We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Collateral Damage in the War on Anonymity

Click here to access article by David Sirota from In These Times. 

I think that the author tries too hard to be "balanced" in reporting this issue. Clearly the authorities will maintain their anonymity and will seek to reveal all those who stand in the way of the interests of the ruling capitalist class. Surveilling authorities is often illegal. Thus, ruling class authorities are only exploiting the issue of right-wing attacks on civil liberties and assaults on people by increasing their surveillance of political activists. 

It is precisely the right-wing propaganda organs of the ruling class that spew out hate messages that provide an acceptable climate for crazies to act out their fantasies. (See this excellent piece for an explanation of this argument.) So, instead of cracking down on propagandists and cultural productions that encourage hate toward minorities, they use sensational incidents to further the surveillance of, and crackdown on, political activists. The cultural producers of the ruling class largely create the problem, and then use the problem against political dissidents.