George Floyd, Protests, and Rioting (Part 4): Where We’re Going Wrong, into the Arms of Joker and Bane

In the 3-4 weeks since George Floyd’s murder, after the protests, riots, lootings, and endless debate and discussion throughout the country, despite the fact we still are in the middle of a whole lot of chaos, there are a few things we all should see clearly, at least at this point:

• The main problem involving racial injustice is not white cops killing unarmed black men. The basic facts of reality show this not to be the case. That narrative simply is not true.
• The main problem, rather, is that of the mass incarceration of black men that has come about as a result of our current society’s attempt to deal with problems like drugs and drug-related crimes that have come about as a result of the past racist policies of the early and mid-20^th century.
• Thus, the core problem is that of the hopelessness of minority communities living in the inner cities, where there are drugs, gangs, failed schools, and no economic opportunities for people living there. If you are going to point a finger at anyone, point a finger at those city politicians who have been in charge of those cities for decades upon decades, yet have done absolutely nothing to address those problems.

If you want to get a better understanding of how all this came about, view this video from, as odd as it sounds, the creator of Veggie Tales:

But That Doesn’t Seem to be the Focus
We might be much more unified as a country if more politicians, media outlets, and activist groups were focused on what the problems that actually exist. Sadly, though, this isn’t the case. Instead, what we are getting is a demonization of all police, a nationwide destruction and vandalism of monuments, and predictably the labelling of anyone who questions or speaks against these actions as being racist. Or if I can put it this way, the general vibe seems to be this: If you are against the defunding of the police, if you question the destruction of national monuments, if you don’t publicly “repent of your whiteness,” and (if you are a corporation) if you don’t donate millions of dollars to groups like Black Lives Matter, then you are a white supremacist and a racist.

Although nobody literally says that, the fact is, that is impression a lot of people are getting. Even with this short series on my small blog, I’ve had a number of people message me privately to tell me they are afraid to say anything that questions this prevailing narrative, for fear of being called racist. And this is what is so troubling to me. Again, everyone was horrified at George Floyd’s murder and everyone sees police brutality is wrong and wants to see reforms to policing so that bad cops are rooted out. But what is going on seems to have very little to actually address real problems, and a whole lot more with labelling who/who isn’t a racist/white supremacist, so that everyone knows who the “enemy” is.

And this is where language manipulation comes into play, as I touched upon in my last post. Terms like “white supremacist,” “Nazi,” and “fascist” used to refer to specific groups, like the KKK or neo-Nazis. But now those terms have been redefined, it seems, to refer to anyone who voted for Trump, supports the GOP,or who refuses to take Vox and MSNBC seriously. Given that, it is not surprising at all to see so many people in a perpetual panic—it’s as if they really believe there are more Nazis in America today than there were in Hitler’s Germany. There are quite a few things wrong with Trump, but no, he’s not a Nazi or a KKK-loving white supremacist. You might disagree with the GOP party platform, but no, it is not a fascist party. To use those terms in that way is to let yourself be manipulated by a much more sinister agenda that we see playing out in our country today.

Case in point, consider Antifa groups. I’ve actually heard people defend Antifa, on the grounds that all they are doing is “fighting fascism.” Well, news flash, but “fascism” according to Antifa is not what you think fascism is. According to Antifa, America itself is a fascist country on par with Hitler’s Germany. The fact that many Antifa groups use the hammer and sickle of the USSR also should be a big red flag, both literally and figuratively.

Let’s just step back and look at what has been going on. All of a sudden, TV shows like Cops and Live PD have been cancelled. Why? Because those shows humanize police officers, show that the vast majority of them are good, honorable people, and show just how dangerous the job is. And since those shows contradict this new narrative that all cops are racist bad guys, they must be taken off the air. There was even an article in Rolling Stone entitled, “Sorry, Olivia Benson Is Canceled Too” (with the subtitle, “The Law and Order SVU protagonist gets lionized as a TV ‘good cop.’ That does real world damage”). It argued that even characters like Olivia Benson of Law and Order: SVU probably had to go away for the “sin” of being a character that presents police officers in a good light. That is madness.

