Right-wing populist governments with designs on capturing the state and fascism, such as Donald Trump’s and Boris Johnson’s are, are bringing home the shock doctrine consecutive US and British governments have employed on their foreign interventionist adventures since the US-backed coup and military takeover of Chile in 1973. This is the neoliberal dream; to see powerful and cohesive democracies softened up by truncheons, rent asunder by socio-economic division, and fractured into thousands of squabbling factions of the oppressed.
Subtle as a Brick
This is not what should happen in a free and democratic society. Our leaders have power only because we consent to be governed. They press the flesh of police officers and soldiers at photo-ops, they do not use them as witting or unwitting props in a campaign of intimidation. Democratic leaders do not politicise the police and the army and otherwise make their members instruments in a partisan conflict in which it is likely some level of force will be used. This is an upsetting development and one we must now all watch closely.
La Violència: Violent Political Policing in a Democracy
Our problem with such violent political policing is not the violence per se. We are used to violence. Western civilisation was built on violence, and is perhaps the greatest purveyor and consumer of warfare and state sponsored violence in the history of the human race. Rather, our problem with this sacrilege is that it shatters our illusions pertaining to the nature and power of democracy. It reminds us that democracy is a pacifier; a ritual that sedates people with the tranquiliser of the mere impression of control while the state qua the ruling establishment is free to get on with the business of power.
Damn Right there was a Referendum
Mr. Rajoy can be damn sure there was a referendum. Spanish nationalists and Scotland’s British nationalists – eager to keep the independence movement here at heel – have been repeating the chorus, “the vote was illegal – the police were in the right.” The Catalan government was expected to negotiate with the central government in Madrid, but they failed to do this. No talks have happened with Spain because such talks, according to the Spanish Constitution, are themselves illegal. Spain’s Constitution forbids constitutional change and talk of it is seditious.
Treating the Homeless like Cockroaches
Neither Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil have shown any serious commitment to tackling the homeless crisis. They have been content to have people put onto the streets and leave it to the law to make the victims invisible.
It Turns Out the Gardaí have a Sense of Humour
You can’t beat that sort of carry on with a stick. Now I’m not sure if this newfound sense of humour makes up for all the times they have beaten me with a stick, but it does show that there is something happening between their ears.
Is the United States a Racist Police State?
Black Lives Matter, as the name of the movement reacting against this American normality, is most interesting because it precisely names the problem. Neither American nor European society truly believes that the lives of black human beings matter.
Random Public Journal 