Re: Neo-liberalism

On Thu, 4 May 2000, Cedric Beidatsch wrote:

>I don't think these massacres were totally spontaneous. Who armed,
>encouraged and transported the perpetrators? Apparent anti semitic
>spontaneity was welcome to the nazis, but they loaded and pointed the gun
>and let others pull the trigger.

Okay, if you don't like the fact that ordinary Europeans murdered other
Europeans during WWII, how about how ordinary whites shut blacks out of
the better neighborhoods in the central cities during the black migration
from the southern US, exposing blacks to brutal inner city conditions? How
about how they enforced segregation (including industrial segregation)
through systematic violence? How about the hundreds of lynchings carried
out by ordinary citizens throughout the south? Sure the state was partly
responsible for these acts of brutality because they failed to pass
anti-lynching laws or enforce the law as it was. The state has always done
a poor job at protecting blacks (and other minorities, as well as women
and children) from violence (including violence within the black
community). But the popular origin of these acts of violence cannot be
denied. Anti-Semitism, anti-black prejudice, etc. is not solely an elite
construction. The fact is that ordinary people, workers and residents, are
capable of incredible brutality against other ordinary people.

Andrew Austin
Knoxville, TN