The Future of Protest In Panopticon Nation

Hugh Pickens writes "James Fallows writes that you don't have to idealize everything about the Occupy movement to recognize the stoic resolve of the protesters at UC Davis being pepper sprayed as a moral drama that the protesters clearly won. 'The self-control they show, while being assaulted, reminds me of grainy TV footage I saw as a kid, of black civil rights protesters being fire-hosed by Bull Connor's policemen in Alabama. Or of course the Tank Man in Tiananmen Square,' writes Fallows. 'Such images can have tremendous, lasting power.' We can't yet imagine all the effects of the panopticon society we are beginning to live in but one benefit to the modern protest movement is the omnipresence of cameras (video) as police officials, protesters, and nearly all onlookers are recording whatever goes on bringing greater accountability and a reality-test for police claims that they 'had' to use excessive force. 'What's new is that now the perception war occurs simultaneously with the physical struggle. There's almost parity,' writes Andrew Sprung. 'You have a truncheon or gun, I have a camera. You inflict pain, I inflict infamy.'"

Comments

Re:One UCD Student's view

[Nadaka]

I don't want to keep your opinion from reaching the ballot box. But if I can make your opinion a better informed one, then I will have done something useful even if you don't completely agree with me. I hope you do vote for yourself, and standing on the side of inequity, corruption and suppression isn't in your best interest.

Socialism is not the opposition of capitalism. It is its stabilizing compliment. A pure free market only works when all parties have all information. In reality, that does not happen. Right now we are seeing a massive redistribution of wealth that is forcing millions of middle class Americans into poverty in order to enrich a handful of powerful individuals who are buying laws and using misinformation to get people to vote against their own interests. Even Adam Smith the seminal author of the free market was in favor of progressive taxation and against monopolies.