In the comments, svh notes that Laurie’s article, which denounces the modern campus as akin to “a military dictatorship,” omits any mention of why the police might find it necessary to be on campus, let alone use force against students. As regular readers will know, Laurie’s mental landscape is one in which she and her peers are always and forever the victims of the drama, irrespective of who did what to whom. As elevated beings, the fault is never theirs. This conceit requires certain omissions and failures of memory, in order to imagine a world where self-styled revolutionaries and would-be anarchist ninjas are subject to inexplicable and unprovoked beating. The violence, you see, just fell out of the sky for no particular reason.
In Laurie’s mind, presumably, nothing you see in this video actually happened. Nobody laid siege to someone else’s property, terrorising staff and trapping them in their offices. Nobody barricaded fire escapes and used mob force repeatedly, while denouncing any kind of physical retaliation or attempt to enforce the law. No, the thuggery and shoving, the attempts to intimidate and impose on others… that somehow didn’t happen. It was, in Laurie’s mind, “a peaceful occupation.”
Like so many of her comrades, Laurie relies on a kind of faux naiveté - according to which, laying siege to a building and trapping staff for hours while chanting “Fuck the police” is in no way provocative or an invitation for scuffles and violence. Using mob coercion against random people, and then against the police, is what pacifists do, at least in the minds of idiots and pathological liars. Idiots and liars who then affect shock and indignation when that violence escalates, inevitably, as planned, while relishing the publicity and Heroic Victim Status.
If the inversion of reality isn’t sufficiently bold, consider yesterday’s student protest against the police response to such “peaceful” occupations. One protest organiser, University of London Union president Michael Chessum, insisted, “The vast majority of the trouble that happens in protests is because of [the police] presence.” And not because of masked mobs acting out their adolescent power fantasies. ULU vice president Daniel Cooper shared his thoughts via Twitter, “Today was a huge show of our force. Who’s universities? OUR universities! Who’s streets? OUR streets!” Setting aside the primary school spelling, Mr Cooper and his fellow radicals can apparently claim ownership of whatever they please, impose on whomever they please, and exult in this use of force while denouncing “fascism.”
Meanwhile on the streets of central London, students were keen to demonstrate their moral credentials too, by breaking down other people’s gates, setting bins on fire, blocking traffic for hours and trashing police vehicles. To show the world how unnecessary police involvement is.
Thank goodness these socialist intellectuals are showing us the way.In reporting, TV interviews, radio interviews and through various other information outlets I see and hear these folk making claims that stagger the imagination. Yet they truly seem to believe the rubbish and downright lies that they promote. It can only be some form of psychological schizophrenia or delusion. And these are the people who are to all intents and purposes the ones who influence the ones who keep their fingers on the triggers.
Welcome to the global loony bin.
In developing news a reader responded to the above article:
As we saw from her cheerleading for – sorry, reporting on - Occupy, in Laurie’s mental landscape she and her peers are always and forever the victims, irrespective of who did what to whom first, and then did it again harder. The fault is never theirs. This conceit necessitates certain omissions and in turn implies that the occupiers were collectively subject to some inexplicable and unprovoked beating. The violence just fell out of the sky for no particular reason. It’s colossally dishonest, indeed delusional, but it follows the general rules of such behaviour. From what I can make out, those rules are fairly simple:
1. Adopt the nearest available minor cause – say, the privatisation of some campus support services - and amplify hyperbolically, preferably invoking unprecedented hardship, class war and the end of civilisation.
2. Claim to speak and act on behalf of all members of whatever this week’s oppressed group happens to be, even (or especially) if actual support for the ostensible cause is contentious and limited. Don’t let impracticality stop you. Or logic, or maths. Remember to be grandiose and self-flattering at all times.
3. Occupy someone else’s property, obstruct and intimidate law-abiding people, cause as much disruption as possible and make absurd demands. Wear a mask and act like you’re an Anarchist Ninja (and not just an obnoxious little wanker). Remember to establish your Marxoid / ‘anarchist’ credentials with some gratuitous shoving and vandalism. Property is theft, man.
4. Continue aggravating others with noise, trespass, expense and inconvenience, escalating as necessary, until enough people are sufficiently scared or pissed off to call the police.
5. On their arrival, provoke the police by refusing to obey the law or normal standards of civility. Scream and swear at them, make threats, while congratulating yourself on just how brave you are. Barricade fire escapes and trap and frighten random people. Heighten tensions with more abusive chants, projectiles, shoving, etc. Use mob force and the threat of violence repeatedly while denouncing any kind of physical retaliation or attempt to enforce the law. With cameras everywhere, remember to be passive-aggressive too. You’re the victim here. Pretend that you’re being kicked by a police officer who isn’t actually kicking you.
6. When the police do respond physically and things get out of hand - just as you’d planned - cry “police state” and “brutality” then use it as a pretext for the next fit of delinquent psychodrama.On reflection I do believe that if you want to really understand what is going on it is advisable to familiarise yourself with Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.
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