The entire business model of America is based on the threat of force. Mr. Miller thinks that way. He is a product of a punitive culture. He can't imagine how anyone would be motivated by the thrill of applying their skills to solve a problem to get any work done.
Punishment doesn't solve any problems, but it is very profitable.
True, Scott. Further, I argue that the whole "business model" of the state, all states, is threat of force. And there are — and formerly, were in greater abundance — many non-state societies where force and subservience is not the dominant feature. See Graeber's Dawn of Everything.
Now that's what I'm looking for. A life without the threat of the use of force. I believe that productive use of skills is far more important than domination.
Thank you for the tip about The Dawn of Everything. I've already started some research on it, and will read it. I want to compare it to what I've read by Michael Hudson in his book, "...and forgive them their debts".
Thanks for mentioning Michael Hudson who I read religiously as his books are prominent in the economic section of my library. '...and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance To The Jubilee Year' I'm a trained Christian Theologian with a Bachelor of Theology and a Master of Arts in Religion- Theology and Ethics but I never really understood Jesus' mission until reading Hudson's above work as Jesus preached the message of forgiveness of debt and the return of property as well as the return of persons (mostly family) and cattle, sheep and goats, and that's why he was killed as the Israeli Priests and the Roman Empire would have nothing of that.
Mark, I've presented the part of debt forgiveness to Christians in my life. Most of them change the subject. Or they say it was symbolic, an allegory, or that Mr. Hudson is misinterpreting things. You might be the first Christian I have ever encountered who took the time to investigate and reach a similar conclusion.
Thomas states: "Cops have been murdering Americans since policing began. What’s different today?" Always my take on this matter is to tell people, especially the police, intently study the history of law-enforcement in the US, and please, begin with the slave-patrols in the South for a justification of what Thomas has related: "Cops have been murdering Americans since policing began. What’s different today?" By the way, those slave-patrols were mandatory for all male citizens and also wonderful for the continuing justification of the 2nd Amendment as being on the patrols required weapons for use when needed (read Thom Hartmann's 'The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment' an interesting read. By chance I was in an audience where he gave a lecture on the subject at hand. And while I detest his belief that the Democratic Party can be reformed- which it can't since it has been corrupt since its inception, study this as well, but still, many of his works are worth the effort to study and use daily).
There was a time long past in my life where the police did not dress as an occupying force. Now tactical gear is standard issue.
Protect and Serve is now effectively Subject and Arrest. Violent repression is the norm.
When local police protect masked thugs, not the poor subjects the thugs are accosting, well the mask is off. Our fealty and gratitude are to be directed to the few that allow us to survive. We must resist. Stephen Miller is the price we pay for feckless obedience.
the suck of sorrow (good name, I like it!) I whole hardily agree with your assessment of the police uniform and equipment (provided by the Feds who bought them from the MIC) but not so much as to your "Protect and Serve" which I don't take as being "sarcastic" hyperbole but as a sincere belief that once-upon-a-time policing was actually for the peace and safety of average citizen, hardly! The police are there to protect PROPERTY, industrial PROPERTY! as in, breaking up union action why beating union members, a long history here in the US.
The "Protect and Serve" mission statement of police was believable to a young child in the late 50s (at least to one with a serious lack of melanin). Union repression and routine killings of strikers were not part of an elementary school ciriculum.
I don't see how a child today could form the same attitude of police as I did in my childhood. That is good, but too, it is very bad.
We live under vicious oligarchs. They are not subtle about their predations.
My writing is not very skilled as I have been extremely skeptical of Protect and Serve for many decades.
Mark, good on you for being an organizer and fighting the good fight!
Fighting the good fight in an Amazon.com warehouse which they call "Fulfillment Centers" for 3&1/2 years, they hated me! Today, at age 70, I'm a Crossing Guard at a local elementary school: LOVE IT! Seeing the children on a day-to-day basis gives me hope for the future, keeps me sane in an insane world as you are correct: "We live under vicious oligarchs. They are not subtle about their predations." But hey, keep up the faith in a future for those children who deserve so much better!
Also, keep reading 'God's Spies' by Thomas Neuburger as he is excellent and point on in his writing. And to Neuburger, why 'God's Spies' as I asked myself that the other day?
