Apparently tasers can break your back. There's been a lot of talk about breaking the back of resistance lately, and that, it appears, is what they are doing to our children: manufacturing a spineless society. I am shaking with anger.
So there's also a class element. The poor, the marginalised know about this, they live this, but now it's touching the middle classes. Ask too many questions, get too loud, once the police man (or woman) decides enough's enough...ach Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
manufacturing a spineless society
The best way to ensure that you reproduce is to follow the crowd and play by the rules. As such very, very few individuals throughout history have encouraged individualistic behavior, particularly for women (as risk taking by men can sometimes lead to big rewards). What % of people participated in the movements of the 60's? I think the number is smaller than most people imagine.
As the Vietnam draft showed, or the civil rights movement for that matter showed, people will not riot and risk arrest until the potential benefits outweigh the real costs.
you are the media you consume.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/student.tasered/index.html
This is a good example of the technologies that enable the surveillance state working in the opposite direction. I could see a lawsuit without the combo of a video camera and youtube, but this damning, direct evidence instantly forced the hand of the police to put these guys on leave, and the odds of this guy winning a lawsuit based on excessive force are pretty good.
so? lawsuits? no, emigration. Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine
About emigration, a word that's often used in this sort of situation and that generates the most useless debate (i know i know, i used that word, so i'm just clarifying), it simply involves choosing to which government you give your money, and what actions you thus condone. You may think that political involvement can outweight this... I don't. But that's another discussion, more complicated than being coward or not being one. Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine
As far as emigration and choosing your government, I'd like to see more open borders but we're not going to have them anytime soon. Until the world is overall more equitable and the human population is under control we won't see it.
As a result there is no reason to see the police as a institutional agent aiming at reducing crime, checked by a judicial system, and in which lawsuits are a check, or in which lawsuit signal political resistance. Rien n'est gratuit en ce bas monde. Tout s'expie, le bien comme le mal, se paie tot ou tard. Le bien c'est beaucoup plus cher, forcement. Celine
No one in the audience protested! Some even seemed to be amused!
According to MSNBC's report, Kerry simply went back to the question and answer session while this man was being violated! ... For having been called upon by Kerry himself and having asked a controversial question.
Words fail me. .
