Maybe it's time we get to the heart of the matter on the idea that the po'lice (police) are the group we should be so hateful of. If we don't begin to get beyond hate of entire groups, no matter the stripe, all we do is play into the hands of policy makers!
The following comes from a comment I made on an Australian IMC comment area (under the story about propaganda). Perhaps it's time we began to have a discussion about situations when they become so hysterical on both sides that po'lice (soldiers called cops) resort to shooting live bullets, and leftists resort to fanning the flames of hate of an element of society which appears to more about distraction from our alleged goals than anything else.
If you haven't done this yet, first you need some background on the way policy makers think, and why they do what they do. The best resource on this that I know of is Noam Chomsky. Another good one is ex-c.i.a. dissident John Stockwell (www.thirdworldtraveller.com/Stockwell/).
These two peolple articulate the game best in my view, with Chomsky being by far the best at demystifying the ideologies that perpetuate the problem at its heart.
Basically, Chomsky gives us a kind of "blueprint" in his institutional analysis (like the link below) upon which we can then start to see that people across the board, idealistic youths, cops, etc. have all been successfully made to believe that they're rather alone in wanting society to be sane; and even when they seem to be a part of a group of others, they feel insignificant next to the Appearances of the dominant paradigm. That is, a paradigm soaked with *INTENDED MANIPULATION OF EMOTIONALLY POTENT OVERSIMPLIFICATIONS* on broad terms.
Like any soldier, a cop is well-indoctrinated into the devoutly "normal" belief systems of their society. They don't join up with the police wanting to beat the shit out of or shoot idealistic, often middle class-hailing, youth. But after awhile, after being conditioned by the lop-sided information of those they trust, cops can be manipulated, like any soldier, to believe that beating the shit out of others, or shooting them, is "the only way" problems get "solved."
Dealing with the real problem
First we need to understand how we are all similar in our basic desires for getting along; but we are all manipulated by hype and lop-sided information, and for reasons that we ought to scrutinize.
Whether info is "anti" cops, or "for" cops, both sides are using HYPE, and it's about time the game be demystified so that we can GET BACK to what we wish to do: making society more constructive for all!
It's about time we pull the curtains back from the Wizards of Oz and UNDERSTAND the roots of what is going down!
This is where overhauling the obsolete methods of interacting with terroristic power** comes in (**the state, the business interests which owns it, and the bigoted ideology underlying the entire game). Here, I'd first send you to read Noam Chomsky's speech "MEDIA CONTROL: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda"
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6904/Chom1.html
(this version is complete, unlike ZNet's version)
After you get an understanding of the bigoted ideology that runs Oz/Brave New World, you can then more clearly proceed in creating new methods of interaction with power which don't allow power to fool us over and over again.
The next problem is that policy makers have insulated themselves from the masses for interesting reasons. I don't want to promote that we now begin to hate the string pullers of Oz/Brave New World. I want to promote that we learn how to bridge with each other. No bullshit, no passive game playing, but also no perpetuation of human stupidity!!!!
More on this later!
a sneak preview:
What if persons being deeply hurt by terroristic powers understood that, for one, those pulling the strings are INDIVIDUALS who themselves have been convinced (usually as unprepared kids) that they MUST subordinate their individuality to the Givens of Social Management doctrine?
What if we could organize ways to constantly seek to build bridges to the most responsible-feeling amongst policy makers and their highest ranking implementers? Like u.s. social challengers were able to do with c.i.a. dissident John Stockwell.
Of course, most don't now want to interact with the oppressors in this way; interesting why that is. We're exactly where we're supposed to be.
Original: Getting Shot in EU Riots: consequences of dichotomisms?