The lie we tell ourselves about peaceable protest

The Occupy Wall Street movement succeeded in  creating huge demonstrations.  But the demonstrations were soon squelched and the protest against the privileges and abuses of the 1 percent faded and was forgotten.  After Trump's election, massive crowds gathered in cities across America to demonstrate their resistance.  Then they went home to confine their fussing and fuming in front of their television screens,  while Trump systematically went about dismantling everything President Obama accomplished.  Trump revived and inspirited racist America.  A black man had gained the presidency, which enraged those who cling to the order of slavery and Jim Crow as ordained by God to them, and with Trump's leadership they are going to erase any trace of what that White House "n*##--" did to the nation.  And those once-demonstrators sat in front of their televisions and watched it happen.  And they watched as the Republicans in the House and Senate became a bastion of facism and defender of the right to criminality for the rich white guys.  Trump averages telling six to seven lies a day to the American people which is celebrated as an accomplishment by the GOP because the lies keep the dumb fucks of America in line.  So they think.

We revere Martin Luther King as example of what peaceable protest and passive resistance can do and mourn the act of violence that killed him.  There is no doubt that the Rev. King had a huge influence with those who opposed Jim Crow and the war in Viett Nam in choosing non-violence as their means of expression.  However, while some people were making peaceful demonstrations,  others were carrying out acts of violence that puzzled and caused a lot of wet pants in many Americans.  The assassination of Dr. King set off riots in major cities throughout the nation.  A recent book, The Middleman by Olen Steinhauer, explores an organization that presents itself as devoted to peaceful protest and discussion, while some of its leaders plan and carry out acts of violence.  The book alludes to the fact that most instances of social and political progress in the U.S. were driven by violence.

The 1968 Democratic Convention was the occasion of a huge eruption by a coalition of civil rights and anti-war activists.  Black Panther leader Bobby Seale explained it: “We’re not here to be sitting around a jive table vacillating and bull-jiving ourselves.”

During the Occupy and anti-Trump demonstrations there has been much taunting about how fruitless the massive gatherings seemed to be.  A friend who was a part of Wounded Knee 1973 commented that the occupation rhere was followed by a period of relentless violence which forced the corruption on the reservation to be addressed.  He said the people learned that talking and making treaties never did anyone any good.  When the police who were video-taped beating Rodney King were acquitted of any wrong doing,  Los Angeles blew up.  Neighborhoods were totally destroyed, people were killed, but the Los Angeles Police Department was reformed.  The city feared total destruction if changes weren't made.

As a scholar and advocate of the use of language as the essential component of any free and just society, I have to admit we live in a time when we have failed language.  The angry divide that is putting us on the verge of civil war is a prime case of the failure to use language  as a tool which conveys and defines the facts of our existence.  People resort to violence when words become meaningless and they feel they have nothing to lose.  When grievances are ignored and dismissed without any kind of acknowledgement, people turn to other means to express their disaffections.  However, if language is to be successful in resolving human problems, it must be used with integrity and competence.  We live in a time when neither of those qualities can describe the national dialogue.

Not a word that comes out of our president's mouth can be believed or trusted.  He uses language to lie, deceive, insult and demean.  People of some education and intelligence understand that no constructive exchanges can take place with language in such a state of decay.  Trump resistors understand that there is absolutely nothing to be gained in trying to communicate with people who dwell in a universe of "alternative facts."  When facts and the accumulation of human knowledge are denied, language is destroyed, because words are the naming of natural facts.  Trump and his anti-intellectual, anti-knowledge cult have created a situation in which their words refer only to their own dementia, not to any facts which exist in any shared realty.  People of some veracity and integrity follow the Proverb "Do not speak to fools, for they will scorn your prudent words."

When intelligent language is no longer an option in confronting what is wrongful and dangerous, there is not much choice in ways to respond.  Trump sensed this when he warned a group of evangelicals that Democrats “will overturn everything that we’ve done, and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently. There’s violence. When you look at antifa and you look at some of these groups — these are violent people.” But as legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin pointed out, the statement was racist Trump at his worst trying to scare white America about black people.

What Trump and his apostles can't or refuse grasp is that is that their perverse obstinance is convincing many people that words are useless and it is time to act.  When the NFL players chose to kneel during the national anthem in mourning over the number of unarmed black people shot down in the streets by police, Trump and his zombies chose to call it an affront to those who serve in the military.   Ironically, the issue did not receive serious attention until a few black men fought back by targeting police officers.  That seems to be what Trump and his supporters want to provoke, a racial war.  But the Trump contention is made absurd as about 40 percent of military service personnel are minorities, and the NFL players are kneeling to protest the absence of justice for minority people.  They are protesting the betrayal of the American ideals of liberty, equality, and justice for all.

Violence is not and should never be the first option in addressing grievances.  But at times in our history it has been necessary to obtain the rights of citizenship or preserve those that have been obtained.  We do not support or encourage violence,  but urge the people to engage in the language, thoughts, and deeds that make it unnecessary.  Violence is a part of our legacy, but our legacy is also the efforts to eliminate the need for violence.

Of late, a significant number of Americans have shown that they are not up to the task.  As Bobby Seale said, “We’re not here to be sitting around a jive table vacillating and bull-jiving ourselves.”  





   Oath  keepers take up arms against "the violent left"

HATEWATCH

Oath Keepers announce national ‘Spartan’ training program aimed at ‘violent left’

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/08/23/oath-keepers-announce-national-‘spartan’-training-program-aimed-‘violent-left’