and run for cover, as a black mob comes gunning for their ass. People say that the black community should take care of itself. Well it just did so -- and now we find out that what we've asked them to do isn't necessarily the boon that we thought it to be.
This is what happens when rule of law fails. When law protects those who would joyfully murder, maim, and kill, rather than folks who just want to be left alone in peace, what you get is vigilante justice of the sort we just saw. It is ugly, brutal, and dangerous, but it is inevitable when law fails to protect the people and instead protects only those who wish to harm the people.
Once upon a time, the leaders of our nation knew this. Programs such as affirmative action and Medicaid arose during the 1960's not because the leaders of our nation cared about black people or poor people, but, rather, because they feared armed revolt against their rule if they came down too hard on the people. However, in the decades since, they've beefed up the paramilitary capabilities of the police (a "SWAT team" or "riot squad" would have been unheard of for the typical police force in the 1960's, today even small cities have these), created a state of war between the police and the people (the "war on drugs") so that the police are no longer of the people but, rather, view themselves as outside of the people, and made great strides towards disarming the people (starting in 1968 after RFK's assassination when they banned sales of automatic weapons and heavily restricted sales of many other weapons). The ruling elite has also made great strides in dividing the people, managing to fool many working-class people into believing that they are middle-class and that they are thus completely different from "poor" people who are lazy lay-abouts who deserve their poverty (nevermind that most poor families have at least one full-time worker in the household, and that many of the working-class families who believe they are "middle class" are actually poor if you add up their income vs. living expenses in their city).
But in the end, there is rule of law, where law is viewed as fair and just by the majority of people, and there is rule of gun. You can have one, or the other. Our ruling elite in the 1960's knew this. Our ruling elite today believes they can have their cake -- rule of law -- without paying for it -- i.e., making it fair and just for everybody, not just for the ruling elite. But the world doesn't work like that, and either our ruling elite will have to impose outright rule of gun with all its drawbacks in terms of stifling of economic and intellectual activity and resulting impoverishment of the nation, or will have rule of gun imposed upon them... or maybe, just maybe, some sanity could come back to this nation's ruling elite and they could go back to the notion of law being fair and just for all, not just for the ruling elite.
But my suspicion is that, alas, they will not come back to sanity voluntarily. I am not optimistic. Stocking my iceberg with MRE's seems like a better idea every day...
- Badtux the "Rule of law" Penguin
I have EMREs from the Red Cross, I might move to your neck of the woods.
ReplyDelete;-)
Did I just hear banjos?
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to put together some news clips of what happened in Toledo with Bush's "I'm a uniter, not a divider speech" playing in the background.
ReplyDeleteWell, I must admit that Bush has certainly united the black community, 98% of whom hate his guts...
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
You have commented on the Toledo event. One thing I found interesting was the reports that this was the result of "gangs". It is startlingly similar to the reports from Iraq that the violence against US troops and other Iraqis is being performed by "insurgents", as though such things are never done by citizens. When I initially heard the word "gangs", I had the usual, knee-jerk reaction that it was undoubtedly intended to elicit. "Ah, damned gangs. Street gangs. Damned thugs. The good people of Toledo weren't involved. It was thugs, maybe outsiders." When I thought about it, I realized that this was probably like the false impression of "insurgents" in Iraq. Actually, the people who got sick of the hard times and the poverty and the daily grind of life in Toledo and took it out on the streets, the people who were set off by the presence of hate-mongers in their neighborhood, were just people who lived in Toledo, that's all. Just people. Just human beings. A lot of them probably work for a living and were just fed up with being poor and put down and put upon. Just people. They may have done some bad things, some wrong things, but they weren't "the other" that we're supposed to think they are. They are us, but with less money or less hope.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, when I read the news reports, I said to myself "What a bunch of propaganda bullsh*t." The reporters threw around the word "gangs", but never identified any gangs that were a member of the mob, never identified any individuals who were part of any specific gang, they just repeated the propaganda spread by the Chief of Police as if it were Holy Gospel handed down from upon high. Because, of course, it might be *dangerous* to talk to one of them thare darkies, y'know! So all you got to see was white dudes pontificating about how evil black dudes was. Feh. They shoulda been wearin' their pointy hats while doing this "reporting"....
ReplyDeleteBadtux the "I know propaganda when I see it" Penguin