From: Doug Henwood
Who the fuck cares who killed JFK or why? Why are so many people obsessed with it? What does it have to do with history. Why do people end up sounding like that guy in Slacker?
^^^^
CB: In terms of history, it is part the Cold War history, which is to say the class struggle history of the mid-twentieth century. The U.S. Cold War propaganda emphasized the allegedly greater democracy of the U.S. over the Communist countries, including elections for political office. Well, if there was a coup d'etat against the highest U.S. office that is one historical event that knocks a big hole in the U.S. democracy thingy.
Then I'd say the motive was that Kennedy was getting too soft on Communism, the possible specifics of which have been mentioned about 50 times in the various revisitations of this thread. The one that was for sure is he signed a test ban ( I believe test ban) treaty with the Soviets. Just because he was still a member of the ruling class doesn't mean that that wasn't a hittable offense to , hey, the most reactionary, most militarist, etc. wing of the bourgeoisie. He had committed class treason. They committed a dash of fascism. Historical materialists try to understand divisions, and conflicts within the ruling classes, and this is a spectacular historical example of that.
It actually is not important exactly what agents of the right wing of the ruling class carried it out. If Oswald was a lone gunman , he still clearly from his biography a government agent. So, why was a CIA operative killing the president even if he was the only one ? _A fortierari_ if there was hit squad. The argument among conspiracy theories is a diversion, so that people won't see the forest for the trees, the forest being Cold War coup d'etat. That has historical significance.
Of course history is not a popular subject these days. Its signficance for today would be as a small, but well known, episode in the Cold War between capitalism and communism. Since it is well known ( because it's spectacular), and like a reality tv show , by it one might overcome the unpopularity of history a little. I mean some regular people might talk about it. It's sort of an American legend. It's something like Elvis. It's packed with American meanings from the fifties and sixties. The semiotics of it should be examined by American culturologists. And then we can derive powerful messages for t-shirts and videos that will move people. Since people are into it, why not use it to teach. Sometimes you have to work with people where they're at.
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