> Chuck0 wrote:
>
>> So you don't like it. I agree with Zerzan and Churchill's take on
>> these subjects.
>
>
> What kind of politics is it that targets individuals rather than the
> systems they inhabit? Attacking the "little Eichmanns" in the WTC didn't
> hurt the system at all - if anything, it strengthened it, by shutting
> off dissent in the U.S. for about two years and increasing the
> repressive power of the state. The individuals themselves are mostly
> ordinary people like you & me. Is your sympathy for this position a sign
> of the fundamental individualism of anarchist politics?
The only thing that shut off dissent after 9-11 were the dissenters themselves. Perhaps if the left hadn't scared itself into wimpiniess after years of bullshit about COINTELPRO, then we wouldn't have seen this widespread paralysis. As it turned out, there was little if any government repression of dissent.
Some of us read the situation accurately and continued our dissent without missing a beat. At least the punditry and writers on the left didn't shut up--the work of the alternative press in speaking up prevented a *real* crackdown on dissent.
Do I need to remind everybody on this list that I helped organize the *first* national anti-war protest after 9-11, which put 2000 anti-capitalists on the streets of Washington, DC in an unpermitted march? Do I need to bring up that I helped initiate the anti-capitlaist protests against the WEF summit in New York City three months later? If I remember correctly, the left at this time was quivering in some spiderhole (http://www.sinkers.org/posters/newwar/liberalunitedfront.jpg) and those of us who went ahead with protests were criticized. My take at the time was that if Wall Street was up and running the week after 9-11, then the anti-capitalist movement certainly needed to get back into the streets.
Yes, the state got more repressive, thanks to the groundwork laid by eight years of Clinton/Gore. But for the most part, almost all dissenters have not been affected by government repression.
Chuck0
