than a common
thug to those people he tried so hard to convince? Could it be that he knew once the system had
him convicted he’d disappear into a obscure place only
occupied by people like Charlie Manson and David Berkowitzs,
only appearing in a conversational anecdote 30 years from now when he finally
dies? Maybe he understood that Martydom does not just mean being raised up as a hero after
your death, but also means sacrificing (during your life) for the beliefs you
carry in you, and if you let the system incarcerate you, the only martyr you
can be will be to your new sex partner, who will love you for it.
Imagine if Pilate has understood this, instead of being a lacky for the system. Imagine if instead of listening to letter of the law he had understood that killing Yesu would instead create a martyr. Imagine if instead he had sent Yesu down int Egypt, to work in the mines, or sent him into slavery in Rome, or inlisted him and sent him to war in Germania. Would we still have christians? Probably not, there would have been no myth of betrayel and resserection.
The system
is called justice, but it’s a far cry from that. Could it be that the only thing the system is
really good at it, is destroying the hopes of the insane, by taking away the
few pillars of their church?
Also, if you don't get caught, then there is never a trial. You are never really guilty of the crime, because the system never had the opportunity to convict you of it. This may be a semantic argument, because we all realize that the dead person would still be considered guilty...but only by his contemporaries. History, on the other hand, may not agree and since there was no legal repercussions of the event, then History will be one side short on it's retelling. Examples might include such famous people as Hitler, whom we all know did evil things, who was never brought to justice. He instead has been relegated to a sort of demi-god status, and it doesn’t take an IQ of more then 77 to realize that even evil gods have followers. While if we look at some of the others that were involved in Hitler’s little circus, those that were caught and brought to trail, we (that is society) have already begun to forget their names. It won't be much longer before Adolf Eichmann disappears from the books, but how long will the leader of it all remain at the forefront? Afterall, Nero, apparently fiddled while Rome burnt, but some one was there to hear it and probably enjoy it as well, where is their name in annuals of history?
If you
believe in something with all of your being, then it would be a shame to let
your truth be destroyed by the system, or so it would seem, therefore the only
conclusion that makes sense is to never surrender.
Note: I’m an anarchist in a lot of ways. Simply stated, I believe in the individual’s
power of self determination (not in some ideological ‘village’ of
equality). But I don’t advocate
destruction of others (the golden rule is the only one I follow with any
rigidity).
11.06.02 Update: This morning the news said that Irv may or may not actually be brain dead. What do you think is worse, failing at attempting to murder yourself and facing the punishment anyway or having to live in a state of purpatory until such time as an authority figure decides to pull the plugh?
11.20.2002 Irv has died of his injuries and therefore there will be no trial, meaning of course, that Irv will never be guilty. He died an innocent man. Clean and Clear. Proving my point.
02.05.2003 - Earl Kruggle pleades guilty, because of the audio tapes. Part of his plea is to indicate Irv in the plot. And what does the JDL say? That Earl is a trader, a fool, and they kick out of the JDL....REMEMBER what I said, now that Irv is dead, he's been relegated to a demi-god, because, he was never tried, therefore he will never by guilty of any wrong doing.