Gino Ballantyne

Human Civilisation

Humanity is an odd collection of mutually accepted narratives that has very little to do with the projected reality of human existence and the human condition, normalised through the sectarian nature of power. Authorities advocate their power and importance as "Just" thereby occluding other narratives which they usually describe as "Evil". Setting up an argument of good over evil, with a divine plan to rid the world of evil. God complexes are a major driver of power. Power promotes omnipotence, if questions of omnibenevolence are raised these are countered with cries of "traitor", "not one of us", "the enemy within". Isolation from society is a fundamental weapon of power and has been used since the biblical expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise.

Civilisation is a a way of life defined by trade, stability and place. Toynbee describes civilisation as an "organism with the life cycles of genesis, growth, breakdown and disintegration". History supports this assumption, presently we are witness to failed states fighting for their place as trade wars escalate, epidemics increase, the movement of people escaping poverty seeking safety, war and genocidal hate grows. All leading to an increase in wars and violence fuelled by the propaganda of protectionism, hate, blame and disinformation.

Culture is a cornerstone of Civilisation because ie shapes society. Each society forms its culture as propaganda to control and a weapon of self defence to enable strategies systems for control and power. Without powerful systems of control, individuals in a society can freely move from one society to follow another. For power this is unacceptable because it weakens its' authority. For any civilisation society, culture and the human construct are inseparable from the power that models and controls it. When atrocities are perpetrated, claiming them as "Just" is normalised behaviour, especially when being claimed by the leaders of a society committing the atrocities.

Hidden, buried under layers of earth are the myriad of victims whose voice they have silenced. Witnesses to the overwhelming hypocrisy of power and "Just" societies.

Hell is Empty

Here

Buried under the Aspen tree

Still trembling

Secrets so deep

Dead to the World

Snowdrops flower accusingly

Onlookers await

Silently sated

Identity fixed

Sadistic Vampires with

Sunglass eyes

The blades of grass point

Here

Buried under the Aspen tree

Bodies entwined, cold

Piled death chambers

The damp earth recoils

The songbird wails

Onlookers wait

The vacuum

Power seeking

Rooks and Crows

Death black silent

The worm toils the evidence

Here

Buried under the Aspen tree

Others, open mouthed

Silent stains

Unheard screams

A mouse gnawing at time skips

Onlookers

Hell red saturated

Memories, persecution bound

Silent history

Hell is Empty.

“The Devils are Here”

Disasters of War

Good over Evil or Evil over Good

Perhaps Humans' should stop pretending they are either good or evil. All are both. All are conditioned by society. All lie in one form or another. What protects them are the internal barriers to reality they construct as truth for the exterior world. Allowing the passage of time, the frailties of memory, information and disinformation to hide all traces of their evil Further supporting their reality construct and internal perception of truth, promoting their world of good.

Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain in 1808, The Peninsular War between 1808 - 1814 and the Madrid famine in 1811.Goya made a series of 80 plus 1 proof aquatints called the Disasters of War, a work of art chronicling the conflicts and famine. Goya also opposed the absolutist Spanish king Ferdinand VII nicknamed "The criminal King". His critique of these led to his career being destroyed with censorship and isolation key factors for this.

Unable to publish his suite of prints in his lifetime due to the despot Ferdinand VII. They were eventually published in 1863

These power dynamics can clearly be seen in any present day conflict

Gino's ink watercolours form a similar narrative for the illegal War in Iraq which Britain and America undertook. They are a response to Goya's human exposure of "All" things good and "All" things evil in society. And why given the right circumstances people are easily convince easily and give bare regard for human life and excesses of violent atrocity.

Gino asks the question "what composes the human soul" the non material human construct of memory, identity and personality? especially when we "All" present to the world a construct conditioned by society rather than simple basic human connections.