Or how about the recent rash of vandalism and destruction of national statues and monuments? The movement to take down various Confederate statues and memorials gained steam only a few years ago. Not everyone was on board with that, though, on the grounds that those monuments were part of our history and rather than trying to erase that history, that we should let them serve as a reminder to what we used to be as a country and a testimony to how far we’ve come as a country. On top of that, some warned that those who were calling for the destruction of the Confederate statues would soon be calling for the destruction of statues and memorials to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, because they, in fact, had been slave owners. At that time, those who made those arguments were not only called, predictably, “racist” and “white supremacists,” but paranoid and crazy as well: no one was going to try to destroy statues of Washington and Jefferson.

What have we seen over the past two weeks? A statue of George Washington was vandalized in Chicago with “slave owner” and “burn down the White House” scrawled on it, while a KKK hood was put over Washington’s head. A statue of Thomas Jefferson was vandalized and torn down in Portland, Oregon, with “BLM,” “slave owner,” and “decolonize” spray painted on it. In Philadelphia, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution was vandalized with “Committed Genocide” spray painted on it. In Delaware, a memorial to State Police who have died in the line of duty was vandalized with “Black Lives Matter” spray painted on it. In Boston, there are calls to take down a statue of Abraham Lincoln, and the Shaw Memorial that celebrates the first African American military unit to fight against the South in the Civil War was vandalized. There have been many other statues of abolitionists that have been vandalized and destroyed as well. What does any of that have to do with addressing the pressing racial concerns that are pressing on us today? How does defacing memorials that celebrate the freeing of slaves and the first black regiment in the Civil War in any way, shape, or form, promote justice and equality for black lives? It doesn’t.

Now, an argument can be made regarding Confederate statues and memorials, but even with that, if a city or town wants to take them down, it should be because the citizens of the town decide they want to take it down and it goes through a democratic process. They shouldn’t be ripped down or vandalized at the hands of an angry mob. In fact, in the town where I live, there is an attempt to get one of the buildings at the university renamed because it is currently named for a former governor who was a Grand Cyclops in the KKK. I would be completely fine if the building was renamed. That being said, let’s be honest, renaming a building or taking down a statue really isn’t going to help minority communities in the inner city, where the real problems are.

Consider Whom You are Supporting
Given the current turmoil in our country, imagine if a group gained national prominence that, in the name of attaining racial justice, demanded the following things:

1. The abolition of all police
2. The abolition of all jails and detention centers
3. The end of all deportation and all immigration laws
4. The end of all money bail
5. Decriminalization of all drugs and all prostitution
6. Universal, government-run healthcare
7. A government-enforced radical redistribution of wealth
8. The disruption of the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure
9. The end to all private education and private schools
10. The end to all fossil fuels
11. The right to vote for all people (not just citizens)
12. The end to capitalism
13. All that would lead to a new system were black and marginalized people could “effectively exercise full political power”

Imagine what society would look like if all those things were done. Now, some individual points may have some merit and are worth discussing, but would you really want to live in a society like that? For the life of me, I fail to see how most, if any, of those items actually promote racial justice. If anything, that sounds like chaos and anarchy. And yet, all of these items are clearly stated demands by the Black Lives Matter organization (BLM). For that matter, many of those aims are stated by countless other activists groups as well, but for the sake of this post, I am simply going to focus on BLM.

If BLM was simply devoted to pursuing justice for minorities who have had their rights violated and have had justice denied to them, that would be one thing—that kind of thing I would wholeheartedly support. But the fact is, BLM is promoting an agenda that would result in the untold suffering and death of many more black lives, not to mention a whole lot of other lives as well. Simply put, the prescription BLM is promoting is not a prescription for justice. It’s a prescription for anarchy and societal suicide. It is precisely because black lives really do matter that I could never in good conscience support the BLM organization.

Take, for example, the new push to “defund the police.” No one in their right mind who has actually read BLM’s (as well as countless other activist groups’) stated demands can come away thinking that they don’t want to actually abolish the police and all jails—they literally state that very thing. Despite what various talking heads in the media are saying, it is crystal clear that the stated goal of BLM and other groups isn’t to reform the police, but to abolish it. In addition, I think it is very telling that Trayvon Martin’s own mother and George Floyd’s own brother have come out against any notion of “defunding the police.” Thus, we have this truly bizarre dynamic of BLM using these tragedies as justification for certain demands that the very victims of those tragedies wholly reject.

