..on Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 01:09:00PM -0500, Kyle Maxwell wrote:
> To play devil's advocate for a moment: isn't that true for a lot of
> things? The State is, in general, very jealous about its monopoly on
> things like violence and taxation, and (modulo anarchists, many of
> whom I love and respect) the majority of people are okay with those
> things.
"It's a little-acknowledged fact, yet an unanswerable one, that states exist in
great part to maintain a monopoly on violence" - Deborah Orr
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/20/world-aghast-over-trayvon-martin
OT: Speaking of violence, greetings from Vientiane, Laos, where I'm told to
greet with "I'm not an American!". Seems locals are still a bit grumpy about the
700000+ civilians killed by U.S. bombs in the Vietnam War.
There were more bombs dropped here by U.S. (260 million) than all the bombs
dropped in WWII. The U.S. wasn't at war with Laos. 80 million bombs still lie in
the fields, unexploded, and no U.S. gov since the war will help clean up. Few
Americans would know of this. Many won't even know where or what Laos is.
U.S. taxpayers bankrolled that death and suffering. I don't think "the majority
of people" in the U.S. would be OK with that if transparently given the choice
to do so again today. Americans - generally speaking - aren't a violent
blood-thirsty people. They are however - generally speaking - drunk on national
myths, spun-out on bad news and kept very much out of touch with what their
government (as a group of powerful people) actually does - what it is interested
in, what it wants.
This is why whistleblowing is so very important. Only in knowledge can a
democracy ever take seed. If, after tangible knowledge of such violence wrought,
(under so and so terms, at such and such cost, with these and these goals)
citizens are /still/ to vote in favour, then sad and terrible that country is.
Up until that point, we have a hostage situation.
Cheers!
--
Julian Oliver
PGP B6E9FD9A
http://julianoliver.com
http://criticalengineering.org
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