[lbo-talk] lynching [was: Saddam captured]

R rhisiart at charter.net
Tue Dec 16 20:32:50 PST 2003


what's even more repugnant is that cheney and the US military plans to torture him.

When asked by a journalistic talking head if saddam would be tortured, rummy responded questions like that seem so, well, unfair. "We don't torture people."

Rummy was followed later by a military guy who said they would certainly deprive him [Saddam] of sleep--"he won't have any sleep cycle at all."

which we all know isn't torture.

and that's the least of it. i guess a guy has to be healthy to be tortured. or perhaps the believe he's keeping WMD down his throat.

R

----- Original Message -----

From: Wojtek Sokolowski

To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org

Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 6:40 AM

Subject: [lbo-talk] lynching [was: Saddam captured]

> >Brian Siano opined:

> >

> >

> >>Looks to me as though Saddam's getting medical attention, to make

sure

> >>he's healthy enough for incarceration and trial.

> >>

> >>

> >

> >Why bother with such formalities? You, your "commander in chief,"

the

> >majority of your countrymen, and above all the media have already

> >pronounced him guilty.

> >

> >

> And with good reason. You may wish to acknowledge this.

>

> But, if you want to be pedantic enough to insist that only a trial can

> establish his guilt, you'd have to give Hitler and Stalin the benefit

of

> the doubt as well.

If I wanted to be pedantic enough I would point out that Mr. Hussein is

being virtually lynched by the US lynching mob - an activity that is an

integral part of the US history and mentality. The difference between

lynching and justice is that in the former the deeds of the person

subjected to public humiliation or punishment are rationalizations

rather than for that humiliation. That is to say, a person joins a

lynching mob (or a pogrom, for that matter) because it gives him an

opportunity to assail a token scapegoat - usually a member of an

unpopular minority, such as Negro, a Jew, a homosexual, or simply an

outsider.

Lynching is a process whereby the participants focus their fear and

hatred on an effigy and destroy that effigy to relieve themselves of

their own fears and frustrations - but then they rationalize their own

despicable actions in terms of meting out "justice" by pointing out to

the real or perceived evil deeds that the victim had committed.

However, an important element of this process is that these purported

deed by themselves would never trigger "meting out of justice" (as in

case of court trial). In other words, the deeds of that sort are

committed all the time and the participants of a lynching mob either

know but do nothing about them, or do not care to pay any attention to

those deeds. They go to action only when they receive a signal from

some sort of authority figure (a government official, religious leader,

the media, or even a self-styled agitator) that it sis the "open season"

for hunting down certain types of bad guys.

The treatment Mr. Hussein received from the American people has all the

signs of lynching. These concerned US citizens did not give a shit when

Mr. Hussein was gassing people for the US and NATO (Kurds were a threat

to Turkey, which was crucial member of NATO containment of x-USSR) nor

did they give a shit about Pinochet, Noriega, Sukharto and assorted

butchers on their payroll. These stalwarts of individualism and

independence from the government started being concerned about a

"threat" posed by Mr. Saddam only after the government cued them to do

so. Just like in the 'good old days' when somebody cued them to string

up a Negro.

This is, btw, what I hate the most about the US and its people. You can

find the lynching mob mentality in virtually any country, but only the

US-ers think that they attained a level of civilization never achieved

by any other human society. It is that contradiction between the

hideous US reality and lofty standards by which the US-ers want to be

judged that makes the US look particularly despicable to the outsiders,

and makes people dancing in the streets when something bad happens to

it.

Wojtek

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