But, presuming you're merely talking about Big Media (and I'm not sure why people are so concerned about them any more, since it's obvious that there are now a zillion other ways to spread the word and that Big Media has less reach every day), here's a couple of reasons: 1) The Voice is preaching to the choir. They're so openly one-sided that most people that do not hold similar political opinions won't bother reading it. And their reach beyond lower Manhattan is near nil anyway. It's still a local community newspaper for all practical purposes. 2) For this particular story at least, there's no there there. We have a person who claims she was beaten by the cops. It seems obvious that she's been injured, but ... there's no evidence presented at all as to how this happened, other than what came out of her mouth. And it's coming out of the mouth of someone who by definition would never have much good to say about the police in any case. Was she being truly nonviolent? We dunno. Was she even right where she says she was? We dunno. There isn't even any record of her being arrested in the first place. In short, if you want a victim to parade around as an example, she ain't it.
sudama asks where's the public outrage. The simple fact is that there's no public outrage because, first, most of the public doesn't believe these people. They believe that these protestors are out to cause violence, pure and simple, and aim to overthrow the state, and all it takes is one photograph or one piece of video showing any violent actions in Philly to completely validate their beliefs. Ergo, they don't believe anything these people claim about what happens to them, and even if it is true, well, when you're trying to overthrow the state, the state's gonna fight back. (And it should be noted that publicly advocating the overthrow of the government is no mere misdemeanor.) Second, the public, in general, is against anything that screws with them personally. And something as simple as blocking traffic is affecting them personally in a negative way. When that happens, the public's belief that think these people should be dealt with by any means necessary increases dramatically. In short, what people want more than anything else is to be left alone. If you interfere with that most basic right, you're up the creek as far as public sympathy.
>>It is never ok for public authorities to treat people this way; guilty or innocent, violent or nonviolent, politically correct or politically abhorrent.<<
This statement is not true. The amount of force the police are legally allowed to use is proportional to the danger that a person or group presents. For example, if someone is being extremely violent - say, taking a large knife and slashing and stabbing everyone in sight, the cops have every right to go in there and shoot to kill, no questions asked. Obviously I'm not saying any of the Philly protestors were doing anything like that, merely saying that it very much is ok to "treat people this way" in many cases.
To chaz: You ask "what's our side?" I think that in this case it's up to you to first articulate your side. You can't just try to put us on the defensive by default.
posted by aaron at 10:31 AM on August 8, 2000
Sorry, Matt, you're wrong. The Boston Tea Party was an attempt to preserve the system, not destroy it. It happened because the British government had just lowered the tax on British tea, an action that suddenly made British tea economically competitive in the colonies with tea that was being smuggled in from Holland by people with names like John Hancock. The Tea Party was all about maintaining high profit margins, nothing more.
posted by aaron at 10:45 AM on August 8, 2000
Regarding the Revolutionary War: We look upon it as a good thing, of course, but at the time, not nearly as many people as you'd think thought the system didn't work. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think it was something like this: About a third were for the Revolution, about a third were against it, and about a third didn't really care one way or the other. That's what bugs me about arguments along the lines of "the system doesn't work,": There are rarely ever times where most people believe that. You may think "the system" doesn't work, even to the point where you believe in a big-time overthrow of it in place of some other system, but really what you're thinking is that the system doesn't work FOR YOU for whatever reason, and you are but a person, not "the people."
chaz: I can defintely see where you're coming from, since as a conservative I too see the traditional media as pretty much ignoring my viewpoints, if not being actively hostile to it. But in general I've seen alternatives pop up over time to the point where I really don't need them that much, thanks to the Net, talk radio, other magazines, etc. (Of course, I also have the security of knowing that roughly half the country also considers themselves to have political beliefs at least roughly similar to my own, so we can get along pretty well regardless. I know that in your case your numbers are smaller, and that would make it all a lot more frustrating.) And I don't mean to put you on the defensive either, it's just that in my case, I can just look out the window and see that my side ("the system", for lack of a better phrase) is working, insofar as we're all here in one piece, have freedom (more or less), etc., and it's not that easy for me to comprehend what it is you wish to have changed, what you think the big issues are. Especially since the protestors in Philly are a conglomeration of different groups wanting different things.
