I've just read a report in The New York Times about the efforts of the New York Police Department (NYPD) to spy upon potential protesters who were planning on disrupting the 2004 Republican National Convention meeting in New York. The lengths to which the police went to to investigate any threats was commendable... but ultimately a complete waste of time and money.
Of course, the NYPD managed to neutralise and prevent certain unlawful actions from taking place... but the entire process smacks of overkill. It was not the threat of terrorism that motivated this investigation, it was the threat to President Bush and the Republican party by left-wing protesters.
Violent left-wing opposition died back in the 1970s when The Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) gave up their activities. Since then no left wing group in America has resorted to violence, and many former members of these groups have since regretted their actions.
The reason is, essentially, that the Left Wing in most Western countries is essentially pacifist. Although the Weather Underground and SLA used violence, the death and injury toll wreaked by The Red Army Faction in Europe and The Japanese Red Army were far more damaging to leftist credibility. The only leftist guerilla organisation left in the Western World still using violence is ETA, whose actions in Spain are mainly nationalist rather than Marxist in intent.
In many ways, the "peace movement" of the 1960s, which was taken up quickly by the left, represented the mainstream of leftist thought at the time, rather than the isolated instances of leftist terrorist organisations. The continuing pacifism of the American left is one of its most obvious features. No leftist in America is spouting Marx and demanding revolution. No leftist is publically calling upon people to use violence against their oppressor, or against the Right wing.
Yet many on the right still think that the left is synonynmous with revolutionary communism and international terrorism. For many on the right, the left is a convenient representation of "the enemy". Thus the left, and the Democrats along with them, are oftentimes described as being worse than the terrorists and truly seek to destroy America.
This is not just a couple of right wing weirdoes who say this - it is the mainstream. Orson Scott Card, a right-wing science fiction author, has recently released a book called Empire which is a work of speculative fiction about what may happen in the future. What does Card think will happen? He writes about a radical leftist army taking control of America after a civil war, which is then overthrown by the forces of good - ie conservatives. Of course, Card is not exactly being creative at this point... his work is reminiscent of The Turner Diaries, a racist work of fiction dating back to 1978, about the future of America after a UN-sponsored left-wing coup and the survivalist right-wingers who take part in milita action against them.
Yet, when it comes down to it, who is more likely to take direct military action against citizens of the United States? Is it the Left or the Right?
Timothy McVeigh, a former soldier and right winger, took his hatred of the US government and the left to the only reasonable extreme - he blew up a bomb in Oklahoma city and killed 168 people. McVeigh was a fan of The Turner Diaries.
After the horrific 9/11 attacks, one could only imagine what some right-wing militia survivalists would be thinking. Since they had all read the Turner Diaries, they would probably have identified this as the moment of action, when the UN (or whoever) was acting to strike against the United States, overthrow its government and enslave its people. So what did they do? They attacked first... with Anthrax.
The 2001 Anthrax attacks are interesting because they reveal what lengths domestic terrorists are willing to go to in order to further their ends. This was no attack by the SLA or Weathermen - they were amateurs compared to those who were responsible for the anthrax attack. For starters, in order to gain the Anthrax, these Domestic terrorists would have had some way of getting it from American biological warfare stocks. Obviously someone with high security clearance was able to run off with a sample of anthrax and give it to his friends who were planning to strike first.
But it was who these domestic terrorists aimed at that was improtant. Anthrax was sent to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, The New York Post, The National Enquirer, and two US Senators - Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle, both leading Democrats. In short, the Anthrax was aimed at the Mainstream Media (MSM) and the Democratic Party - both targets of Right wing hatred and derision.
Many in the right wing are fearful of some mythical left wing coup, sponsored by the UN and involving dark conspiratorial forces. But the fact is that the Left, by being pacifist, will do no such thing. On the other hand, history has shown us that, at least in the last 15-20 years, that Right wingers are far more likely to engage in domestic terrorism.
Now think back to the NYPD's role in left-wing surveillance. What do we learn from their experience in this area?
It was obvious that many left wing groups were willing to break the law and engage in public mischief during the 2004 Republican National Convention, but the report by the NYPD does not have one shred of evidence of an organised left-wing conspiracy behind it all. They were merely disparate groups, some willing to advocate public mischief like throwing "faux feces", but none willing, or even able, to involve themselves in anything worse than that.
On the other hand, Right Wing groups are more likely to be gun owners and have members who belong to survivalist militias. These are people who have taken onboard the racist rantings of The Turner Diaries and believe with all their hearts in wild conspiracies about the UN invading America and destroying all that America holds dear. These are people who will write off even the most basic and easily provable facts reported in the news because the "MSM" is trying to destroy America, while all the time believing Fox news and their propaganda. These are people who will put up pictures of Hillary Clinton to aim at on firing ranges. These are people who think with their trigger fingers, whose fear of armed confrontation inevitably results in armed confrontation by these same people.
I'll leave you with some lyrics from a recent Nine Inch Nails song:
I got my propaganda
I got revisionism
I got my violence
In hi-def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist
I got my plan
I got survivalism
From the One Salient Overlord Department
© 2007 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/
FAQ about the author
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
No comments:
Post a Comment