The FT's email headlines for its UK homepage started this morning with four articles on the riots in US cities as protestors continue to defy curfews to make clear their anger at the death of George Floyd.
Another mail gave almost the same weight and added a new story:
That is astonishing, because there is, very clearly, news to report in the UK as well. So what is happening?
Protests on this scale and with this intensity have, rightly, been triggered by anger at the murder of a man by a police officer, filmed as it was happening and as he pleaded for his life. In itself that is so shocking that the reaction is hardly surprising.
That many are appalled at the reaction of Trump to this murder is, again, hardly surprising. I was pleased to see the US Episcopal Church roundly condemning his use of one of their churches as a backdrop for a photoshoot by Trump yesterday, whilst he (rather sickeningly) held a Bible up as if that provided support for his actions.
It does not. Just for the record, that's worth saying.
Trump has always been about creating and reinforcing discrimination to ensure that a few benefit. He's not the first politician to do that, of course. Nor is he, by far, the only one to do so in this world at present. But that is no excuse for his actions, or those of anyone else. All who pursue such policies deserve to be condemned. That the revulsion at his reaction is also so widespread is, I am sure, part of the reason why the FT puts the issue so high on its agenda today.
That, and something else as well. Because in these protests there is a threat, and it is to the likes of Trump. The financial system from which he and they have prospered enormously is built on the exploitation of billions of people the world over. Or rather, that and the exploitation of the planet on which we all live, where the entitlements are grossly unequally shared.
The protests over the death of George Floyd threaten Trump at a great many levels, and so he is reacting violently to them. And that they come as Covid-19 makes clear that nature is in charge on this planet, which in turn reminds the likes of Trump that climate change, which he so wants to ignore because it will also curtail all that he desires, just adds to his stress.
Trump may be right on one thing though. Maybe there is revolution in the air. The protests are triggered by anger, grief and disgust at the actions of a white man killing a black man as his colleagues looked on and did nothing. Nothing diminishes that. But the anger that has been released is one already there, and the demand for change is profoundly radical.
Trump, for reasons of his own, used the Bible as a weapon to support his cause yesterday. I'd remind him of these words in what is called the Magnificat in Luke chapter 1, which is attributed to Mary as she gives praise for the birth of her son. I have quoted selectively, I admit, to show how inappropriate his use of the Bible to support his cause really is:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
And yes, I know the criticism that anyone can find anything they want in the Bible if they really look. But this is at the very core of the Christmas story and it's sung as part of the Church of England and (no doubt) Episcopal Church liturgy, frequently. This is not, then from the margins: this is at the core of what the Church says, even if many ignore it.
Trump needs to worry. Such thinking is powerful. Perhaps they tore that, and many other pages, out of the Bible he used. But it will certainly not provide him with the comfort he was seeking. But whether you have faith or not, and I am not here to persuade anyone of anything, the history of such thinking is long and from sources far beyond the Church (just to make clear that I am not claiming any exclusivity for it: I am merely making the point that Trump is wrong to reference it) and it has to on occasion make itself heard very loudly and very clearly. It is in the USA right now. And rightly so, from the widest possible range of people who are saying enough is enough. And it is.
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It’ll kick off here soon in a big way. It’s inevitable.
I’m not sure about that.
The US Government is at least honest in how it values the lives of many its citizens (frankly, it doesn’t). Result – riots.
The UK Government on the other hand is more measured and sophisticated in how it destroys its citizens lives – it tells them to embrace Covid-19 but in a roundabout way with cod advice (plus the contribution of the odd non-conformist member of the elite) so instead of riots you get queues of numpties at Lulworth Cove instead.
Lemmings? Even lemmings are smarter than what I saw at Lulworth Cove recently.
Inherent in this country is an anti-authoritarian streak in the population that the Government is actually using as a bulwark to break down lock down. I feel that it is a recipe for disaster.
We have Government by unreason. That is what truly shocks me. I’m sure they want to kill us. Maybe we should get them before they get us?
There’s a huge amount of anger and resentment in the UK, and given the soaring rates of unemployment and bankruptcy, the middle classes will be involved and will have less to lose – in normal times they would probably be deterred for fear of losing what they have.
And don’t underestimate the impact of boredom and good weather.
No one saw the riots coming in 2012. We can see them coming this time and we now have much worse circumstances and a hated government that will respond in a way similar to trump that will inflame matters
The U.S. is a country that seems to eat its own people.
The Pilgrim Fathers, Washington and Lincoln would turn in their graves if they could see what had happened to the ‘shining city on the hill’. American democracy has turned into a tragedy for humanity – my own country’s ‘democracy’ is a well know joke now turned into a debacle – but America was supposed to be different. Like us, the Americans developed the same disease – unequal wealth – and allowed it to have too much power based on the assumption that wealth equals wisdom.
Just as much as some in the UK see Cumming’s digressions as permission to do the same, the slaughter of yet another African American by supposed upholders of the law in the U.S. destroys the very notion of the law for many, for many have in my opinion justifiably had enough.
There are riots in America because the State has failed (one of its agents has killed yet another AA citizen in dubious circumstances, even before the citizen has been tried by the law) and the people are angry because the police have acted as judge, jury and executioner once again. It’s so simple but too many – including Trump – just cannot accept it.
You quote Washington as some kind of prophet. The guy was a racist, a slave owner and a man who prefered war over peace. Let’s put it in historical perspective, his actions would of been far worse. It was no small wonder the British used slavery as a weapon against the patriots. How did they do that? They promised freedom for any black person who fought for the british. Yes i know there are cases of black soldiers being returned to the their “owners” but this action drove Washington et al nuts. It was routine for slaves to be dumped over the the side if the ship was too heavy or were in danger of being freed. This happened a few times in the UK as there were movements in law and society to get rid of slavery. One could argue this trend was one of the causes of the american revolution, one of many i might add. So nope Washington would ordered the army out to shoot the protesters esp if they were black people. Remember what we have here is an anglo elite in control of american society, and some of their supporters (Anglo/brit americans) who feel they are losing control of that society. Trump et al is a result of that trend, also neoliberalism is as well.
