Another Round...

I was asked recently why the killing of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO last summer is generating so much anger, demonstrations, rioting, violence, etc. "Why this case? There have been so many instances of police brutality lately, what made this case different that there is so much action?" I wish I knew exactly why this particular killing of an unarmed black kid has sparked such lasting anger and continuing action. I will offer a few historical observations and some conjecture that I hope can create some threads of understanding about race and our past that could bear on the events.

Missouri is a bit of an odd case, the compromise named for the state established the line between North and South but it was the exception as a "Northern" state with "Southern" values. Those values being mainly slavery and all the attending attitudes toward equality (bad), aristocracy (good), and white supremacy as the rest of the South. This was because it was mainly Southerners who settled the state, snapping up the best land and leaving a strong impression on the institutions of Missouri. They also brought lots of slaves with them, meaning that unlike most Northern States Missouri always had a significant African-American population. Significant but always a minority, slaves in Missouri were generally treated better than in other parts of the South. However, in the eyes of the law it was just as bad with no recognition of human rights or constitutional protections.

Therefore, two trends emerge. First is that unlike say African-Americans in Chicago or other Northern cities, the black community of St. Louis and its surrounding areas have roots there. Traditions and institutions in that community have a past, a history of many generations. It is possible that a black father could bring his son to see the tree where his father was hanged, or see the site where the slave market once existed that brought his family to that area. Macabre? Horrific? Apocryphal? Perhaps, but possible. Also possible is the persistence of attitudes towards law enforcement that were designed to treat African-Americans as property. After generations of progress, we have seen a real backlash against African-American dignity and rights. And the history of African-Americans in Missouri means they are less likely to submit to degradation and official violence because it has been home for many generations.

Crane Brinton once wrote that revolution becomes more of a possibility when people perceive that progress has been made but stymied or even reversed. After witnessing a black man become president, the African-American community in St. Louis and elsewhere has seen increasing brutality and disenfranchisement directed against it by the ole' massa' class. The law has been stacked against them in the past, and seems to be again. This second trend is simply that the rioting and protest are a reaction to a reaction, that unaffected members of the African-American community will not stand idly by through so much injustice to the victims. In effect, Michael Brown was unjustly killed for a minor infraction if anything, while his killer faces no punishment for his actions. The immediate response by police to the protests, in their body armor and militarized vehicles could also have reawakened cultural memories of slave patrols, bloodhounds, and lynchings as symbols of state repression by the white majority.

To reiterate, this is all conjecture on my part. It is impossible to know the minds of so many people, whether they share an attitude about the past even remotely similar to the hypothesis presented here. Only one thing is self-evident, race relations in the United States and especially Missouri are particularly tense in 2014.

Intentional Community Thought Exercise II

One plan for building a cooperative neighborhood would be a roughly square block larger than average with private houses around the perimeter and a commons in the center. If the member residents can agree to make their yards as small as possible, thereby reserving more space for the commons, considerable gains can be realized. A park for the children, bigger and better than any individual backyard can be. Communal garden space, even greenhouses or space for some livestock would be possible. Residents could share the cost of a pool or public clubhouse nicer than any individual household could afford. Childcare, a communal kitchen and dining area could save a lot of money for members not having to procure those services from outside, for-profit firms. Workshops, wind or solar energy production and distribution, compost, bio-gas digesters, there are a lot of possibilities. Ironically, once upon a time working together was a no brainer. Affluence drove us apart after the Second World War; polarization and inequality could bring us back together.

I readily admit that many communities still possess public spaces: libraries, parks, town squares, and so on. The Progressive movement, such as it is and that outside of the supposedly neo-libertarian far left, should absolutely work to defend these institutions. Schools as well, education is the absolute core of the public sphere in America and undermining it for purposes of privatization has to be the biggest coup by the fascist idiocracy and their authoritarian masters. At this point is there any way back for parents who want their children to actually be educated? The [every] child left behind act has set us back so far that generations of Americans will probably be crippled intellectually. Recently this picture has been making the rounds:


Some measure of public attitudes can be gauged by how often something like this lands in your news feed or inbox. The problems with public education in this country are legion. To take just a few: each school district is decentralized and atomized, making it easy prey to ALEC and their evil demands; as we saw from [E]CLB when authoritarian republicans sneak into office at the top they can wreak havoc on even somewhat successful school districts; and the steady demonization of teachers (especially their unions) have led to parents internalizing the propaganda and allying with the privatizers.

Then there are the often long-forgotten Progressive victories. It is all too appropriate on Labor Day to share this one:



Hooray for ingratitude:



This is the crux of why I am giving up on any hope of large-scale organizing for the betterment of all. When "we" win, the idiocracy benefits, when "they" win only the elite win at our expense. Call it the free rider problem on a national scale and spilling out from the shop floor into the political and social spheres. Maybe I am vindictive and bitter, maybe I have a low opinion of most of humanity and very little expectation of change but I see no evidence that the divisions in our society can ever be healed. Those gaping divisions between members of the idiocracy and normal people who are influenced by them prevent any kind of solidarity in the non-elite. In short, I give up.

