One of the problems with any sort of reaction against the more flagrant abuses in the modern age is
that the reaction tends to bear the imprint of force. Of course the nature of
reactions happens to be that they mirror the original forces that produce them,
and usually proceed as force themselves, only in another direction, draped with another set of values.
So one turns against the cruelty wrought by individuals and
institutions organizing authoritarian and capricious power, but oftentimes to
turn against a power is to exercise power – oftentimes in an authoritarian
manner, which will eventually be exercised with some caprice, reproducing the
original cruelty reacted against. So what does one want? An alternative to
modernity as it exists? Or an alternative to cruelty in general? How does one
define cruelty, and how does one come to accept the forms of destruction necessary
for new forms of creation?
