[lbo-talk] A Rant on Degrees of Violence

[michael perelman]

We live in a violent society.  When people become alienated they often 
do violent things. When the person is "one of our own," the violence is 
seen as a matter of individual responsibility. A man -- Joe Stack -- 
becomes troubled because the financial problems and flies an airplane 
into an Internal Revenue Service building. The response seems to be that 
he is mentally unbalanced or expressing justifiable indignation in an 
unacceptable way.

A young Pakistani immigrant suffers financial and family problems, turns 
to religion, and tries to explode a car bomb in crowded Times Square. 
The response focuses on the religious angle because his religion is not 
the dominant one in the country.

What if he had used a drone instead? Obviously, most of the victims have 
been innocent.  Of course, we have no knowledge that our own drone 
attacks predominately kill "guilty parties"?  And then again, if the 
drone attack had been successfully pointed at Wall Street, it would have 
undoubtedly kill people whose destructive activities have resulted in 
many destroyed lives. Would that be justified?  Our own young people who 
operate the drones might be seen as some as heroes.

The analogy of Wall Street and the military may be unduly provocative. 
And yet, the banks resemble a victorious government demanding 
reparations from a defeated enemy -- in this case, the losers of the 
class war.  Why should ordinary people have to pay for the destructive 
behavior of the rich and powerful?

More at:

http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/a-rant-on-degrees-of-violence-2/
-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929

530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com