You can read the Guardian article below--and if you like you can read my thoughts before or after, for what they are worth. Violence in Ferguson, MO The cognitive dissonance within the average American--or just plain ignorance of the average American (and Canadians arent far behind) is sad and widespread. The actions that people in these communities take--whether the police or average citizens, poor or not--are often directly at odds with how they would like to both live and be perceived. This contradiction is at the heart of life in America—and if were an American I would know that violence is wrong (we tell our kids), but guns are good--violence is wrong, but the assassination of Bin Laden (real or imaginary) is good even if there was no trial, its still good--violence is wrong we tell everybody and ourselves, but martial intervention in the policies of other countries is good--except for some countries and some people but we still cry and salute the flag when the veterans or Marine Colour Guard march into the stadium at the start of a football game and we raise Old Glory. Children, babies, seniors, farmers, shopkeepers--all those people who are pretty much just like us--they were not killed in Afghanistan or Iraq—just a bunch of f***ing Arabs and Muslims and evil Taliban and all the others were killed--and it is their own damn fault for living there. Violence is wrong--but it is manly and glorious. The wealthy laugh at this--at these ignorant people in Ferguson who want justice without order and are so stupid or frustrated or both that they work against their own well-being by acting like idiots. But cognitive dissonance and contradiction is alive and well in my country as well (Canada). When our politicians are able to make us believe lies about economics and the well-being of our physical environment being two different things--they spin till we vote against our own best interests and the interests of our children and grandchildren. What we see in Ferguson is the flammable cake made from a recipe that includes; joblessness due to the pyramid of power created by unjust trade agreements and the greed of the already extremely wealthy, a failing education system that is MADE TO FAIL by basing the quality of schooling on property values, the enforced ignorance of a distracted lifestyle where acquisition trumps the ideas of a collective or community due to decades of successful glorification of the wants of the individual over the needs of others; individual=good : unions, groups, collectives= evil (Except for super rich collectives that we all cheer for like the players unions in big time sports where millionaires are paid by billionaires--but other unions that actually protect average individuals, workers and the average renter or homeowner--they are one tiny step away from being f***ing communist). So is the system to blame--yes. Are the individuals to blame--yes they are--because of WILLFUL ignorance. KNOWING that what they do is wrong and will not help them but doing it anyway and excusing it by playing the victim card. Poor people in America are royally screwed--and under the current system their lives have no value. In Canada we are so lucky to be where we are. I was at the hospital in the small town where I live getting an x-ray done (the visit was paid for by taxes and the parking was free) and there in the waiting room was this kind of simple guy who bags groceries at the local. You see him around town--he walks funny and is a bit goofy and fairly developmentally delayed—but he’s a good guy. But he gets to go to the hospital when he is sick and he gets to work for a minimum wage (or likely more) that is not too bad and he is allowed a degree of dignity and well-being that an American in the same situation would be denied. He gets to be productive and enjoy life--smiling and chatting with people at the store--talking to himself in the waiting room--whatever. Our systems in this country that work do so as a result of the knowledge that the dignity of the individual needs to be safeguarded--and it is done through the collective. That guy does not pay much in terms of income tax I am sure--but the taxes paid by the rest of us allow him to live a good life--the power of the group, the community, the province, the country. I dont want to see him living on the street and I will happily pay my taxes so that he doesnt. He is the base of the pyramid--whether low-wage earner, single mom, farm labourer--whatever--he is legion and needs to feel a part of a worthwhile endeavour somewhere in his head. The people in Ferguson have almost none of that. When I hear our finance minister talking about tax cuts, I cringe; tax cuts for whom? There are a couple of layers near the top of the aforesaid pyramid in this country who exist in their rarified state only because of everyone below them. They owe their well-being to the wage earners, the foreign workers, the millions of people off of whom they make their millions--so they owe a lot and should pay a lot. They need not worry--theyll still live an unchanged lifestyle. The problem--we cant tax them fairly because they will take their money and leave--or their money will leave and they will stay while living off of un-taxed income because there is so much international abuse of the working poor--the rich take care of themselves and live not in nations but in a place separate--a place of profit over community. The people of Ferguson live in an increasingly ignorant country and act in an increasingly ignorant manner. Knowledge is power and real power is not held in the hands of individuals--but those individuals in Ferguson have no knowledge and they have no real group that will give them power. Most are black--and that IS a group--but not a group with any meaning except that which it applies to itself or that others give it. Increasingly it is a group being sold a vision and version of itself that maintains that being black is enough and they should be proud. But proud of what? I am not proud of being Canadian for its own sake—I only have the right to be proud of Canada if I am acting in a manner that enhances the well-being of my neighbours, my community, my province and my country—and my country is not defined by the people who govern it. I don’t really give a sh*t that Canadians are great hockey players or curlers or make great donuts or have effective special forces soldiers or anything else that people like to say “defines us”—those things are all just dandy, but the thing that perhaps we should all be proud of—that we all can contribute to—is seeing to the rights and dignity and well-being of those around us. And not just in the national sense, but in the international sense. If a trade deal benefits Canadians but injures or destabilizes the well-being of people in China or the Philippines or Mexico or anywhere else—then we should not allow it. It is as wrong as if we steal from our next door neighbour. We see the error of that in the U.S.—my country right or wrong—that is just plain wrong, that is self-imposed tyranny, though now it is increasingly being imposed from without. That being the case, there is no recourse and no real solution. Not for the people of Ferguson and not for the people of the next Ferguson. And you know there is gonna be one. theguardian/commentisfree/2014/aug/19/ferguson-looting-national-guard-black-citizens-get-by
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 15:23:23 +0000