A comment from Geoff:
All the burning and looting is just to strike out at the “[p]etty bourgeois” professions – the classic base of fascism.” [Further:]
[…]
When Leon Trotsky looked at the emerging Nazi movement that mushroomed in Germany after 1929, he argued that the Brownshirt marches, parades and street violence had the effect of terrorising their opponents and giving political direction and the illusion of strength to the movement. He described this effect as “turning worms into dragons”.*
[From Richard Fernandez:]
Of course the Reds had their own street gangs. Doesn’t everyone have one? No, and that’s the point. Conservatives don’t do stuff like that, at least not naturally. They have to be forced to even think it.
Conspiracy is so ingrained in the Left they are forever mirror-imaging themselves in conservative groups who completely lack this sense of consciousness. For example, some posters at the Democratic Underground really believed members of the FreeRepublic posting board are brownshirts. It is entirely possible that many on the left actually think of the Tea Party are incipient “domestic terrorists”. They see themselves in others.
They can’t believe that conservatives have no process for “turning worms into dragons”. Whether that is good or bad I leave to the reader. But the fact remains that “dragons” are qualitatively different from “worms”. There is no doubt about this. Worms are inhibited. Dragons have lost that key sense of restraint. Worms will trust in their elected leaders to represent them to the King. Dragons will breathe fire, such as at Ferguson.
There is the widespread misconception that people can be radicalized by suffering. Alinsky showed this was not true. People can only be radicalized by acting on suffering. Just getting beaten over the head is never a radicalizing experience. It just always results in a headache. Fighting back, however feebly, is always radicalizing.*
The heat of emotion is only for the foot-soldiers. The leadership will be, needs to be, cold as dry ice.
In case I didn’t format or attribute that correctly, that’s all from Geoff with two separate quotes with attribution in the asterisks at the end of the blockquotes.
From “The Truth About Guns” blog a couple of news postings.
*pwahhhhhh*
Well, it’s nice to see that more than week’s worth of notice and preparation paid off.
They are always trying to bring back the 60s. I hope they fail.
Well, watching this shit(thanks Obama) is putting me in a fine mood for my free Tuesday (thanks Obama) . I feel about 60% of the way to ‘Charlton Heston pounding the beach and cursing in front of about 1/3 of the statue of liberty.’ levels of annoyance.
It’s so freaking futile and wasteful and stupid.
” Accusing is proving where malice and force sit judges. .”
The Gods of the Copy Book headings do not screw around.
**** The chaos descended within minutes after St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch announced that Wilson would not be charged in an incendiary case that has captured international headlines.
Protesters said witnesses saw Brown with his “hands up” when he was killed and alleged that McCulloch “changed the rules” in Wilson’s case by overwhelming the grand jury with evidence and failing to guide them toward an indictment.
[…]
At a press conference to announce the decision not to charge Wilson, McCulloch said the jury of nine whites and three blacks met on 25 separate days, hearing more than 70 hours of testimony from about 60 witnesses, including three medical examiners and experts on blood, toxicology and firearms.
He emphasized that jurors were “the only people who heard every witness . . . and every piece of evidence.”
He said many witnesses presented conflicting statements that were inconsistent with the physical evidence. “These grand jurors poured their hearts and soul into this process,” he said.
Protesters were unimpressed, saying they had expected the decision from the beginning but would not stop making their voices heard.
Ferguson resident Carmen Austell, 43, was one of many calling for revolution and racial justice in a majority black town where police are overwhelmingly white.
“I knew what was coming — I know where I live,” she said. “This is America. This is Missouri, a confederate state.
“We absolutely need a revolution,” she said. ****
Anything you want, baby.
i thought Missouri was neutral in the war
or at least maybe they weren’t of one mind and didn’t officially choose a side
Missouri didn’t secede. It, like Kentucky, was considered sympathetic by the Rebs, but they remained in the Union.
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware were all slave states, but didn’t secede.
America In Flames.
Helter Skelter, baby.
There’s hardly an argument more persuasive than to have a lawless community organizer take to a podium to tell other community organizer led people not to be lawless. Turns out, community organizing is a smoky business with tons of blahblahblah and little consistency. But on the bright side, no one bothered to re-burn down South L.A., Detroit or the 14th Street corridor in N.W. Washington D.C.
