Wednesday, December 07, 2005

O shit!


I guess I spoke too soon about protesters flinging feces...

According to Indy Media:
"A recruiting center in Toledo was targeted in the early hours, having its windows smashed, a bucket of shit was then thrown in."

The protest group responsible is entitled "War is shit" an offshoot, no doubt, of the earlier group "Fire is Bad".

As the historian, I could, you know, warn about resorting to mob violence as a way of fighting a much better armed administration that seems to be blurring the lines between just war and martial law as it is. Say something like: "If you're willing to give up on polite discourse, and turn instead to violence, please remember that your opponents already have a 'monopoly on legitimate force' as it is, and all you have is a bucket of feces with which to defend yourselves."

But, there's something about the childishness of these groups that suggests to me that they expect to be protected- that they expect to be cared for even by the Powers that Be. There's a sort of deeper authoritarianism to them... They expect to be forever powerless, but nevertheless protected by authority. This is more like a child pitching a tantrum to get attention from its parents. They accept authority and their own lack of authority. They accept Daddy, so long as he acknowledges them every once and a while. They never want to have any authority in society. They just want authority to pay attention to them.

This is no match for true authoritarians. In fact, it is what legitimizes them. This is bullshit.

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