Bare Life

The Platonic state of the biological life to a spiriual life, the initial distinction between "human life" and "bare life" and its transformative powers has been meditated on over the centuries. Giving rise to a variety of  concepts such as Ludwig Witgenstein's "homo Sacer" Giorgio Agemben's "state of exception" and Michel Foulcault's "bioopolitics" and Slavoj Zizek's musings relating to the stripping of an individuals rights and laws for protection in a sovereign state. The individual become stateless in the hands of an aggressor.

Yet there is clarity because they all see the actions they take as transformative but for each culture or society this comes with a different process of thought. The story is very similar but is dependent on the messengers who have the authority and power to control a culture or society and whether they are moderate or extreme in there views..

Dictatorships, Democracies, Monarchies, Autocracies, Oligarchy, Theocracy, Aristocracy, Military Dictatorshi, Anarchy all come with Power systems lawfully or unlawfully applied within the system.  Taking hostages for political or geopolitical reasons is usually regarded as terrorism and has been a function of conflicts over many centuries.

With the recent Western Middle East conflicts hostage taking and the violence inflicted on them was brutal, ugly and medieval in its action. To comprehend this it is necessary to look at the original Platonic distinction between human life and bare life. Plato distinguishes bare life as transformative no matter the actions performed especially if the belief system expressly said you become holy. Death and martyrdom mean transformation with the biological life having served its purpose you would be reborn.

However Bare Life for hostages meant fear, loneliness, and stripping of all sovereign protection left at the mercy of the hostage taker / terrorist. Few people could ever understand isolation from a culture or society they were part off to become global pawns in a communication war used as a visual representation of power and powerlessness.

It Only Takes a Second

We are all subject to authority and without knowing our day to day existence can be alttered in a second outwith our control.

Always The Innocent

Violence against innocent people occurs at any time, for no apparent reason.  Over a cup of coffee, while shopping, enjoying a night out, pushing a child in a pram.

The Unseen

Violence is both visible and invisible but either way it leaves everlasting emotional scars and traces on the human consciousness.