A few years back Benedictus noted and pulled together a number of posts from a number of people I respect on the increasing acceptibility of violence in society related to the mindless response to the War on Terror.
Except it wasn't just a trend.
It's more like a chain reaction. More like a viral program. More like a meme.
We jokingly referred to the War on Terror as the War on Terra, first because of the fake accent that idiot son-of-a-Bu$h wears.
But soon we found that indeed, we're fightin' the Terra'ists where ever they appear, and don't look now, but that's a scary reflection in the mirror.
We're so beyond lynching. We don't like the idea we, the height of Western Civilization, would do uncivilized things. So Tasers are safe, because it says so, right there on the label. Primarily.
Without citing more sources than I already have over the last week, let me once again suggest to you that perhaps we all have conditioned responses, and we are indeed all being conditioned. Perhaps this is another emergent property, a meme that's become a zeitgeist of eternal war. Perhaps you can not agree with this, or will not, or find it irrelevant.
But for your consideration, perhaps your mind is not quite your own when you see the suffering of another human and no longer factor human suffering as something to be avoided in satisfaction of your own needs. Even if your needs involve protecting yourself.
Perhaps you are thinking, or not thinking, in a way that benefits some Other, some one who profits from the chaos they've released into the world.
Colonel America says "Bon appetite".
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Ask yourself this, then
is there nothing dear enough to defend by force?
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
Tasing people who don't do what you what them to do
Is this "defending something dear enough?" What does tasering a human being have to do with defending anything?
++++
Oh, MJS, it only *starts* with the taser
and it extends to the use of force, of any kind, for any purpose.
look at the post I was commenting on.
We’re so beyond lynching. We don’t like the idea we, the height of Western Civilization, would do uncivilized things. So Tasers are safe, because it says so, right there on the label. Primarily.
Without citing more sources than I already have over the last week, let me once again suggest to you that perhaps we all have conditioned responses, and we are indeed all being conditioned. Perhaps this is another emergent property, a meme that’s become a zeitgeist of eternal war. Perhaps you can not agree with this, or will not, or find it irrelevant.
But for your consideration, perhaps your mind is not quite your own when you see the suffering of another human and no longer factor human suffering as something to be avoided in satisfaction of your own needs. Even if your needs involve protecting yourself.
that last paragraph reads to me like an indictment of any force in service to any rule by any person.
We can admit that we’re killers … but we’re not going to kill today. That’s all it takes! Knowing that we’re not going to kill today! ~ Captain James T. Kirk, Stardate 3193.0
1 John 4:18
Interesting Big Orange post
Here [slightly rearranged]:
"Shocked, shocked...."
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Well thank goodness
someone's got it right besides Sarah. Give or take the taser, the question and the threat remain the same. How to obstruct police authoritarian behavior? Support police unions, change the laws so that not every kid with a dime bag of pot is a target, reform the prisons so they help stem recidivism instead of promoting it, attack the root causes of joblessness and economic despair that drive so much of criminal behavior, insist on universal higher education, universal medical care and full, respectable employment, and increase the salaries of street cops across the board.
All progressive values, all of which would make the daily life of a cop easier and safer and more likely to show a little more patience with difficult people. My theory, for what it's worth.
Incorrect!
It's an indictment of the blind acceptance of violence beyond the needed.
It's a suggestion that the need for violence is being conditioned into us beyond what is normal. We're animals. Some violence happens, and sadly enough is normal in life.
I'm no pacifist, nor am I suggesting it's prudent to be one.
Some of that conditioning is the Law of the Jungle. Some of that conditioning is "Let's you and him fight". Much of that conditioning makes a great deal of money for the men who would be our feudal lords.
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky
Tasers are worse than firearms...
as are most of the "nonlethal" weapons, because they give rise to the lie you can inflict violence that really isn't violence.
And for that matter, firearms should be heavily restricted too.
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky
No Hell below us
Above us, only sky