George W. Obama, Mel Gibson and the March 4th Event (at UC+)
by Richard Martin Oxman with Patrick Cockburn (involuntarily) contributing most of the first paragraph
Dedicated to Wayne and the fact that it is time for us all to follow a new paradigm

Nobody paid much attention in the West to violent incidents like those in Yemen last year, though many were recorded on film. The mounting crisis in the country only attracted notice when a Nigerian student was revealed to have been “trained” in Yemen by al-Qa’ida to detonate explosives in his underpants on a plane heading for Detroit. His botched attack has led to the US and Britain starting to become entangled in one of the more violent countries in the world. The problems of Yemen are social, economic and political, and stretch back to the civil war in Yemen in the 1960s, but Gordon Brown and George W. Obama believe solutions can be found by holding a one day summit on Yemen to “tackle extremism.”

Protesters (pissed over recent fee hikes, cuts and layoffs) throughout the UC system and other educational centers in California, in thinking that their March 4th actions (as planned to date) are going to produce solutions are… well, the whole shebang is slated to culminate in ZERO. In fact, it’ll be worse than ZERO ’cause precious heartbeats will have been used up in the name of nothing… nothing that can be construed as sufficiently significant or lasting. Gains made will be rolled back in much the same vein as bomb down the road utterly destroying any “agreement” that’s reached in Yemen during a 24-hour period. [The follow-up being talked about sounds very feeble to me.Or... did I hear someone with a righteous heart say something about a HUNGER STRIKE*?]

*Some old paradigms are not obsolete, and would work better than others in conjunction with a statewide effort/focus in solidarity. Would that I would have thought to suggest it. [Pause.] I’ll put it on the Norcal listserv (1/12/10)… but I’ll bet that the group’s anal retentive format — combined with its essential playacting thrust — will not allow for serious consideration of this powerful form of nonviolent pressure. I do hope that I am wrong.

There are systemic PROBLEMS in both situations which will not be addressed by one day’s blah blah or rah rah. Obviously. Well, maybe it’s not so obvious to those who believe some career politicians are not gangsters (or, at the very least, self-serving). Or to those who are delusional about what violence can generate… that will prove to be positive in the Big Picture.

And speaking of the Big Picture, let’s look at the prep for Mel Gibson’s next feature in Mexico: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8452477.stm (where he’s made it impossible for prisoners to see their loved ones). Gibson’s insensitivity to a lot of people and a lot things vis-a-vis his Apocalypto is well-known. And… so… it goes on… his callous career concerns continue… just as George melds into Barack, and just as the habitual form of ineffective protesting gets handed down from graduating class to graduating class and uncreative labor leader to unmaginative labor leader, and so on.

Our Big Picture includes the necessity of treating prisoners humanely, releasing prisoners. Looking at the nuclear weaponry subsidies in the UC system**, and so on. I recommend that readers glance at http://oxtogrind.org/archive/364 and follow some of the links therein… to get heads around… some new ground to explore. The old paradigms are dead… even if you insist that your head bashed was worth it, your felony a progressive act that moves things along expeditiously, your temporary occupation sufficiently fruitful. Sufficiently. Above and beyond planting seeds that will never bloom.

**This is one example of an issue which is worthy of pressuring The Regents about with the threat of a hunger strike to the death. Quantum realms beyond the potential impact of occupying buildings or terrorizing anyone.

When it came to the DEMANDS segment of the Berkeley campus Coordinating Committee meeting (1/10/10), I should have stood up and said that I recommended that NO DEMANDS BE MET. None because — as per the Chomsky’s “Mafia Principle” — the powers that be cannot be seen (in their minds) as having caved to pressure. Saving face, keeping reputation is of paramount importance, above and beyond the question of what is affordable, what steps can be taken back. It’s the principle that kept the Vietnam War going as long as it did. And it’ll apply to every single real threat to power in action because THEY have the firepower to back it up, the muscle.

I should have urged one and all to embrace TOSCA (or something like it) in lieu of having old models employed by protesters… as the main means. The masses imagined by our UC ingenues and the tired old guard joining hands with them… well, the image doesn’t match the people they’re trying to recruit, regardless of how angry and frustrated and starving they happen to be. For the powers that be know very well what the point is at which the vast majority of them will cease their verbal abuse and property damage, and recoil in horror at the baton and charging horseman. This is not your crowd at the Odessa Steps.

Again, none of this is to say that marches, occupations, etc. should NOT take place. It IS to say that they should not be the exclusive or even primary means embraced to change the status quo.

One has to lay the groundwork NOW for taking over California, and there’s no substitute for that. Especially not something straight out of Central Casting… like Murderer George W. Obama, Director/Producer Mel Gibson, and a cast of 1000s marching in circles with placards across campuses… facing unaccountable, unfeeling, dead-serious force. [Our enemy is habitual activist as much as the oppressor. See me for elaboration.]

I believe — I know — a better day lies ahead. Something utterly unlike the snow.

There will be no more killing of others, no more torture, no more buildup for catastrophe, no more proliferation of what’s toxic or wasteful. In my lifetime.

If I’m wrong and it takes a thousand years because of what so-called human nature has become… well, we better get started now, yes?

We do not have to take the Potemkin Stairs to Heaven. There is another way.

Contact The Ox at tosca.2010[at]yahoo.com
P.S. We do not have a 1000 years. We might just have a few years or so, but — at the very least — we do not have to take the lives of others’ children midst our ecocidal resolve. I wake up every morning and I go to sleep every evening — blessed with my Marcello — thinking about, feeling about the precious children alluded to in Deja Vu All Over Again.