By Daniel Gutiérrez
“Laçan defines madness as being spoken by language rather than by speaking it. The destruction of language as communication renders the initial solidarity… to deafness… the word of authority swamps that of the individual, dislodging his most personal interests.” -Stephen Boldy
“Hace ya tiempo que nos acabaron las ganas de hablar.” – Juan Rulfo
Dado el caso
que uno se
suicide
en la prisión,
visto que
las condiciones dentro de ésta
son inhumanas
y
fueron creadas para
causar ansia,
aislamiento,
y
soledad,
¿Dónde recae la culpa?
¿En el prisionero,
agotado y
sin ninguna
salida,
incapaz
de imaginar,
mucho
menos
vivir
otro momento
que del infierno
donde se encuentra?
¿En los guardias,
a quienes
los pagan para torturar,
negar
y
aislar
los sujetos
de la prisión?
¿En los diseñadores
y
los arquitectos
que
imaginaron
cada
una
de
las paredes
castigadoras?
O
¿en el gobierno
que dio los fondos
y creó las leyes
bajo las cuales
se encuentran
los ocupantes
de la institución?
O
¿en
la
clase
que
le
dio poder
al gobierno
y
creó
la ideología
bajo
cual
todos
estamos
sujetos?
O ¿tú?
O ¿yo?
O ¿nosotros?
Estas preguntas abarcan varios temas. Entre ellos, la sociedad en general, la voluntad y
la
revolución.
If it is the case
that one commits
suicide
in prison,
given
the conditions within the prison
are inhumane
and
were created to
cause anxiety,
isolation,
and solitude,
where does the blame lie?
In the prisoner,
exhausted and
without
any exit,
incapable
of imagining,
much
less
living
another moment
in the hell
in which they find themself?
In the guards,
who
are paid to torture,
deny,
and
isolate
the subjects
of the prison?
In the designers
and
the architects
that
imagined
each
and
every
punishing
wall?
Or
in the government
that gave the funds
and made the laws
under which the prisoner
finds themself
occupant
of the institution?
Or
in
the
class
that
gave
the
government
power
and
created
the
ideology
under
which,
all
of us are
subjects?
Or you?
Or I?
Or us?
These questions touch upon various topics. Among them, society in general, free will, and
revolution.
“What is significant is not only the idea that a prisoner would have been murdered by the government in a prison cell, but the fact that so many citizens were willing to entertain the idea that this could be true. Most people accepted the conclusion of the two autopsies – that Meinhof had killed herself – but nevertheless argued that while the state had not de facto murdered Meinhof, it had done so through negligence and by subjecting Meinhof to inhumane conditions during imprisonment .”
-Karin Bauer, Everybody Talks About the Weather… We Don’t, The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof