>In Europe and in France Especailly, when there >such things like marches and protests,be it for >school problem or an agricutural problem, it's >really usual that violence pop's up.
Well, after many years living in Europe, I would basically agree, however, the situations and issues that lead crowds of people in Europe to violence usually has a distinctly different flavor to it.
>In the us , violence is rare (for protest I mean)
Historically this is certainly NOT true (Slavery, MLK, Vietnam, Labor strikes, Abortion, KKK, militias to name a few). Moreover, the incident(s) in Seattle may simply be a continuation of that tradition, rather than an anomaly.
>lets take the simple beef problem. In europe 20 >years ago it was prouved that giving cattle some >hormones was dangerous for man's health
Whereas I share your concern about hormone treated meat products, to state that it was PROVED dangerous in Europe is NOT a conclusion that is shared by the EU and many of its member countries. When France was asked to provide proof, they were unable to satisfy even the most lenient EU criteria. Germany feels the same way as France, but knows it cannot prove this and is sitting back and letting France take the heat. Inter-European agricultural policy in-fighting that has been going on for years and is one of the prime difficulties of further EU integration (for those who want that...). Furthermore, just as you may bristle at US propaganda about how perfectly safe US beef is, don't overlook the equally intense propaganda that has been generated by the equally (if not more) powerful special interests of the various EU governments and industries (consider CAP subsidies for example).
To bring this back on topic, I see much of Jon's described anti-corporate backlash also having a strong anti-government component driven by fatigue from pervasive rumors (FUD), propaganda and hard conclusions drawn from inconclusive or non-existing scientific studies (often carried out by less-than-neutral organizations) about what the "facts" are. Governments and corporations use this as a tool, but many "protest" groups suffer from this problem as well (Greenpeace retracting statements about Brent Spar for example).
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmmmm...
>In Europe and in France Especailly, when there
>such things like marches and protests,be it for
>school problem or an agricutural problem, it's
>really usual that violence pop's up.
Well, after many years living in Europe, I would basically agree, however, the situations and issues that lead crowds of people in Europe to violence usually has a distinctly different flavor to it.
>In the us , violence is rare (for protest I mean)
Historically this is certainly NOT true (Slavery, MLK, Vietnam, Labor strikes, Abortion, KKK, militias to name a few). Moreover, the incident(s) in Seattle may simply be a continuation of that tradition, rather than an anomaly.
>lets take the simple beef problem. In europe 20
>years ago it was prouved that giving cattle some
>hormones was dangerous for man's health
Whereas I share your concern about hormone treated meat products, to state that it was PROVED dangerous in Europe is NOT a conclusion that is shared by the EU and many of its member countries. When France was asked to provide proof, they were unable to satisfy even the most lenient EU criteria. Germany feels the same way as France, but knows it cannot prove this and is sitting back and letting France take the heat. Inter-European agricultural policy in-fighting that has been going on for years and is one of the prime difficulties of further EU integration (for those who want that...). Furthermore, just as you may bristle at US propaganda about how perfectly safe US beef is, don't overlook the equally intense propaganda that has been generated by the equally (if not more) powerful special interests of the various EU governments and industries (consider CAP subsidies for example).
To bring this back on topic, I see much of Jon's described anti-corporate backlash also having a strong anti-government component driven by fatigue from pervasive rumors (FUD), propaganda and hard conclusions drawn from inconclusive or non-existing scientific studies (often carried out by less-than-neutral organizations) about what the "facts" are. Governments and corporations use this as a tool, but many "protest" groups suffer from this problem as well (Greenpeace retracting statements about Brent Spar for example).