Grampa Dave, I hope you don't mind me posting this here. This is an exerpt from an essay by the above mentioned "Critter". He is, from his jail cell, calling on people to destroy power plants. I see no distinction between him and these jihadis we're fighting. They really do aim to destroy power plants.
I post this just to help build the case that these characters aren't just an innocent bunch of dreadlocked hippies talking a big game. When they figure out how to do a power plant- that's exactly what they're going to do. Keep in mind, this is from this year. Critter has had much time to reflect on terrorism since 9/11 and apparantly he thinks it's a good thing.
Source: Raise the Fist Warning: I didn't delete any of the profanity.
An Introduction, April 2002 I'm not going to say much about what's going on inside the razor wire here in prison. To be honest, who really gives a fuck? Yeah, life in here sucks, and everyday is a struggle, but what's really important is what people are, and need to be doing out there. As a movement we need to focus on attacking the hub of the wheels of oppression, for without the hub, the spokes fall uselessly. Prison is just one of those spokes, not a hub. Attacking spokes may slowly make the wheel weaker, but by attacking the hubs, all the spokes will fall making the earth a place where we can healthily co-habitate with all the other creatures. To find these hubs, we need to ask ourselves what the problems of our society are, and then trace them back to a physical manifestation of these problems that can be attacked. When we realize what these legitimate targets are then we need to trace these targets back to their sources and attack there.
An example of what I mean is this-consumer society is traced back to consumer goods and the consumer mentality. These both can be traced back to corporations and their physical manifestations-factories, newspapers, laboratories etc-these can be traced back to electricity, for without it production would virtually halt. Electricity follows back to powerlines and powerlines to dams and powerplants. I'm sure you can come up with similar type scenarios. There are many places where one could attack, but in the scenario I provided, the production of electricity is the center (i.e. the hub), so it follows that if one could do something to prevent electricity from being produced (I'll leave that up to your imaginations) every process after it would halt. I'm not saying everyone needs to go crack a dam (hell, there wouldn't be enough to go around, but that's also a part of the point), but someone better start doing something because life on this planet rides on each and every one of our decisions to act or to be cowards.
I'm sure many of you wonder why his movement hasn't already destroyed industrial society and blown up half the life on earth. After all, let's face it: Blowing things up isn't exactly rocket science.
The answer, I think, lies here:
Hopefully this doesn’t make you pat yourself on the back if you do more, hopefully it makes you realize how much harder those of us who are doing something need to attack.Who does he hate? Sure, he hates the businesspeople who run the businesses that spew pollutants in the air, and the government officials who let him get away with it.
But he hates his own followers just as much! Those folks who go out into the country and try to form their own ideal environmentally sensitive society? Cowards. Those people who only spike trees on weekends? Wimps.
Nobody can work for long in such an environment. Leftist gurus Michael Albert of Z Magazine pointed this out in an essay(1) I've always found interesting. He says that people get attracted to the left by the high principles, but few stick, because it winds up being absolutely no fun at all, a total downer, and - just as bad - a whole ton of problems with no solutions in sight.
Because of this, he has developed a complex economic system where brain surgeons will be required to spend part of their day cleaning toilets. He says that's a powerful inspiring vision that people can sign up on, but I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to toilet cleaning duty any time soon.
On the other hand, I have to give him credit for at least trying. Most people on the left don't go any further than indicting this horrible system we have, without suggesting their ideas would create anything better. Critter's writings are very much a part of this school, and very revealing in terms of their utter bankruptcy of ideas.
Okay, our society is lousy; tell us what's better and how it would work. The left can't, and that's why they're not a great deal more effective than they are.
D
(1) Why protest the conventions?. For the specific reference, go about 1/3 of the way down to the section labelled "What form and focus for protest?".
"attacking hubs" my okole. Start with a bar of soap you creep, then we can talk about healthy cohabitation. After all, "haven't you heard about Dial?" ;o)