tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885549900454136918.post513465492404605732..comments2023-08-11T08:06:28.810-07:00Comments on Slobber And Spittle (Archive): Two Days In October, Two Days In NovemberCujo359http://www.blogger.com/profile/10385213658828021737noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885549900454136918.post-46077681877778540932011-11-22T09:40:47.057-08:002011-11-22T09:40:47.057-08:00Thanks for the link, I had not read that Glen Gree...Thanks for the link, I had not read that Glen Greenwald opus. He strikes a hit with the observation about the failure of and the subversion of law (for ideological agendas). <br /><br />The '68 Chicago convention was a watershed moment in U.S. political history. Although the same tactics were used many times against the labour movement, this was the first time police riots were directed at political positions and 1st Amendment exercises, sadly to the approbation of great swathes of the voting public. Kent State and U. Mississippi (IIRC) confirmed the authoritarian abuse of civil liberties, the deprivation of right to life being no barrier. Nixon's politicalization of "Law and Order" began the corruption of the legal system's standing as unbiased adjudicators. <br /><br />The intervening years have seen ever greater "rust and corruption" until now there is little remaining of the integrity of the legal system or of those who are licensed to practice law. Once law was the glue that bound together, the knowledge of equal treatment in settlement of dispute encouraged the use of the forum; now replaced by mighty pocket($) makes for right($) and settlement of dispute promises to take on a more violent form of redress. Not to end well.<br /><br /> Glen was spot on too about the creation and use of fear to smother dissent throughout the community. In both Ireland and Spain there are lingering effects still noticeable in behaviours of the fear generated in Civil Wars (/ Military Coups) both still fresh in living memories and the following generations so exposed. <br /><br />In Spain, so intimidated by fear that the color red that was associated with socialist, communist, and labour unions that the word red was dropped from the common use in the language. Evidence is the word for red wine in Castellano (Spanish) is TINTO (also dyed or stained) where white wine remains vino blanco. Work backward and imagine the sort of fear that was necessary to alter the language in that manner. I suspect there are similar distortions of language taking place in the political lexicon of those incarcerated in the borders of the U.S.Expatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885549900454136918.post-69992019656648717102011-11-21T12:59:55.890-08:002011-11-21T12:59:55.890-08:00Hi, Expat,
If you haven't read Glenn Greenwal...Hi, Expat,<br /><br />If you haven't read <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/20/the_roots_of_the_uc_davis_pepper_spraying/singleton/" rel="nofollow">Glenn Greenwald's Sunday column</a>, you'll probably be interested. Not surprisingly, he's making the same point - that much of what's happening can be boiled down to the convenience of the elite and the penchant the rest of us have for authoritarianism.<br /><br />I have to agree with both of you - it's a big part of the problem. That's one of the reasons I've been writing about the things that have gone in the 1960s as they relate to today, because we really need to understand that much of this comes from who we are, and what we were on our way to becoming.<br /><br />The sad fact is that we're replaying the early 1930s now, with the additional burden that rather than doing almost nothing to ameliorate things, as Hoover did, our current government made sure that the rich were taken care of. I think it could fairly be said that in the Great Depression, the rich were more a part of America than they are in the Great Recession, because in the latter case the rich didn't pay any price for what happened.<br /><br />That just makes them all the more ready to send their goons to beat the crap out of us.Cujo359https://www.blogger.com/profile/10385213658828021737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885549900454136918.post-225776155471574582011-11-20T11:18:01.966-08:002011-11-20T11:18:01.966-08:00I perceive an unbridgeable chasm concerning protes...I perceive an unbridgeable chasm concerning protesters and police authority that will not be easily spanned. The chasm is authoritarianism, instilled relentlessly into the very essence of identity of the police; anathema to those who would protest, regardlessly how non-violently or however well conceived their protest may be, theirs is a challenge always to authority that will be met with the application of force that marks those with power.<br /><br />The same holds for civilian society in their petitions for redress of grievance to power; the greater their effectiveness, the greater their exposure to authoritarian response. The country is too divided and will become more so. The police eat from the kings table and will do the kings bidding, they are NOT of the 99%, but the corrupt of the 1%.Expatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885549900454136918.post-34210077279309528292011-11-19T17:14:34.177-08:002011-11-19T17:14:34.177-08:00Cops have traditionally been working class. (There...Cops have traditionally been working class. (There are even a few shows, like Inspector Lynley and Castle, that play off that at times). I think they tend to think that people who go to college are mostly (or all) rich kids, whether they really are or not. They're definitely kids who have an opportunity they don't, which is probably the real issue.<br /><br />The separation between those classes is, if anything, becoming wider, thanks to the increased need for intellectual labor.<br /><br />So, it's part of a larger division, but the division between police and the rest of us has particularly grave implications.Cujo359https://www.blogger.com/profile/10385213658828021737noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1885549900454136918.post-39800069935904953792011-11-19T16:01:36.642-08:002011-11-19T16:01:36.642-08:00I hadn't see the PBS show, but it is interesti...I hadn't see the PBS show, but it is interesting. I was in a state college during those years and almost all the students were from working class families. I was there on the GI Bill myself. It was the students from wealthier families who were the more conservative.<br /><br />So when the cops thought and now say that it was rich kids who were doing the protesting they really had and still have no idea. Which bodes ill for just about anything you can think of.lawguyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11534424484513054742noreply@blogger.com