Once upon a distant galaxy, far away from here.....there were members of a society who volunteered to maintain order, to address crime and to keep the public at large safe. But, in the long journey to the present, something strange happened. And, the 'protectors' became less protective and ultimately they became agents of oppression....freely using violence, or the threat of it, to control the community. The state sanctions what they do by almost constantly failing to charge them with the crimes they commit in the name of the state.
So, what happened? Well, that is more complicated than we can address in a brief blog posting, but, in short, Capitalism happened. As some astute and ruthless individuals figured out how to use money to both control and exploit the economic system, they began amassing large amounts of capital. Okay, they made shit-piles of dough....vast mountains of it. And, having all this money gave them power. And, having all the power to control how our society functions, i.e. who gets and who doesn't, became the nature of their game.
Big money calls all the shots. That is a grossly broad and only semi-accurate statement, but, it is essentially true. "Money makes the world go round." is not just a cliche. It's a 'truism' and if you doubt it, please take some time to gain an overview of world economics. Money is at the core of how all governmental decisions and corporate actions are decided. If doing something makes a lot of money, there will always be a way to justify it. It may not be good for the planet, or for the vast majority of people, but if it is PROFITABLE, they will find a way to spin it and to even have bought and paid for legislators create laws allowing the practice....whatever it might be, hardly matters....to go on.
In earlier periods of history there has always been a hierarchy that put the proletariat in its place. Variations of a system that prevented the underclasses from ever having more than the 'takers' thought was necessary or allowable have historically been a central tenet of every civilization. The drill has always been to 'keep 'em down on the farm' and that meant keeping them livelihood and food insecure, never allowing the 'masses' to get a leg up because they were stuck on the bottom rung of the ladder and held there by laws and by force.
I am not aware of any society that managed to fully realize a set of ideals that included keeping even the lowest stations of society safe and in circumstances that created a sustainable and meaningful level of happiness. Somebody always wants to be on top, in charge and dominating all those under their control. Nobody has ever put a shine on poverty that made those enduring it feel good about being poor.
Force? Oh, yes....rulers of all traditions have had armed groups of individuals that were both capable of going off to war to fight for the aristocrats...and of oppressing any serfs, peasants, who became rebellious. Of course, a survey of European history and even world history, reveals that despotic regimes that used force to keep the rabble down--'maintaining order' has always been a top priority--did eventually succumb to uprisings, and rebellions that overthrew them. The names of the dictators throughout history are etched in blood on the walls of civilizations that have come and gone.
So, here we sit, in the early 21st century. And, it seems humanity has learned very little about how to create and maintain a civil society that is egalitarian and compassionate. We hold up this as an ideal....but, truthfully, we have not really even come close to creating a society of this nature that could withstand the withering assaults of greed and the lust for power. We thought we had a good start on it here....yes, in the United States of America. Our Founding Fathers were all rich white men, but, despite that immense handicap, they did display a wise and even compassionate regard for the well-being of ALL the members of society. Uh, okay, er....uh...except for the humans that many of them felt they had a right to OWN and use for making their plantations profitable. Aside: my great grandfather was a drummer boy at Gettysburg, so it strikes me that we're only three generations away from that country that had an agricultural system that depended on human suffering.
Yes, we have been flawed from the beginning. Racism has been, and continues to be, our national scourge and disgrace. And, as our present circumstances are clearly demonstrating, we clearly know this and we need to fix it....big time and for real. If we cannot do so, we will descend into a society where suffering is widespread and only the elite wealthy class has all the opportunities and privileges. We are on the verge here of choosing to embrace a dictatorship, with Donald J. Trump in charge. Do not forget, even for a minute, that there are almost 4 out of 10 Americans who rabidly embrace Trump and his racism. Of course, most of them would deny the Idiot is a racist if you asked them. But, that is more a measure of how amazingly brain-washed and ignorant they are than having any bearing on the truth.
