Shroom Man 777 wrote:
Heck, it's like that picture of that horribly burned child in Vietnam, (since ray245 likes immolated people so much). The US forces never did the airstrike in that question, I think it was the Vietnamese air force that napalmed in that occasion, and the Americans were actually treating injured civilians there I think, but the ugly portrait and the shocking picture it painted just crystallized something in the public conscience.
Yeah. It's going to be pictures like that which are going to be galvanizing factors if anything are. I really don't expect anything concrete or decisive from OWS other than to simply exist and be visible. I mean this hasn't even been going on that long as far as protests go, and they are opposing something that is a long-time and deeply entrenched part of American society. Rooting it out, if at all possible, is going to be incredibly difficult, as things up to this point have proven. Simply having these people still around (and visible) by next year will be a victory all by itself, frankly. If it does.. there might be a chance. But if it dies down... *shrugs*
The bad vibes towards the cops in all this is just another facet of the whole propoganda angle. America loves that "conflict" sort of thing. It has to be an "us vs them" mentality, even if it is going to create more problems than it solves. Could there have been a way to avoid becoming enemies with the cops, I dont know. But from my position I find it hard to view them as being Jackbooted Thugs either, if that makes sense. That cop could be a Right Wing Limbaugh loving conservative asshole, or he could be a man who is doing a job because he has a family to support and making a stand could cost him his job. Yeah that's selfish but that sort of crap isn't uncommon in America - Tribalism again. I can also feel a bit sorry for the cops for being put in this position and coming out looking like thugs in pics like that (because that is how they do look) and still hate them for basically doing the things that make them look like thugs. It's not like they don't have a choice even if the alternative is a bad one.
Quote:
The establishment has propaganda, but it's always had propaganda. The street man's never before had such a useful tool of disseminating information and communicating with others as those of us today have, however.
The game has changed, son of Flynn!
Yeah, but I've gotten to the point in America (or maybe I'm just cynical) that I wouldn't trust the American Public to not turn this into another "Death Panel" thing. I mean fuck we already have that "WE are 53%" shit, that alone should show how much inertia in American society there is to overcome if we're going to change. I like PeZook's stockholm syndrome analogy.
Must bea ll that 40K I'm reading. Next thing you know we're going to be enshrining the President in a golden throne and forcing him to radiate AMERICAN FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY through the entire globe to act as a beacon of change for all other societies. Or something.