Last night
while watching the rioting – not to be confused with the peaceful protests earlier
in the day about the police abuse of minorities in the George Floyd murder case
– I was awakened to one of the street interviews by a reporter from my local
area of Los Angeles. Earlier in the
evening reporters had interviewed some of the protestors, not rioters, one a
young college educated minority who talked about the inequities of social and
racial justice in our society, trying to explain why this rioting, and the
looting and destruction of stores was happening. In another separate interview the reporter
had a husband-wife business owner team on mike asking if their business was destroyed
as the reporter pointed out the destroyed looted buildings in the
neighborhood. “No” they said, “We are a
service company. We do not sell
merchandise, so there is nothing to steal or anything that they [the looters]
would want, they skipped us.” I had to
think about that; it struck me.
I am well
into being a septuagenarian now, so I am well aware of riots from previous
decades where the issues were similar to today; and, being a history major,
some that preceded my existence. The
last major riot we had in Los Angeles was in 1992 related to the verdict
acquitting police officers in the beating of Rodney King for a high-speed chase; and that involved the breaking of windows,
looting stores, and setting fires.
Breaking windows, interesting analogy?
Breaking Windows in Los
Angeles – 2020?
1992?, that
was right when Windows 3.1 came out, the first really popular version of a
multimedia, graphical user interface program that replaced DOS-based software,
and made navigating around the early Internet (prior to web-based search
engines) much easier with a browser that could easily take you to a specific
web site or bulletin board – this is all prior to Google and the World Wide
Web. 1992?, that was right after the
collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
1992?, that was right before globalization would get an impetus from the
collapse of communism and really start to take off for linking the world in an
economic system that would spread resources more efficiently and productively
for the benefit of humankind. Right???
Well it was
during that riot in 1992 where stores were looted and burned. This time what I noticed was the looting in
particular, and the setting fire to, seemed to be more organized on the part of
the rioters – several vehicles would
drive up a boulevard in a shopping district, several people would get out
dressed in dark clothes and with hoods and masks, go about breaking windows and
doors to gain entry, and loot the place and come out with merchandise that was
loaded in the vehicles and drive away, and eventually wind up in another
shopping district to repeat the scene all over again. But I wondered, what were they gaining of
value to lash out at society this time? Merchandise/goods? We’re in a digital economy today. A service economy today. An information economy where knowledge-based
work is performed and the people who do that work today are by and large
handsomely rewarded. What damage is
being done to this society today with this riotous behavior, a society that is
still mired in inequities and social and racial injustice? Is this just a modern day version of the rage
and anger of Luddites striking out futilely against inevitable societal changes
that perpetuate past grievances and wrongs?
Luddites in England during
the industrialization of early 19th Century
The rioters,
and the protestors that defend this defiance, striking out against the material
possessions of a modernizing wealthy society are misdirected, because in the
intervening time since the Rodney King Riots and 1992, the wealth of a modern
society has transmuted into an information age and knowledge-based society
where value manifests itself less visibly.
The threat to a democratic society is not in the maldistribution of
material possessions but in the inequality of opportunity when a
knowledge-based society serves the interests of an oligarchic, aristocratic
meritocracy. These modern day Luddites
are digitally duped, deceived, and lost their focus on a remedy, which needs
redirection toward participation in our democratic process as well as its
institutions, and not breaking windows to get in.
There were
two videos last week that highlighted the inequality and social-racial
injustice in our society. What happened
to George Floyd at the hands (knee) of the police was just one example. The other was just as telling although less
horrific; bird watcher Christian Cooper, a gentle man who politely asked a young
lady walking her dog off leash to tether the dog as posted on signs in that
area of Central Park reserved for birders, whereupon the women got on her phone
and called police to say she was in danger, and not stopping there but to add
that she was being threatened by an African-American. If there is a problem of White Supremacy in
this country, it sure played out more subtly with this example, which is more
than just an illustration of class entitlement or poor momentary judgment.
In addition
to our digital divide in this country, we also have a political divide. And that political divide is stoked by a
president who uses derision as a strategic weapon to divide and conquer in a
nation where all other presidents prior to him used their abilities to broaden
their political coalition. President
Trump has used rhetoric, and described situations like the protests in
Charlottesville, Virginia, and a literal descent from the escalator ride in
Trump Tower to a figurative descent into nativism and White Supremacy when he
announced his run for the presidency that day; this to govern a country which
is becoming a majority-minority nation.
How did such
a person get to be the leader of the Free World I will leave to others to
analyze. His inadequacies as a national
leader are very apparent, especially as we deal with an international pandemic with
national proportions which strikes at
people of color members of our nation disproportionately to their
representation. He is unable to provide
leadership to a great nation because of a strategy that only appeals to half of
the nation; so that when an issue like the pandemic requires a unified
response, he has neutered himself in trying to rally all the troops.
President
Trump has proven inept at managing our vast bureaucracy; but, he has managed to
overcome this by being legitimized by a Right Wing faction out to serve their
own political agenda by working with and enabling this person with so many
leadership deficiencies while undermining our professional civil service and the
one and only institutional business mentioned in the Constitution to protect
our liberties, the media, which he has repeatedly called “the enemy” and the
Right Wing faction has embraced the criticism with references to the “Deep
State”, previously known as our
democratic institutions.
I do not
know what President Trump’s personal motivation was for seeking the presidency,
a role of leadership for the Free World that has been used to advance
democratic values. No society is
perfect, but the one example that the American system of democracy has over
others, is that we have been malleable to change, right from our founding, so
that whatever the issues are that plague our society, like racism, can be
institutionally addressed and self-corrected.
However, only so much can be done with the passing of laws; to change
what is in the hearts and minds of people will require something not found in
any historical document or proclamation or utterance from any official.
If America
is to advance the cause of liberty and democracy to itself as well as other
nations and fulfill the quest of the founding fathers as symbolically
represented by Lady Liberty in the New York harbor, given to us by the French
as a beacon for others, that used to greet newly arriving immigrants and still
manages to be an inspiration for visitors as well as foreigners in their own
land, it must find a way to be inclusive in its social fabric.
Tiananmen Square Protests
in China – 1989
