Rioting. Im disturbed thats whats on half the nations lips, as if the rioting proves the rightness of the legal systems treatment of this case. I agree with you that rioting/looting/burning/etc. is wrong, but everyone needs to understand it happens for real reasons and that the way to peace is through real reform, not further crackdowns and condemnations. Lets start with this by Jeet Heer, then Ill keep adding resources in the comments: A few thoughts on the scholarly literature of riots & popular protests, perhaps useful for understanding Ferguson. There is a lot of talk going around about mob violence and disorder. It might be useful to step back and think about the broader history. There is 19th century literature about the unruly mob, often portrayed as insane, a body of writing rooted in pseudo-science (phrenology). This tradition of dismissing popular protest as mob violence was effectively challenged by the great British Marxists: E.P. Thompson & Co. The scholarly literature Im thinking of comes from E.P. Thompson, Hobsbawm, George Rudes, Natalie Zemon Davis & many others. In writing on 18th century food riots, Thompson showed that far from being mindless, popular protests were highly ritualized & followed script. With food riots, you have very consistent pattern: they broke out when authorities failed to uphold the social contract based on moral economy. The social contract underwriting food riots: you give us food for set price. In times of scarcity we should we should share. Based on the excellent work of @TomSugrue & @hthompsn, we can see riots against police violence also follow patterns and scripts. Underlying protests against police violence is the unwritten social contract: police monopoly on violence loses legitimacy when abused. Like the food riot, the anti-police riot is about holding authority accountable when social contract is broken. To talk about mob violence and looting is to willfully ignore the politics that are always at the heart of popular protests. If riots are the response to authorities breaking social contract, then it is actually insane to think a show of force will solve the problem. The social contract is a serious thing. Most people dont step outside of it except under extreme circumstances. And from point of view of protesters: they are not ones who broke the social contract. The authorities have.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:22:47 +0000
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