How does one vote when insanity rules?

...not that candidates supported by MoveOn provide an alternative to state-corporatism...

The two men attacking this woman are Rand Paul campaign officials/organizers, sure to be dropped for getting caught - with predictable claims being that "violence cannot be tolerated" by national leadership, whereas the grassroots militants and perpetrators will claim that they had no choice and in fact, that they showed great restraint.  The attackers will feel indignant at any criticism, since they didn't do anything like rape and kill her, and only were trying to protect Paul.  Frightening in itself and its universal consistency, this reflex of human cognition shows how tremendously difficult it is for us to view our own actions objectively.  In contrast, what about Rand Paul political leadership's claims and thinking?

Their reflex responses will be more insidious and Machiavellian than frighteningly stupid, biased, and violent.  If the upcoming pacifist claims from leadership were really true, militant radicals would not be welcomed into the campaign, especially when it was learned that these organizers proudly displayed aimed and ready-to-fire assault rifles on their websites with text promoting violence in the name of "defense".  Provocation was invited, just like when Bush II said to the terrorists: "Bring it on!" or when Glen Beck urges anyone to "mess" with "America" so that they can be made a brutal, abject lesson that obedience to US violent power is the only way to survive.  Criticize or resist, and you, your family, and everyone else will die in agony.  Beck and many other sincerely believe this is freedom.  Such terrorist, imperial views are regarded as virtuous and quite Christian, even though they are the opposite of Christ's unequivocal teachings of charity, mercy and forgiveness.

Of course, pointing out the defense argument above is a bit redundant since even the most violent, genocidal mass murderers claim they are "defending" against someone else's aggression.  Another bizarre aspect of such interactions is the widespread belief that "Defending the Constitution" and "freedoms" would certainly be claimed by the attackers as top priorities.  Incredibly, the attackers are seen calling for the police who eventually detained the peaceful citizen but did nothing to the violent perps.  Mike Pezzano, the man in the video holding the woman down to punish and prevent her from exercising freedom of speech states/asks on a Meetup website "What's Liberty if you can't exercise it."

I find myself in a common state of amazement.  In US politics, killing is peace (occupied terr), aggression is defense (Iraq & Afghanistan), hatred is love (of free speech), and violence is charity (to protect whatever).  One simply must wonder: have we largely been driven insane?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Rand Paul. not Ron Paul
Anonymous said…
I'm surprised you didn't make the Nazi comparison. You were almost there. How long until unofficial "supporters" break loose in civilian clothing? How long until an "American Kristallnacht" against who? Liberals? Muslims? Go look at internet posted articles about this incident on mainstream websites and then look at the comments. You will find people justifying the violence. We are getting close.
BurntSynapse said…
Oh, I have no doubt. These reactions are very predictable, and when they occurred in Germany it was quite similar. What is of interest to me is what one can do about it.

I think there is greater awareness and activism, but as we saw with the wars, it was not enough to stop the colossal crimes openly supported by elite sectors, especially the agenda-setting corporate media...including NPR, widely regarded as "liberal" and "pacifist".
BurntSynapse said…
IRL, I was asked why I avoided the Nazi comparison. In fact, it honestly did not occur to me, since the Nazi's are known for their accomplishments when they had real power. Their evil was enabled by corporate style, large scale division of labor, so that each individual was not doing anything that could be specifically identified as evil.

This is quite different than the radical extremist whose compatriots are seen in the video gesturing for him to stop stomping on a helpless woman's head. While this is an individual example of a cultural mood in which Nazi's arose (economic downturn, scape-goating immigrants, homophobia, rampant militarism, religious fanaticism, and patriotic fervor) I don't consider this undisciplined, probably poorly educated Rand Paul campaign organizer representative of the highly educated Nazi leadership who had substantial religious and philosophical foundations making their decisions for horrific crimes entirely "rational" and justified in the defense of what they and Bush I call, "civilization itself".
Anonymous said…
Who's talking about the leadership or when the nazi's were firmly established? When they were coming to power they used street thugs.
BurntSynapse said…
When I think of the Nazi's, I mostly associate them with Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, and Nuremberg defendants - which is why probably did not think it particularly relevant, especially with the seemingly numerous Nazi references in Star Trek by the Minute.

The term "street thugs" seems a bit too smug a label for my comfort. I'm convinced we all have the capacity for horrible crimes as well as the noblest virtues, a truth seemingly obscured or made more difficult to remember when we use epithets.

Saying "Nazi's used thugs" also seems questionable... If capitalizing on support of followers who are sometimes violent, we could quite accurately say "Gandhi used thugs" also. I think we need better precision in our language if we want to understand why the Rand Paul incident is troubling and for me, widespread, deeply held misconceptions and militant attitudes suggestive of mass insanity are more important than the individual acts (like "using thugs") which illustrate such trends.

I think ignorance of Nazi violence probably helped them gain and maintain power, just as such ignorance helps U.S. and others maintain criminal, violent control of peoples around the world. Regrettably, I know of no remedy for deliberate ignorance, where people are willing to go to great lengths not to recognize obvious facts - just look at the percentage of people who believe the entire universe was designed so a highly destructive primate could briefly exist on a small planet near an unremarkable star out in the boonies of a small galaxy.

We are really, incredibly bad at having any sense of objectivity or perspective! :D

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