For many months I have been wanting to write this. Thinking about it but never started because the whole story did not seem to be finished but now I will just start and write it in parts. My main reason to write this is because of a teacher at university in the Netherlands attacking and pressured for his anti Israel remarks.

So, let’s start :

What is violence ? 

Do you have your own definition of violence ?

Did you learn at school a definition of violence ?

Did you parents, caretakers, family or friends tell you a definition of violence ?

Or did you never think about it and maybe accepted what is happening year by year from the state violence, the only accepted violence ?

Is it violence when polluting companies destroy the planet in slow motion ?

Is it violence to let people live in increasing poverty while the rich get richer ?

Is it violence to exploit minerals in so-called underdeveloped countries and give nothing valuable really in return ?

Is it violence to not punish corrupt politicians and lobby groups ?

Is death penalty, like in some states in the USA, violence ?

Is torture and life sentence violence ?

Is pushing for more cars, more tobacco, more pesticides, more fossil fuel usage, violence ?

Is capitalism violent by nature ?

Let’s look back at the 9/11 Twin Towers attacks. Did you go with the visual impact roller-coaster from the Western mainstream media who were in shock ?

What did I do after those attacks ? I thought about it again and again and while I do condemn the killings of every human being and every needless killing of animals as well, I do see it as a big orchestrated thing, an almost “genius” thing so big that it is hard to believe there was no involvement from three letter secret agencies. And note the symbolism. This was done on September 11, which is also known as 9/11 which is the alarm phone number in the USA. Compare that with the abduction of Maduro of Venezuela on 3rd of January 2026, and then see what happened 3rd of January 1990. A fetish for numbers ? Coincidence ?

The visual impact of the 9/11 attacks wiped out all the past visual impact from the awfull USA past, the countless toppling of country leaders, the countless killings of people abroad and inside the USA. Except that the visual impact and the impact of words was usually diminished by most of mainstream media. In a time that video on mobile phones, TVs and computer possibly had more impact on a lot of people already.

Why mention the 9/11 attacks ? Because I’d like to compare it with the beeper attacks against Hezbollah in the last few years. Again it was a big orchestrated thing that definitely involved Israel’s Mossad. And what was in the mainstream newspapers in the Netherlands ? It looked like journalists were almost not able to suppress their admiration of the genius attack of the enemy. They didn’t mention the word enemy but it is business as usual here. The USA, the supposed self-acclaimed “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave” and “From paperboy to millionaire” worshiping.

The “Palestinian terrorists brutally murdered Israeli soldiers” or “Palestinians killed by air attacks. Israeli prime minister proud” is a choice of words which is considered “normal” in Western media.

And that makes me wonder about what I have been asking myself since years :

What is normal ? 

Is normal a static thing or a dynamic thing that can change one day to the other ?

Nobody every told me what normal is, not at school, not at the family, not with friends.

Yet I have heard parents in the streets snapping at their child in Dutch “Doe normaal!” which is “Behave!”. It is an abstract thing it seems but I guess it simply means “Shut up! Be quiet!”.

Children full of life eventually become introverts because we’re all so busy and in a hurry.

Every day we live in a world full of violence.

Some thinkers and philosophers mention that almost all people are violent because we live in duality, we live with conflict inside. Only very few manage to escape from the duality and break free.

Do we have a lot to learn ?

Do we have time ? Can we free up some time to re-evaluate and do better ?

To be continued, maybe.