What is to be done ?

WEEKEND EDITION

Norman Rockwell, The Runaway.

Gui Rochat
OpEds

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]rutality of any kind is a feature of life in the US. It is the sine qua non of capitalist society, whereby might makes right and the devil takes the hindmost. Now one can argue that the once fine Saturday Post images of a white America behind the white fence eating apple pie is another and by far the best feature of a wealthy society, but behind the propaganda and obfuscation it always hid the dire truth, namely that the white fence is only for wealthy white people and that most of us are like the black policeman or mail carrier smiling his way through those illustrations by selling their souls for subsistence.

Soft shoeing has kept many a black person alive in this cruel and exclusive atmosphere. Any black US citizen can tell you that none of them is deluded into the secure hands of even the most liberal American that may try to reassure him or her that they shall ever be regarded with dignity.

And that is what the present indignation and protests are about, it is about human dignity, not just how black kids get killed by an unfeeling police force. That the police act as they do is only a reflection of the whole of the moral desuetude and harsh neglect of human compassion of a capitalist system. We are all but numbers and black Americans do not even show on the human spectrum. If they are successful, they are toys to be played with, tokens to fool the clueless, or fast discarded after boredom sets in. Never mind that every leader is a monster—including Obama—otherwise they would not be leaders. That is why neither Christ, nor Gandhi nor Dr. King wanted to be leaders, but they taught instead human lessons.

All the more’s the pity that Dr. King’s lessons are forgotten in the melee flamed on by the media for more stories to tell and more advertising to sell, because he saw that racism is the result of poverty and that protests against it are apt to die out. In the crazy rush for profits and progress in the capitalist world, memories are quickly brushed clean for new excitements, new experiences and there is precious little time for reflection and careful planning for change. Of course when Dr. King started to talk about social change, he was wiped out because that is a dangerous subject for the establishment, but what are called racial riots and protests against racial profiling are easily contained by the police and a perfidious government.

The government —led by a pseudo liberal establishmentarian—says what is expedient because they want to stay in power and as such they are far more dangerous than the very conservative sections of society. Conservatives will tell you what they stand for, namely protecting the elite, but bought representatives and senators will lie in your face to keep their thirty pieces of silver. The power of the US is not at all diminishing; every day obscene amounts of public funds are poured into the military. And obsolete weaponry is deliberately handed over to local police forces, so that the population can be cowed into complacency, that is if they are not already deluded in thinking that this is the most logical of all possible worlds.

But consciousness can jump up suddenly like the click of a finger and the more the young people will go onto the streets, the more a chance exists that they will understand that all of the above is part of an already obsolete capitalist structure that needs to be abandoned. The question is: where is the leadership?

Gui Rochat is an aged art dealer in New York City who observes the human scene and hopes for a benign salvation for everyone.

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