Yet Again, Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming
"Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice."
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849
In case you might have missed it, Governor Nixon of Missouri has called out the state's National Guard unit to Ferguson, Missouri, in an attempt to restore order after the latest police "brutality" incident.
Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming, sadly, once again.
From Welcome Back to Pottersville: Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming by jurassicpork:
[Henry David Thoreau,] the New England transcendentalist and abolitionist who once famously said, "That government is best which governs least" would've been apoplectic had he seen what's going on in Ferguson, Missouri.More from Welcome Back to Pottersville: Tin Soldiers and Nixon's Coming.
He definitely would've gone over the edge on hearing that [Missouri Governor] Jay Nixon, in an eerie reprisal of Kent State, had signed an executive order sending the National Guard to Ferguson and Florissant to oppose the largely peaceful protesters. Indeed, his executive order reads exactly like Orwellian boilerplate, with all the blame being cast on the civilians who have no weapons and have killed no one and even having the gall to invoke Mike Brown's name to restore order. You know, the Mike Brown who was murdered by a St. Louis County cop named Darren Wilson who didn't even know Brown was a suspect in a petty robbery and sparked off this massive, growing civil disobedience.
Anyone even tangentially and obliquely familiar with his work could accurately anticipate the horror with which Thoreau would've viewed the reports coming out of Missouri. By today's standards and the rigid, ideological divisions of today, he would've been considered an odd duck: The man who'd famously built a cabin in Lincoln and lived among the flora and fauna, fighting tirelessly for the environment was America's proto-hippie. But there was another side to Thoreau who just as famously concluded that all governments are corrupt and, at best, were no more moral, just or legitimate than the free will of every and any individual.
"Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago."
- "Ohio" by Neil Young
Students and National Guard Clash at Kent State, Ohio - May 4, 1970
Also, see 40 Years Since 4 Dead in Ohio: Kent State Massacre Remembered.
by thrasher@PermaLink: 8/18/2014 05:40:00 PM
8 comments
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8 Comments:
no one cares about your stupid comparison to kent state
What a lazy, stupid comparison. Your comparing four young students protesting injustice to those lawbreakers defending an apparent felon who looked for trouble and found it, is deeply insulting to the families of those principled youngsters and, yes, Neil Young.
Wise up!
@anon - really? More so than anon commenters opinions?
@PissedOff - "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".
~~ George Santayana
or
"Don't forget what your good book said." ~~Neil
@Anon - ps: see http://gregmitchellwriter.blogspot.com/2014/08/tin-soldiers-and-jay-nixon-coming.html
Apparently we're not the only one to draw parallel between 1970 & 2014.
Some us would like to see a different outcome than 1970. And you?
This is exactly why I stopped reading this site daily and only visit rarely now. Stupid political commentary. I'm much more interested in music and leave the politics to someone else Thrasher. I'm sure you will come up with a wisea$$ comeback though. Rust never sleeps!!
@Justin - back again we see.
Thanks for stopping by. This post is for you.
“In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”
~~George Orwell
And just in case you missed the point... many in the modern age have the will to bury their head in the sand when it comes to political matters, nobody can only concern themselves with the proverbial pebble in their shoe.
If one is successful in avoiding politics, at some point the effects of the political decisions they abstained from participating in will reach their front door. More often than not, by that time the person has already lost whatever whisper of a voice the government has allowed them.
your loss, their gain.
happy?
Excellent coverage of this can be found at
http://www.stltoday.com/
Well....if Allison Krause was beating a cop, after robbing a store....they might be alike! Good lord..
Paul
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