Protesters are right about one thing: McCulloch did overwhelm the grand jurors with evidence.
The forensic evidence and Officer Wilson’s testimony were enough to rule out any indictment.
In honor of the anniversary of Joe’s 100th birthday, and vice as the rule.
this violence in the african american community is stepping all over food stamp’s amnesty victory lap he wanted for to celebrate his new policies what will violently assault the prosperity of the african american community
It didn’t have to be this way.
I’m disgusted with the whole affair. Disgusted by the rioters not only shitting where they eat, but setting fire to it as well, disgusted by the underwhelming police response, disgusted by the outside agitators, disgusted by the apologists and enablers, disgusted by the media’s refusal to call “protestors” by their proper name –rioters. I don’t understand any of it.
Probably because I’m white, heterosexual and a man, so clearly I must be the problem.
After all, nobody ever tells white hetersexual men that somebody else is responsible for their problems.
don’t have a cissy fit Mr. Ernst
best to just ignore the fergdorks I think
Now now, you know better than that happyfeet. Obama doesn’t do victory laps, lest people accidently get the right idea about him and his agenda.
If the owners of burned and looted businesses are sad today, they should cheer themselves up by reflecting on the precedents set by the “International Community” for Hamas and the miserable peoples in Gaza: Money is on the way, sufferers! So’s y’all can turn things around to do it all again.
“[C]issy fit” was clever, by the way.
If the owners are smart sdferr, they’ll take the money and run.
That seems a wise course Ernst, and yet we may suspect that evenso many among them will hew closely to the old saw **Home is where the burning-business Hearth is**. Besides, being money from no-where (i.e., government largess), there will surely be stay-put strings attached. When we sell ourselves into slavery to the devil (he’s no fool) he always looks to his own interests first.
Smells all Reichstaggy to me.
It’s noteworthy, I think, that there is no coherent message intended in these outbursts. There is no idea being expressed. There is only an explosion of rage as indiscriminate as a pipe bomb.
To the extent there is a problem with a cause that is being targeted, it’s a problem only to those who just want to watch the world burn — the problem being that the people who own various parts of the world want their parts to not burn.
I think I’m right to be disgusted:
I’m sure the rioters will show their appreciation for the empathy shown by the authorities by staying home tonight.
Smells all Reichstaggy to me.
nah, the Nazis were Germans miscalculating solely in their choice of nutty charismat, though as Germans extremely and genuinely organized: they meant a teutonic business. These American fools play an insouciant and retrogressive game, patterning themselves on the various barbaries of failed kleptocratic African states ; and moreover couldn’t strategize their way out of a paper bag.
But his requests were ignored.
So Eric Holder’s criticisms of Gov. Nixon were semi-effective after all. Ah well, Missourians, you elected the jelly leg: now live with his decisions.
ClownConYouStupidVoters: “I didn’t dissolve Parliament”
Yeah, true — though you have usurped Congress’ legislative powers: and we haven’t lopped off your head — yet.
Gov. Nixon is a Democrat, so he lied. It’s a a Party requirement to rise in the ranks. A badge of honor even. A “Presidential Medal of Freedom” will be forthcoming for him.