If you are having trouble imagining this nightmare coming true....I would refer you to his antics of last Tuesday, June 2nd. He ordered his lap-dog, Wm. Barr, to make it safe for him to walk across Lafayette Park, to St. John's Church where the Idiot wanted to pose with a Bible....as if he knows the first thing about it, or what being Christian means. There were hundreds of peaceful demonstrators there and they were not doing anything aggressive or illegal, merely exercising their constitutional rights under the First Amendment. So, Barr...who is turning out to be the Idiot's Heinrich Himmler in many respects, gave orders to clear the park...using tear gas and less lethal ammunition, along with very aggressive pushing and rough stuff. It was illegal; Barr doesn't care, knows it's very unlikely that anybody will hold him or the president accountable. So, then comes the Idiot, walking with some of the strangest body language I have seen from him. He was kind of lumbering and swaying in his standard blue shape-hiding suit, arms akimbo....looking for all the world just as you would expect some third world petty dictator to look. It was quite remarkable, indeed.
Oh, but that was not the least of it. Once he established himself and his lackeys in front of the church, he did some posing for the cameras. Then he took center stage and held up a bible in his right hand.....just stood there holding this book, as if we were supposed to understand his point. I still don't know what it was. "Jesus is on MY SIDE.", perhaps, "Look, at me; I am a very spiritual man, like you never saw."....which is amazingly ludicrous when you consider his track record of lies, assaults on peoples' dignity and character, etc. etc. ad nauseum.
His demeanor and energy were so amazingly arrogant and insolent. No words of advice or comfort to the thousands of people who have suffered in this godforsaken pandemic. Nothing to offer solace or even a fatherly warning to those who are stepping out over the line, looting and attacking police. Nothing....from our supposed 'leader'. But, the take away is clear: "I am the Big Boss, and I have God on my side, and all you little people are under my boot-heel because I can turn the full force of the U.S. military loose on you."
And, somewhat predictably, the almost universal reaction to his 'photo op' and his threat to use military violence has been a great big ol' extended middle finger. So be it.
Here's another problem that makes his furher-esqe ambitions a lot more doable and even frightening: over the last few decades, the police have, in fact, become de facto military forces. They now dress like soldiers, are armed like soldiers, have military vehicles and are using all of this to attack and intimidate American citizens, especially if they happen to be black or brown. Tales are legion of police swat teams bashing in doors and shooting people, the most recent one being the young EMT in Kentucky, Breonna Taylor, who was shot eight times by a squad of plainclothes cops with a 'no knock' warrant, (which turned out to be illegal) and the whole thing was a mess...for which NOT A SINGLE COP WAS CHARGED.
As the two German fitness nuts on SNL used to say, "Hear me now and believe me later." I am telling you today that this man is not merely incompetent, or insane. He is not just a fluffer-nutter in a blue suit and orange skin; he is intuitive and very sly. He knows very well how to manipulate and to challenge. He has zero regard for the rule of law or any constraints on his ego and his power. And....he is dangerous. He will indeed turn the military loose on us if he has any even quasi-legitimate reason to justify it. He may even declare marshal law on some created pretext if it appears he can disrupt the coming election. He is not going down quietly.....many experts all agree on that.
And, across the nation, police are at a point of reckoning. They need to decide if they are going to continue to devolve into a marshal force that purposely instills fear and loathing in the very citizens they are supposed to be protecting.....or they need to realize that this is the gateway to hell. It will, without any doubt, perpetuate a state in which the citizens continue to be the victims, not participating members of society. The police can still find and move to the higher moral ground here....but, they need to decide NOW if they are going to have the courage and the strength of conviction to do that. They will need to re-vamp, re-conceive and create anew the police culture that now is so macho, so hostile and domineering....so utterly reminiscent of the SS and the Brownshirts of the SA. That will not carry them into anything but a truly dystopian future.
If police departments and their leaders across the country cannot turn away from this 'deaths head' culture, they will continue to alienate themselves from the community at large. They will become the mechanism of terror that they have been moving towards for at least the last 30 years. Or, they can follow the luminous examples of police chiefs and others that occurred this last week...by standing up, or kneeling down with their community's citizens and declaring that they are indeed the protectors and guardians that we need....instead of being the monsters we do not.
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