W/r/t “Propaganda of the Deed”, in the future we may perhaps ask ourselves, “do you remember where you were when Brian Thompson was shot?” I certainly do, because we were all in a car with a big Dem donor on our way to dinner, and we were all enjoying discussing first the immediate popular reaction—which was you may recall an emphatic “fuck that guy!”—and then the Dem reaction which was an absolute refusal (in an election year!) to seize the moment and make ANY kind of political use of the event.
Because here was an issue that was actually “bipartisan”—EVERYBODY hates insurers! It would have been easy (so, so easy!) for the Dems to do something (anything!) with it. But of course you knew that they would do exactly what they did in fact do: which was to (1) do nothing and then (2) pat themselves on the back for their inaction.
W/r/t Ezra Klein, I would expect nothing less from our leading liberal “public intellectual” to not know any history and for that reason get propaganda of the deed exactly backwards. The only question is, whether he and the NYT are really so stupid as to not know the difference between state-sponsored terror and anarchist direct action, or whether they are deliberately misleading their readership. I think the answer to this is probably that they simply don’t know the difference. I suspect that for them “propaganda of the deed” is just something that sounds bad, something from the bad old-timey times, and therefore why bother contextualizing it?
Great essay. Klein's lack of historical context is not surprising. From his perch, what he sees on the streets and campuses is the performative acting out of a pseudo-left. The "resistance" today is in no way analogous to the lethal conflict unleashed by by capital in Homestead Pa., Coeur d'Alene Idaho, or Ludlow Colorado. Anarchists and union leaders like Big Bill Heywood were literally fighting for their lives, not looking to create spectacle.
OH MY GOSH - this is the first thing i have read today -- what a wonderful morning opener! This will keep me sane all day...and many more days. Thank you Catherine for publishing this piece. THANK YOU Darren Gardner, for writing it, and so beautifully. Now i only need 98 more quotes on private ownership to make 100 for my sig. line. And bingo, a wonderful critique for my friends who rely on Klein : ).
[“Eventually.. ownership..the holy grail of our society, will be dismissed as plunder. Let’s trust the earth, and not too much ourselves.”
Peter Westbrook, Lynn Margulis Symposium: Celebrating A Life in Science, March 24, 2012]
W/r/t “Propaganda of the Deed”, in the future we may perhaps ask ourselves, “do you remember where you were when Brian Thompson was shot?” I certainly do, because we were all in a car with a big Dem donor on our way to dinner, and we were all enjoying discussing first the immediate popular reaction—which was you may recall an emphatic “fuck that guy!”—and then the Dem reaction which was an absolute refusal (in an election year!) to seize the moment and make ANY kind of political use of the event.
Because here was an issue that was actually “bipartisan”—EVERYBODY hates insurers! It would have been easy (so, so easy!) for the Dems to do something (anything!) with it. But of course you knew that they would do exactly what they did in fact do: which was to (1) do nothing and then (2) pat themselves on the back for their inaction.
W/r/t Ezra Klein, I would expect nothing less from our leading liberal “public intellectual” to not know any history and for that reason get propaganda of the deed exactly backwards. The only question is, whether he and the NYT are really so stupid as to not know the difference between state-sponsored terror and anarchist direct action, or whether they are deliberately misleading their readership. I think the answer to this is probably that they simply don’t know the difference. I suspect that for them “propaganda of the deed” is just something that sounds bad, something from the bad old-timey times, and therefore why bother contextualizing it?
Great essay. Klein's lack of historical context is not surprising. From his perch, what he sees on the streets and campuses is the performative acting out of a pseudo-left. The "resistance" today is in no way analogous to the lethal conflict unleashed by by capital in Homestead Pa., Coeur d'Alene Idaho, or Ludlow Colorado. Anarchists and union leaders like Big Bill Heywood were literally fighting for their lives, not looking to create spectacle.
OH MY GOSH - this is the first thing i have read today -- what a wonderful morning opener! This will keep me sane all day...and many more days. Thank you Catherine for publishing this piece. THANK YOU Darren Gardner, for writing it, and so beautifully. Now i only need 98 more quotes on private ownership to make 100 for my sig. line. And bingo, a wonderful critique for my friends who rely on Klein : ).
[“Eventually.. ownership..the holy grail of our society, will be dismissed as plunder. Let’s trust the earth, and not too much ourselves.”
Peter Westbrook, Lynn Margulis Symposium: Celebrating A Life in Science, March 24, 2012]
oops, correction: And bingo, i have a wonderful critique for my friends who rely on Klein : ).