Thursday, 31 May 2018
Police Do Not Serve or Protect
"There is no evidence that having a minority police officer changes arrest or use of force," she said. "The better evidence suggests that black police officers tend to arrest everyone at higher rates across races. I interpret this as black professionals having to over-perform in any number of professions to get to comparable ranking....."
That is one reason: Here is another: perhaps those that are lifted up to be included into a system that has underlying systemic racism at its core.....become socialized to the underlying "group think". It is especially difficult when the belief system one is working in offers prestige, power and pays the bills.
For instance, it is to be wondered: what is the difference between Scalia and Thomas ideology. Both believe in Originalism, such an authentic sounding name. Perhaps we should consider the fact that originally our system, whose ideology is based on our Bill of Rights and supported by our Constitution, were in practice written by a few rich, male, property owners.....who happened to be white...for the purpose of sustaining their economic well being. We, the people that these idealistic dreams were taught to, had to fight to stretch our Constitution to include unions, civil rights, blacks, and women. As I see it, it is not our goal to return to the original acceptable core interpretation.
Systemic racism has been used all over the world to sustain the status quo or to build a new one that will allow those in control to keep those out of control... in their place..... At this time in our history.......when human beings need to organize to sustain life on earth and move the arc of justice.......defining "white" "liberal" or even "conservative" as the problem drives a wedge between all the different fragmented groups of society..making it difficult for us to sustain the very rights we fought for.
It may indeed be true that teaching not to hate.....and tolerance is not sufficient to put an end to the need to find a victim to blame for the hardship perpetrated on the many by the few for their own personal benefit, It is to be remembered that the few use their money to sustain and grow the power that blaming the victim and hatred brings them. However is there another way for the many to once again become strong enough to talk up to power in a way that will make change possible?.
" Bill of Rights and supported by our Constitution, were in practice written by a few rich, male, property owners.....who happened to be white...for the purpose of sustaining their economic well being." I do not doubt promoting self-interest was within their goals but I just found this in my local newspaper and thought it was interesting.
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? 5 were captured by the British and tortured before they died. 12 had their homes ransacked and burned. 2 lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had 2 sons captured. 9 out of 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revo. War. (Wow back in the days when the elites actually put themselves and their offspring up for valor, to actually stand for something other than the pay from taxes and lobbyist bribes, talk about welfare Queens the biggest is getting $175k ^ annually) Carter Braxton of Virginia, wealthy planter-trader lost his ships to British Navy,sold his home and properties to pay debts and died in rags. Thomas McKean was hounded by the British forces to move his family constantly, served in Congress without pay (NOW THAT IS A TRUE PUBLIC SERVANT) and his possessions were seized and he was impoverished.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillary,Hall,Clymer,Walalton, Guinett,Heyward,Ruttledge and Middleton.
Thomas Nelson Jr at the battle of Yorktown had his home taken over by British to use as headquarters and Nelson requested General George Washington to open fire destroying his home and Nelson died bankrupt.
Americans didn't fight just the British. We were British subjects at the time and fought our own government as well.
The police state I think has become a tool for keeping society down. The real goal is for the rich to be able to dominate society. The police are just a tool in that regard.
For the African American community, sadly enough, the prison system has managed to replace the Jim Crow laws of old. So too is the War on Drugs. The barriers are economic today in allowing for racial integration, more than anything else. If anything, everyone is getting screwed by the very rich.
The issue is that capitalism has led to an effective feudal system. US Social mobility is poor compared to say, Canada or the Nordic nations, contrary to the constant screams of "land of opportunity".
The police brutality I think is just a matter of the rich wanting to keep it and use them as a shield to enforce their brutal society on the rest of us. That's the real problem here.
This is the world we get when profit is the highest and essentially the only consideration in all aspects of life. In such a world EVERYTHING gets monetized. Nobody does anything for fun or enlightenment. All actions are performed based on their monetary return. The POlice in Missouri charging their serfs $26 a shot for tazing is a good example. This extra income helps to pay for all those military toys so they can look like Robocop walking the streets to "protect and serve"...oh wait, they don't give a shit about that antiquated notion anymore.