"But wait," you might be thinking, "are you saying that you want insulated, suburban cubical mice to start milking their own cows?" In a nutshell, yes, but only the people that can realize why it is important that we become more self-sufficient and mutually supporting. There have to be some Americans out there who reject the meaning of life as buying stuff we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.

Who needs them?

I took the Kraken Hatchling to the Shrine Circus the other night. We had a great time seeing the acrobats, the tigers, the elephants, the clown, and his baby elephant/puppy. We ate popcorn, cotton candy, had a snow cone that has left my entrails green, and even got to ride on an elephant. Well the Hatchling did, I took pictures. A friend came along too, and despite being half my age I think he had an alright time. Mrs. Kraken was working so she couldn't make it but was glad we went.

So my friend, let's call him Rakdos, is a young man with a good heart who really wants to make a difference in the world. We were chatting quite extensively about "direct action," considering the chaos going on around us, and the ever present possibility of right-wing vigilantes within earshot I was a little apprehensive about it. The word "sabotage" even came up. Personally, I'm not a fan of that word, and even less for the frames it evokes. Maybe I'm just too old now to believe that any sort of violence will help our situation. In fact, I'm very worried that any destruction of property carrying even a whiff of leftist action will set off the powder keg of right-wing vigilantism and cause the random mass murders of innocents by psychopaths to focus into a directed effort of posses, hunting down any young radicals they feel like. Ergo, direct action of the Weathermen style is to be condemned and discouraged. Utterly futile I know, but until it is absolutely and irredeemably certain that our democratic system is irretrievably broken there is still a chance to make it work for the public good. Eeek! Is that a sliver of optimism showing? Quick! Get the net!

The other topic we discussed, briefly though it was far more interesting from my perspective, was intellectuals. Hence the title of this post. Obviously disdain for thinkers by right-wingers and especially authoritarians runs very high, but our exchange was on different grounds. Rakdos brought up a rap song called "You can't be neutral on a moving train" and was actually surprised when I told him that is something of a classic of dissident literature by the late historian/activist Howard Zinn. I cannot remember the exact exchange from then on and I want to be fair to Rakdos but his argument seemed to sum up as "what have they ever actually done?" Specifically he was referring to Noam Chomsky. Now, putting aside that Professor Chomsky actually did march, demonstrate and work vociferously toward ending the war in Vietnam, yes, his main contribution has been intellectual and theoretical. "What has he done?" In the abstract I suppose this is a good question. I rarely venture beyond the idea of spreading the knowledge of problems. Pick and rank issues, joust with individuals and try to change their minds through persuasion or at least debunk the incredible misinformation out there.

The question I pose is often framed as "what can we do?" Hence where Rakdos and I started talking, he missed going to a camp out in the woods to learn about and practice this elusive concept of "direct action" and fretted about the lost opportunity. The answer to my question is to withhold, boycott, or avoid elements of corporate power as much as possible. Turning off the spigot of money, labor, and attention to these totalitarian institutions seems the safest way to reduce their power and the power of their owners/managers. The economic elite is the wellspring of most of the problems in our world and it takes an incredible amount of money to keep their little game going. Perhaps that is wishful thinking.

How I was first exposed to leftist activism was through the works of Jello Biafra, former lead singer of Dead Kennedys. His spoken word albums held a great deal of content and led me to like-minded individuals, helping to end some of the alienation and apathy I felt as a young crustacean. Biafra also referenced Chomsky, Zinn, and "the guy who runs The Baffler magazine." That of course was Thomas Frank, an historian and great chronicler of both ends of the right-wing "conservative" movement. I put that word in quotation marks because there is really very little this movement is trying to conserve, a better word is the authoritarian movement but no one wants to think of themselves that way in the same way that racists get quite annoyed when you call out their racism. Fifteen years later and I have moved from listening to punk rock to audiobooks of serious issues by real scholars. Perhaps I am an anomaly. Perhaps we really do need more direct action and less intellectualism. If a loud minority of authoritarians can catapult their leaders into positions to really wreck things, maybe what the larger society needs is a few dedicated miscreants to wreck the twisted desires of the corporate elite; democracy be damned.

Then again, maybe not. I just hope my friend Rakdos and others whose youth clouds the larger picture or makes problems old-schoolers like Zinn or Chomsky have been dealing with for decades seem so urgent do not do something they will regret. To be continued, I hope.

Oh well, what's on TV?

"The unions agree, sacrifices must be made. Computers never go on strike. To save the working man you've got to put him out to pasture... Looks like we'll have to let you go, doesn't it feel fulfilling to know, that even a human being is now obsolete. And there's nothing in hell we'll let you do about it."
--Dead Kennedys: Soup Is Good Food


The strait-jacket was placed around our unsuspecting shoulders in an embrace of American exceptionalism and slowly tightened with each exhortation of our greatness...

Until now, there's nothing to do but wait...

"So say 'Uncle' and we'll take you to the mental health zoo. Force feed you mind-numbing chemicals until even the outside world looks great. High-tech science research labs, it costs too much to bury all the dead. The mutilated, diseased infested surplus rats who can't be used anymore so they're dumped, with no minister present, into a spiraling corkscrew dispose-all unit. Ground into stew and flushed away." Oh the humanity!