Leo Strauss, The City and Man (1964), Ch. 1 — On Aristotle’s Politics, p. 47-49:
“In order to understand Aristotle’s thesis asserting the supremacy of the regime, one has only to consider the phenomenon now known as loyalty. The loyalty demanded from every citizen is not mere loyalty to the bare country, to the country irrespective of the regime, but to the country informed by the regime, by the Constitution. A Fascist or Communist might claim that he undermines the Constitution of the United States out of loyalty to the United States, for in his opinion the Constitution if bad for the people of the United States; but his claim to be a loyal citizen would not be recognized. Someone might say that the Constitution could be constitutionally changed so that the regime would cease to be a liberal democracy and become either Fascist or Communist and that every citizen of the United States would then be expected to be loyal to Fascism or Communism; but no one loyal to liberal democracy who knows what he is doing would teach this doctrine precisely because it is apt to undermine loyalty to liberal democracy. Only when a regime is in a state of decay can its transformation into another regime become publicly defensible.— We have come to distinguish between legality and legitimacy: whatever is legal in a given society derives its ultimate legitimation from something which is the source of all law ordinary or constitutional, from the legitimating principle, be it sovereignty of the people, the divine right of kings, or whatever else. The legitimating principle is not natural law, for natural law is as such neutral as between democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. The principle of legitimacy is in each case a specific notion of justice: justice democratically understood, justice oligarchically understood, justice aristocratically understood, and so on. This is to say, every political society derives its character from a specific public or political morality, from what it regards as publicly defensible, and this means from what the preponderant part of society (not necessarily the majority) regards as just. A given society may be characterized by extreme permissiveness, but this permissiveness is in need of being established and defended, and it necessarily has its limits: a permissive society which permits to its members also every sort of non-permissiveness will soon cease to be permissive; it will vanish from the face of the earth. Not to see the city in the light of the variety of regimes means not to look at the city as a political man does; i.e. as a man concerned with a specific public morality does. The variety of specific public moralities or of regimes necessarily gives rise to the question of the best regime, for every kind of regime claims to be the best. Therefore the guiding question of Aristotle’s Politics is the question of the best regime. But this subject is better discussed on another occasion.”
I’m confused – is it Fergustan or Fergudishu?
Above I alluded to the 1967 Detroit riot and hoped that such events never return. In looking at that riot I came across this bit from likely the only person who benefited from the aftermath of that destructive event.
“Ferguson riots now Taliban-approved.“
You guys are all full of shit. The good and noble protesters in Ferguson are absolutely right, this is all about race and nothing more. I even proved it!*
Last week I recreated the event, with one big difference. I’m white (much as it pains me to admit it). I went to a store, grabbed a handful of candy off the counter, shoved the store owner out of my way, and set off down the street. The middle of the street.
Well here is where the story started to change. When the cop showed up, he didn’t initially talk to me at all, but instead got out in front of my lilly white ass and started clearing traffic to side streets so my stroll was unimpeded. For a few blocks there I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get a shot at the asshole at all, but then my opportunity finally came when he pulled over and allowed me to catch up so as to offer me a donut.
Well let me tell you, I went at him like a [albino] tiger, punching, clawing and growling, but being about half the man (literally) Mr. Brown was, it was pretty tough to get that officers gun to go off in the car. Finally there was a loud boom , so I backed off, and in the spirit of the experiment, turned to walk away.
Now that probably would have been the end of the story, but as luck would have it, a couple of bystanders headed toward me like they were going to help the cop, but he dutifully leapt from his car (stumbling on the foot that was shot in the struggle) yelling “stand down, stand down, white privilege!!”. Thankfully I was able to finish what I started. Lowering my head and bellowing like a beast I charged! The officer pirouetted like a bull fighter letting me slip past, and turning, I took another run at him.
Well, we went on like that for a good four or five minutes, then we both collapsed exhausted on the sidewalk leaning against his car, where I finally accepted his offer of a donut and we got to know each other a little better, passing his coffee back and forth and just talking. Too soon he bade goodbye, and took off to get his toe sewed back on, leaving me to muse that if only everybody was treated the same, regardless of skin color, the world would be a better place.
*Some facts of this story have been modified for artistic effect.
Looted and-or Burned
I can’t help but notice that “Ferguson Police Dept.” and “Ferguson City Hall” don’t appear on that list.
It’s almost as if the ‘protestors’ were more concerned about getting in a little early Christmas shopping and breaking some shit than they were about fighting back against the Man.
Maybe it turns out that contrary to the aphorism Instapundit is fond to repeat, laws aren‘t for the little people after all? Or maybe that’s a too hasty reckoning, insofar as the application of the laws in Ferguson seems to have been fit to the ease of the high and mighty from the jump, who don’t appear to be poised to suffer any repercussions from their failures to act, such that Insty’s use of the aphorism fits perfectly well.
Laws are for the mid-sized people. And non-Leftists of any dimension.
I’ve heard most of those businesses on geoffb’s list were minority owned.
The petty bourgeois can never be “real’ minorities what with their “False Consciousness.”
CNN with some hard to spin footage.
http://linkis.com/www.ijreview.com/201/2fCBs