Disaffection and violence

[lemit]

As I write this, Fox News Channel is trying to point out that today's shooting at the Holocaust Museum could have been done by anybody, regardless of political affiliation.

That is, of course, hogwash, pure and simple. FNC is revealing itself to be somewhere to the right of any reasonable, viable point on the political spectrum. But it is also, inadvertantly, raising an interesting point.

I remember reading, when I was in the anti-Vietnam War movement, that disaffection and violence are very closely connected. Can anybody think of sources where I might have read that, or any more contemporary sources for the same information?

I'll join in the discussion (assuming there is a discussion) later. Right now I'm a little upset.

--lemit

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by lemit

As I write this, Fox News Channel is trying to point out that today's shooting at the Holocaust Museum could have been done by anybody, regardless of political affiliation.

As I have written elsewhere, "FOX News" is an oxymoron. Insert string of invectives here:_________________________!!

Originally Posted by Lemont

I remember reading, when I was in the anti-Vietnam War movement, that disaffection and violence are very closely connected. Can anybody think of sources where I might have read that, or any more contemporary sources for the same information?

I'll join in the discussion (assuming there is a discussion) later. Right now I'm a little upset.

--lemit

I immediately thought of Milgram and his experiments in obedience to authority. Here is a thread on the topic that might give you some direction. >> Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View

[Turtle]

that's it then? would it help if i mentioned that Milgram was inspired to his experiments in part to try & explain the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam? as well as the common Germans' willingness to follow Hitler's provocations to brutality i might add. just askin'.

[lemit]

This is sad, isn't it?

This is one of the threads I just threw out to see what would happen. It's kind of like throwing a party just to see who will come. Thanks, Turtle, for showing up. Help yourself at the bar. Careful, though, I don't want you to get violent.

I guess deaths by violence and by environmental disaster aren't very interesting to people (judging by my "Sick Building" site).

Oh, well, so it goes.

--lemit

[Turtle]

yep. que sera sera. here's to our effort nonetheless!

INSURRECTION, n. An unsuccessful revolution. Disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government. ~ Ambrose Bierce

that's the way it is.

[lemit]

Have you read Ambrose Bierce?

I have, in my attempt to chart the history of American humor. I love his style, his vitriol, his unrelenting wit, and that mystery. He provides a great example of disaffection and violence funneled into language.

Are you an unknown child of his, born in Mexico some time after the war? Were he and Judge Crater friends?

Thanks for the quote.

--lemit

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by lemit

Have you read Ambrose Bierce?

I have, in my attempt to chart the history of American humor. I love his style, his vitriol, his unrelenting wit, and that mystery. He provides a great example of disaffection and violence funneled into language.

Are you an unknown child of his, born in Mexico some time after the war? Were he and Judge Crater friends?

Thanks for the quote.

--lemit

i have read his Devil's Dictionary, as well as the occasional biographical accounts. i have only the family records to accord my appearance on this rock, and assuming they have not concealed some facts to protect some innocents or to honor some oath to secrecy that is supposed to protect innocents, then no, i was not born in mexico. there is some talk in my family, and i have some geneologists on this to confirm or deny the fact, that johnny appleseed is my cousin. while john was disaffected, he was prone to kindness & reclusion and never wrote a whit that i am aware of.

i have never had the pleasure of an introduction to Crater. is he still dead?

[lemit]

For those of you not obsessed with trivia from the 20th Century, in 1913 Ambrose Bierce headed off into the desert to cover the Mexican Revolution and vanished. In 1930, Judge Crater got into a cab outside a theater in New York City and was never seen again.

Vaudevillians, the equivalent of today's late night talk show hosts, used both disappearances as fodder for many jokes. In fact, Judge Crater was still an oft-repeated name when I first started listening to radio and when we got our first TV.

--lemit

[Turtle]

so that's what jack benny was talkin' about!