Most people really do see that there still is racial injustice in our country and really do want reforms that will address those problems. Unfortunately, because we are Americans after all, we have been conditioned to make all our political and societal decisions based on ad campaigns, slick-sounding slogans, and hashtag campaigns. And so, we see the slogan, “Black Lives Matter,” and we think, “Of course black lives matter! I want to do something! I’ll support the BLM!” But we base our support on that name, without ever taking the time to understand what the actual aims and agenda of that organization is. That is a very dangerous thing to do.

Think about how insane it is that countless major corporations and businesses have donated millions of dollars to BLM, an organization that has, as its stated goal, the destruction of the very free market capitalist system that has made it possible for those business to exist and thrive. These businesses are donating millions of dollars to their own would-be executioner. That is madness. Why do they do it? They think these activist groups can be placated with money and a mouthing of their slogan, and, quite frankly, they see it as a marketing opportunity. Big businesses attach their names to BLM to make you think they are good, moral, and that they really care, when in reality, they just want to you buy more of their stuff.

The same principle holds with many politicians who go to speak at BLM protests, yet are caught on a hot mic telling someone that if they weren’t up for re-election, they wouldn’t care about this. Or politicians take part in BLM marches or who drape themselves in Kente cloth and kneel in silence for 8:46 to supposedly honor George Floyd, and by such self-righteous pandering, think they will appease these activist groups and gain a few votes. They don’t get it. These activist groups are revolutionaries who no longer believe in the American system, precisely because of the ineptitude, hypocrisy, and worthless pandering of politicians like these. They’re more than happy to use spineless and clueless corporations and politicians to gain more power, but they don’t want to reform anything. They want a revolution that will destroy the entire system. If you don’t think it could happen, you don’t know your history.

Trading Monarchy for the Guillotine and the Gulag
On July 14^th, 1789, French revolutionaries led an angry mob of Parisians to the political prison known as the Bastille and proceeded to storm the fortress. The Bastille had become the symbol of oppression for the revolutionary movement in France. It represented the evil and torture that King Louis XVI had inflicted on the French people. Upon storming the Bastille, they found that it was holding a grand total of seven prisoners. It turned out that although Louis XVI was a grossly inept ruler, he wasn’t the butcher that the revolutionaries claimed he was.

Nevertheless, King Louis XVI gave in to the revolutionaries’ demand and stepped down from power. It didn’t matter. Within a few years, the revolutionaries beheaded him and Marie Antoinette anyway, and shortly after their executions, the revolution devolved into the Reign of Terror, with thousands of people being sent to the guillotine for public beheadings. A few years later, Napoleon Bonaparte seized power to become the Emperor, every bit as authoritarian, if not more so, than Louis XVI—but at least he stopped the chaos and terror.

In February of 1917, the Russian people rose up in revolution against Czar Nicholas II. By all accounts, he was a generally incompetent ruler and his incompetency had led to quite a bit of suffering of the Russian people. By March, though, Czar Nicholas II stepped down and a new provisional democratic government was established. Many people whom the Czar had exiled from Russia came back, among whom were the likes of Vladimir Lenin and many Bolsheviks. In October of 1917, the new government that had been established was overthrown by Lenin’s Bolsheviks, and the USSR was born, and along with it came 70 years of the most inhumane and murderous regime the world has ever known.

The situation in 18^th century France and early 20^th century Russia was truly grim. In both cases, the common people were suffering very real hardships. In both cases, their rulers were not only detached from the reality of the suffering of their people, they proved themselves to be incompetent and clueless leaders. And since they were monarchs, one might be tempted to say that the people had no other recourse than revolution. It wasn’t like they could vote the king out of office!

But the fact was that in both cases, the king willingly abdicated his throne so that a democratic government could be formed. Nevertheless, despite being given the opportunity to establish a democratic government, the masses somehow were manipulated by a powerful and dangerous minority of radicals who were able to play upon their fears, undermine their attempts at democracy, and in its place give the people a kind of authoritarianism that unleashed death and chaos. In both cases, the people wanted democracy and more justice, and what the revolutionaries gave them was the guillotine and the gulag.