To Mars: Anytime anyone does much of anything, they're going to be infringing on the ability of someone else to do something else in that same space at the same instant. If I'm walking my dog down the street on a leash waiting for him to find a place to take a leak, someone else coming down the sidewalk on Rollerblades is going to have to go around me and my dog. Likewise, if there's a bunch of Rollerbladers fooling around in a certain spot on the sidewalk first, I'm going to have to go around them. The mere act of existing means that you're going to have to exist at least a few feet away if you don't want a big mess.
But, luckily, we have enough space to go around. And if you want to stage a protest, there's plenty of room for you to do so. For example, Lafayette Park in Washington, right across the street from the White House, is essentially one continuous protest of one sort or another. You protest there, and I can keep walking my dog anywhere else. And if your protest is bigger, or you want to hold it somewhere symbolic, like at a party convention, well, that's why they have things like permits. That way, you can do what you want while the authorities have time to do all the things like making plans to reroute traffic so that everyone gets to do what they want, so that they can plan to get enough cops there to keep order and, hey, even protect you guys too, etc. You'll still get attention, if you have anything worth saying. (And that, in my opinion, would be far better attention than the almost universally negative attention you get by doing things as were done in Philly. I mean, what's the point of doing anything at all if you just make everyone hate you because of the way you did it, overshadowing your argument?)
Sudama: Okay, I understand what you mean better now. But, for better or worse, I think most of the public thinks the same regardless. I think they see it as, "These people are completely against the most basic rules of society, and would probably have me up against the wall in a second for some perceived evil if they were ever in power. So why should I care if the cops break our societal rules in stopping them?" Not necessarily right, but that's how they feel.
posted by aaron at 1:59 PM on August 8, 2000
sudama: Yeah, I agree that corporations look out for themselves. But I also know that reporters go completely nuts when they're told to cover up something they've discovered, and in cases where they are prohibited from reporting something they've found out, they'll leak it to someone else who can get it out. They're very very big on the supposed Sanctity of Journalism, and most of them have wet dreams at night about being martyrs to the cause. ;) Many (most?) would gladly get themselves fired if it meant reporting something that some power was trying to suppress. Besides, unless they're really at the tippy-top of their profession, they're probably earning less than the average bus driver, so they don't have any personal vested interest in the stability of the system, or even of their own company, unless they're so filled with self-doubt about their own abilities that they don't think they could ever get a job anywhere else.
WRT the bail hearings: Judges often limit the number in their courtroom, especially in big cases; they're always totally anal about control of the courtroom and don't like having a ton of media in there making noise (or, worse, jumping up en masse to run out of the room the moment any decision is handed down and causing a big ruckus). Besides, the media often prefers it this way, because in such cases it means they can use what they call the "pool system," where only one or two people (usually one print guy and one TV guy) covers the hearing for everyone; it keeps costs down and lets everyone else keep one extra reporter on hand to cover something else at the same time. And given how controlled the activities of a court session are anyway, you really don't need any more people. As long as at least someone is there, they're going to be able to witness and document everything that goes on. It's just not a de facto admission that there's a coverup going on.
>>'The system' isn't working for the huge and growing global underclass.<<
Well, as far as the global underclass goes, what would changing the American system alone do about it? (And what changes would they be?) It's been shown a number of times that the only real reason there's so much starvation in poor Third World countries is because the people in power there prevent the food from getting to the people that need it. Instead they dole it out to their cronies to sell, sell it themselves to pocket the cash, sell it to buy arms, or even just let it sit and rot in order to punish groups they don't like. Even if the US went totally socialist and started trying to be the caretaker of the planet at the same time, these rogue governments would stop them.
posted by aaron at 5:59 PM on August 8, 2000
« Older Revolution or... vodka?... | Giant, rare, and slow bloomer ... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by skallas at 9:41 PM on August 7, 2000