Why we carry Knives

Close to 8years 

since i near religiously carried any form of weapon. Why did i put my knife down?

Because, one day i decided to make a few tough decisions, invest and assert myself through a small window of opportunity,

introspectively, taught myself to create a better me, took a little self responsibility.

However, not everyones life or mind is mine, and you're part of the problem if you expect any young person to at the command of your twitter or facebook campaign put their knives down and tottally reform over night.

Now i condemn most anti-knife campaigners in the UK, as not only lazy, but incompetent, due to what i've seen and had communicated to me from first hand experience as a preference for surface issue plaster kits, symbolic gestures, 'making a stand' with nonsense like knife bins,

rather than any real thought, towards tangible & practical solution.

So let me re-direct your lack of attention as to the underlying realities we all must study on, cross reference with the many contributing Bio-pysco-social factors. 

2015, and the knife culture my generation really gave the reinvigoration of life to, is in full swing, not only are young victims losing their lives, but also young perpetrators locked up for the rest of their lives, two lives lost  BOTH, could of been someone great!

So why do we (did i) (past tense)

carry a knife/knives?

Well we'll start at reassurance.

Put yourself in the creps (trainers) of a young, disenfranchised, despondent, 2-3 generations worth of low income, household. No real role models, other than the very one dimensional idea of 'success' portrayed by those who came from the same struggled walks of life, making a little earnings off ill gotten gains.

Where by the 'social cool' is your only tangible, direct means of recognition, a recognition that suddenly gives life 'purpose, and structure.'

(human necessity). 

Through lack of opportunity, & broken social contracts, collectively manifests a culture, based on, defiance, deviance, the maintenance, of a transgressive and instantly gratified narrative. (the catalyst) 

 I will also at a later date present a study which shows correlation between young violent youth culture and a particular bio-pysco-socio-political relationship between black males and our exclusive experience in past and modern enviroment in the west, in depth..

Still to keep it simple, society taught us

power was purpose, soldiers need guns, important controversial people need protection. As war, movie, games, music and politic pervade through and collectively, repetitively teach each generation 

'How to handle our problems',

then naturally on our level, in our world, to maintain our narrative, notoriety and general safety, weapons went hand in hand with this all encompassed every day reality manifested. 

When i had my knife clipped to my jeans, or in my man bag, or in-between my bum cheeks, one thing i resented was the fact i felt the need to carry it. 

At first i wasn't ready to use it, but to show i had it, was to show i'm prepared,

any of us without it, were 

(in our terms) "slipping".

 (defenceless in confrontation) 

To know i had 'mine' or he had 'his' reassured not only me but anyone i was with, we knew without a weapon of some sort on these london streets the invariable consequence, of inevitable confrontation in our young world, 

...was fatal.

Bare in mind i'm not condoning the rationale, but simply leading you through the mindset, a mindset you first need to acknowledge to change.

The fact is i'd have rather been caught with a knife (by police) or (mum) than caught without it, by anyone, at any moment who creates the necessity for me to ethier use it as detrerent or wound, in self defence.

Most stabbings i ever witnessed, 

were, if intended to kill? 

...quite amateur, & cowardly.

 

Invariably aimed for the bum, legs, arms, 

rarely the heart or face.

That in itself is a clue as to the mindset, and intention to wound, to incapacitate, rather than kill. (invarably)

I met a few 15-25 year olds who now looking back genuinly had mental health issues. (which in our culture earns you a stripe of respect, 'sicker' you are the more notoritey you gain,) and some the belligerent aggressor, which in our culture made you the enforcer. 

Still, in most of the people i've met, (90%) i saw something i could relate to, scared, compromised, despondent, young boys struggling with the transition to manhood, embodying a culture that compensated for, and functioned as a culturally constructed coping mechanism.

None of us were MURDERS, or wanted to harm another living soul,

but as we couldn't predict the behaviour of OTHERS in potential confrontation, when running in deemed cowardly, and will have you caught and attacked anyway, Or escape and shunned by your mates, the only real 'loophole' is to just carry a knife and hope you do not have to use it.

Catch 22 

Why do we carry knives?

well the basic pathology, under the pretext of logic is, self defence & deterrent. 

We carried weapons, because 'they did',and they carried weapons because 'we did', and since the 90's the war has perpetually and almost inherently maintained and raged between areas and groups in England, who are NOT organised criminal gangsters, but scared young people 'grouping together', for safety in numbers.

This should then lead you to question not the surface manifestation, but what on earth for over 20-30 years plays as the underlying cause to the perpetuation of the pathology? 

I take the point that having a knife, increases the chance of the carrier using it (offensively) 

Still the conversation i want to have, is on the underlying issue as to how we detrer that person needing to carry a knife in the first place, which has to be addressed not only on both economic and political, but also psychological and physiological dyfuncition in our communities.

I implore you to study on Mustaf Serif's Reality Conflict Theory, and make of that what you will, but i guarantee it will divert your attention from these surface issue conversations intent on criminalising and critiquing us young bruddas.

War on gangs? Knife Bins? 

 I warn you all, if you continue to show us little respect in dealing with our everyday trauma, we will further regress and dis-associate ourselves from society even more!!!

And so my potential solutions based on extensive study i chose to indulge into after putting down my own knife, that i will go deeper into if required to, is in aid of community infrastructure, education, rehabilitation for trauma, political representation and cultural reformation.

- Jay Kast