Now, I’m sure many well-intentioned people in France gladly identified themselves with the Jacobins and many sincere Russians embraced the Bolsheviks. They wanted justice and reform, but they weren’t able to see that there was a small minority of people within those movements that was able to co-opt the populace’s sincere desire for justice and steer it into anarchy and terror. The same dynamic happened in Germany in the 1920s. At that time, the Nazi party was a small-time nothing movement, but the despair that enveloped Germany after WWI was so great that within ten years the Nazi party was able to rise to power, and we all know the kind of terror they brought about.

All three of these instances happened very quickly. The radicals of these revolutions had gained power and imposed their will before most people knew what had happened. Will that kind of thing happen in America? I hope not. But there certainly are those who are trying to make it come about, and we shouldn’t be willfully blind.

Fiction Becoming Reality
Now, I do not for one second think that everyone in BLM, or everyone who has carried BLM signs, wants to actually destroy our society. If it wasn’t for groups like BLM or the actions of Colin Kaepernick, much of the current racial injustice in our society might not have ever come to public light. For that, we should be grateful. But it is beyond question that there are real, dyed in the wool radical revolutionaries within many of these activist groups who would like nothing more than the complete ruin of America and Western society as a whole. When a spirit of revolution begins to rear its head, it’s a sign that there are some very serious problems in that society that have long needed to be addressed. The wise thing is to address them before the radicals take over. We don’t want a modern American Robespierre or Lenin.

We need to remember that most of us, left-right, liberal-conservative, Democrat-Republican, actually want mostly the same things and we agree on a lot more than we realize. We need to put the partisanship aside, work together to address the actual problems that need to be addressed, and through our democracy hold politicians who are all talk and no action accountable. One common sense thing most voters agree on is getting rid of the gerrymandering that insures most of our politicians never have to have a serious challenger again. All they have to do is stoke partisan fears to gin up their base, and they can completely ignore the political minority in their own districts. Redistrict the entire map and force politicians and voters in each party to have to work together for the common good.

That, though, might prove to be too much of a pipe dream. If it is, I’m not feeling too good about our country’s future. As I’ve watched things exceedingly deteriorate over the past few years, I’ve often found myself thinking, of all things, about the Batman trilogy starring Christian Bale, particularly the characters of Joker and Bane. Joker was the epitome of nihilism who realized just how close society always is to going off a cliff. His opinion of society?

• “You see, their morals, their code—it’s a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They’re only as good as the world allows them to be. When the chips are down, these civilized people, they’ll eat each other.”
• “Introduce a little anarchy, upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos. I am an agent of chaos. And the thing about chaos, it’s fair.”

And then there was Bane, who could be the spokesman for virtually every Marxist/Anarchist group out there today. He wanted to fulfill the agenda of the League of Shadows and bring about the destruction of Gotham. He does so by telling the citizens:

• “We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you…the people! Gotham is yours! None shall interfere! Do as you please! Start by storming the black gate and freeing the oppressed! Step forward, those who would serve, for an army will be raised! The powerful shall be ripped from their decadent nests and cast into the cold world that we know and endure. Courts will be convened. Spoils will be enjoyed. Blood will be shed. The police will survive, only as they learn to serve true justice. This great city will endure! Gotham will survive!”

Change the word “Gotham” with “New York,” “Chicago,” or just “America,” and you’ll see just how much Bane’s words echo many of the speeches we are hearing today by various radical groups who are calling for the same things. In private, though, Bane reveals his true intent:

• “Like ship-wrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So, as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe they can survive so that you [Batman] can watch them clamoring over each other to stay in the sun.”

That is what I fear is happening in our society, and it goes much deeper than any pressing injustice within our society and it goes far beyond any one group. It is the forces of evil and chaos that are playing upon our fears and human frailties to get us to cannibalize each other. There will always be problems and injustices that we, if we strive to be a united people, can work together to fix. But fear and rigid ideology is always working, both in society and within each human heart, to tear apart the fabric of society that holds us together. It seems we are fraying while the Joker laughs and while Bane relishes the terror that has been unleashed.

I hope more people realize this before it is too late.