I look like the Capitalists and Oligarchs want to bring back their beloved indentured servitude. Or did it ever really go away? Of course not!
Now, in conclusion, Most have to agree
The corporate structure is just a tool of capitalism and therein lies my one quibble with Hedges article. It is a mistake often made even among the most trenchant of observers- the need to attach an adjective to capitalism which seems to soften the criticism where that is unnecessary and suggests that reform of capitalism is desirable or even possible. The suggestion is that it is only this certain form of capitalism that is the disease.
There is no need to attach an adjective to the word "Capitalism", as in, "Corporate Capitalism", "Crony Capitalism", "Financial Capitalism", "Disaster Capitalism", "Shock Capitalism", "Unregulated Capitalism", "Private-Equity Capitalism" or that old standby, "Greedy Capitalism". It is Capitalism, pure and simple, and there can be no confusion. What we see is what it is.
Perhaps there was slightly more justification for this jive two decades ago. Today, there is no possibility of a debate. The End of Ideology has itself ended. Instead of bringing "stability" to the world, capitalism has brought depression and fragmentation. Instead of bringing democracy and prosperity to the world, it has wrecked local societies where they hung on by a fingernail. No extended criticism is needed because criticism itself - social, political, and economics - has become a criticism of capitalism.
It has been this way for a long time. In the 19th century, capitalism was that which ripped smallholders from the land, chained children to machinery, and pushed entire populations, on a threat of extinction, across the surface of the earth. In the first part of the 20th century, Capitalism was synonymous with War and Fascism. Imperialism? Colonialism? Famine? Genocide? All the faces of Capitalism...
They told you that Capitalism changed? They lied.
And liberalism- what is its role in the capitalists' system? Liberalism is first and foremost an economic ideology- third-way capitalism.
Liberalism: the hard and soft sides of the coinage of social control
Explaining liberalism to North Americans is a thankless and possibly futile task, but it is one that must be attempted for clarity's sake.
Liberalism is a theory of political economy that arose in Great Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its principal inspirations were Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) and John Locke (1632-1704). It emphasizes individualism, human avarice, the "virtue" of competition and the "justice" of the marketplace. It opposed feudalism and mercantilism. It sought to replace the traditional landowners with the rising commercial and manufacturing classes.
It sought to liberate capital, not people (and especially not women, slaves and propertyless males).
Liberalism is the foundational ideology of the United States. American Conservatives (aka Tories or Loyalists) were expelled to Canada, the Caribbean or sent back to England. The USA (a few southerners excepted - until the Civil War) began and remains a homogenously liberal society.
What, exactly, is liberalism?
Here's what classical liberal economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) said:
"Whenever there is a great property, there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the rich supposes the indigence of the many, who are often driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. ... Civil government so far as it is instituted for the security of property is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."
Liberal utilitarian Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) added this:
"In the highest state of social prosperity, the great mass of citizens will have no resource except their daily industry; and consequently will always be near indigence ... human beings are the most powerful instruments of production, and therefore everyone becomes anxious to employ the services of his fellows in multiplying his own comforts. Hence the intense and universal thirst for power; the equally prevalent hatred of subjugation. ... When security and conflict are in conflict, it will not do to hesitate a moment. Equality must yield."
This means that, in liberal societies, the rich are pitted against the poor, gaining their wealth by appropriating the work of others; and it means that government is in "business" to protect the ruling class.
Today, of course, there are two kinds of liberals. Soft-hearted liberals live mainly in the Democratic party. They sometimes toss crumbs to working and middle-class people. In a pinch, they will do bad things reluctantly, but they will do bad things nonetheless, to protect the ruling class.
Hard-hearted liberals live mainly in the Republican party. They do bad things gleefully, and never toss crumbs. They try to get racists and religious fundamentalists worked into a frenzy to oppose soft-hearted liberals, to protect the ruling class.
They are the good cops and the bad cops, the soft and hard sides of the coinage of social control.
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