The entire business model of America is based on the threat of force. Mr. Miller thinks that way. He is a product of a punitive culture. He can't imagine how anyone would be motivated by the thrill of applying their skills to solve a problem to get any work done.
Punishment doesn't solve any problems, but it is very profitable.
True, Scott. Further, I argue that the whole "business model" of the state, all states, is threat of force. And there are — and formerly, were in greater abundance — many non-state societies where force and subservience is not the dominant feature. See Graeber's Dawn of Everything.
Now that's what I'm looking for. A life without the threat of the use of force. I believe that productive use of skills is far more important than domination.
Thank you for the tip about The Dawn of Everything. I've already started some research on it, and will read it. I want to compare it to what I've read by Michael Hudson in his book, "...and forgive them their debts".
Thanks for mentioning Michael Hudson who I read religiously as his books are prominent in the economic section of my library. '...and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance To The Jubilee Year' I'm a trained Christian Theologian with a Bachelor of Theology and a Master of Arts in Religion- Theology and Ethics but I never really understood Jesus' mission until reading Hudson's above work as Jesus preached the message of forgiveness of debt and the return of property as well as the return of persons (mostly family) and cattle, sheep and goats, and that's why he was killed as the Israeli Priests and the Roman Empire would have nothing of that.
Mark, I've presented the part of debt forgiveness to Christians in my life. Most of them change the subject. Or they say it was symbolic, an allegory, or that Mr. Hudson is misinterpreting things. You might be the first Christian I have ever encountered who took the time to investigate and reach a similar conclusion.
Thank you.
Thomas states: "Cops have been murdering Americans since policing began. What’s different today?" Always my take on this matter is to tell people, especially the police, intently study the history of law-enforcement in the US, and please, begin with the slave-patrols in the South for a justification of what Thomas has related: "Cops have been murdering Americans since policing began. What’s different today?" By the way, those slave-patrols were mandatory for all male citizens and also wonderful for the continuing justification of the 2nd Amendment as being on the patrols required weapons for use when needed (read Thom Hartmann's 'The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment' an interesting read. By chance I was in an audience where he gave a lecture on the subject at hand. And while I detest his belief that the Democratic Party can be reformed- which it can't since it has been corrupt since its inception, study this as well, but still, many of his works are worth the effort to study and use daily).
There was a time long past in my life where the police did not dress as an occupying force. Now tactical gear is standard issue.
Protect and Serve is now effectively Subject and Arrest. Violent repression is the norm.
When local police protect masked thugs, not the poor subjects the thugs are accosting, well the mask is off. Our fealty and gratitude are to be directed to the few that allow us to survive. We must resist. Stephen Miller is the price we pay for feckless obedience.
the suck of sorrow (good name, I like it!) I whole hardily agree with your assessment of the police uniform and equipment (provided by the Feds who bought them from the MIC) but not so much as to your "Protect and Serve" which I don't take as being "sarcastic" hyperbole but as a sincere belief that once-upon-a-time policing was actually for the peace and safety of average citizen, hardly! The police are there to protect PROPERTY, industrial PROPERTY! as in, breaking up union action why beating union members, a long history here in the US.
The "Protect and Serve" mission statement of police was believable to a young child in the late 50s (at least to one with a serious lack of melanin). Union repression and routine killings of strikers were not part of an elementary school ciriculum.
I don't see how a child today could form the same attitude of police as I did in my childhood. That is good, but too, it is very bad.
We live under vicious oligarchs. They are not subtle about their predations.
My writing is not very skilled as I have been extremely skeptical of Protect and Serve for many decades.
Mark, good on you for being an organizer and fighting the good fight!
Fighting the good fight in an Amazon.com warehouse which they call "Fulfillment Centers" for 3&1/2 years, they hated me! Today, at age 70, I'm a Crossing Guard at a local elementary school: LOVE IT! Seeing the children on a day-to-day basis gives me hope for the future, keeps me sane in an insane world as you are correct: "We live under vicious oligarchs. They are not subtle about their predations." But hey, keep up the faith in a future for those children who deserve so much better!
Also, keep reading 'God's Spies' by Thomas Neuburger as he is excellent and point on in his writing. And to Neuburger, why 'God's Spies' as I asked myself that the other day?
https://neuburger.substack.com/about#§where-does-the-title-gods-spies-come-from
Excellent!