Little reported in the UK coverage is that earlier in the day Trump had spoken by phone to his buddy (controller?), Putin, who no doubt had some tips/orders for Trump on how to clamp down on disorder, and further move the US toward an authoritarian disctatorship.
As usual, anyone wanting to know the detail of what’s going on with Trump and his threat to use the Federal Insurrection Act (1807) to deploy the US army against its own citizens should watch Rachel Maddow, starting here: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show
However, before watching Rachel it’s worth watching this segment of the 11th Hour for the backstory to Trump’s use of the bible and a church as props, and the current protests as rationale for taking an ‘authoritarian turn’ (as Brian William’s rightly names it): https://www.msnbc.com/11th-hour-with-brian-williams
Both very good
Thanks Ivan
Church and state. A powerful combination, as Putin well knows.
I doubt Trump reads Margaret Atwood, but if he is reelected, and nominates another one or two Supreme Court judges, I expect we will be seeing a bench of (almost all) men telling millions of women what they can do with their bodies. Notable that all three women currently on the US Supreme Court are on the “liberal” side (and so odd that “liberal” has become a boo-word, when liberty, along with life and the pursuit of happiness, are explicitly recognised as three of the unalienable rights endowed by the creator.)
It is hard to see this ending well.
There’s a title no one will disapprove of :-p
I think Benz0 may be right, things could go very squiffy here. Normal people are being pushed into a state of penury and anxiety they never imagined for themselves. It could lead to a national mental breakdown of sorts.
Phew….
And yes, I think that’s a real risk
If you want a primer on the use of genocide then you can`t go far wrong with the Old Testament
True….as I made clear, this thing is not all good news, whatever some claim
If Trump goes down this route of military suppression a la Egypt, Syria,Turkey et al, that is the end of democracy. Whether Trump’s policy is legal or whether the generals concur is another matter, he has such a fanatical base that he thinks he can win the November election with this brutality. Whether the UK will follow the US if the protests in London, Nottingham, Cardiff etc spread and become more violent is another thing. As PSR points out the civil liberty/anti-authoritarian instincts of the UK population has been exploited by the government to encourage weakening of the Covid-19 measures. Can the UK government now contain the outrage against racism and economic disaster that is rapidly confronting everyone?
Not so surprising that the FT led with these four stories. If it wasn’t last week, diversity & inclusion (the corporate jargon) is a global issue now, not just a corporate one. I’ve seen tons of coverage today of global companies starting or supporting various initiatives. I’ve also seen a lot of cynicism, some of which is justified, about how serious some of these companies really are about the issues involved.
I don’t think Trump is ‘wrong’. I think he’s off his trolley. Seriously unhinged. Or in the technical terminology familiar to the psychiatric profession, ‘Stark staring bonkers’.
He is tapping into a deep sense of insecurity (bordering on paranoia) amongst those that support him and I can’t see it ending well, because his response is most likely to be the violence of sheer desperation. Plenty of people are always up for a barney….from both sides of the political fence. It will require some statesmanship to calm the situation and currently it’s not at all obvious where that might come from.
Echoing Benzo’s concern about copycat disorder in this country I don’t see where we’re going to get calming statesmanship from either. My (ex-military) pal was expecting this months ago. I get the impression that the atmosphere is more febrile in Englandshire, but living as I do in a small Scottish town it’s very difficult to make any sort of reliable comparison.
Trump is, literally, a fascist.
Inevitably the media is so awash with reactive opinion – reasoned and otherwise – that the root causes of the unrest risk becoming overshadowed by their effects. In the video embedded in this article, philosopher and long-time activist Cornel West cuts to the chase when he denounces Trump as the “neo-fascist gangster in the White House,” while saying “the failure of the nation – one that allows for endemic inequality and a culture of greed and consumerism that tramples on the rights and dignity of poor people and minorities decade after decade – goes much beyond the current president.” He concludes that America is “a failed social experiment” : ‘Cornel West Lights Up CNN With Uncomfortable Truths!’ – https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/30/cornel-west-says-neo-fascist-gangster-trump-and-neoliberal-democrats-expose-america
And for anyone who finds Cornel West’s analysis tendentiously extremist, in this conversation with Jimmy Dore, Chris Hedges spells out some uncomfortable truths : ‘The Real Looting Of America CNN Won’t Show You’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjSxXpoWoTI&t=920s.
I think it’s difficult for anyone without direct experience to understand fully how grave and desperate the situation in the US has become. It would be catastrophic for both the US and the wider world if Trump gets re-elected, as explained by the now 91 year-old Noam Chomsky in this interview last month with the excellent Mehdi Hasan : ‘Biden vs. Trump’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39902cn5lX8.
Not only are we living in ‘interesting times’ but also uniquely troubling. As the weeks/months pass by I’m becoming increasingly despondent and pessimistic about the capability of moderate, democratic ‘forces for good’ to prevail against a successful power grab by the hard-right, with direct access to the military if and when required. Scary innit?
Yes…
Thanks
What many people in America seem to fear just as much as Trump winning in November is him losing and the damage he could do in the transition between November and the inauguration of a new president in January. He’s already trying to delegitimise the result of the election by claiming postal voting is inherently fraudulent.
Richard,
Further to your comment about a Bible with the pages of the Magnificat (and Jesus’s sermon on liberation in Luke 4, quoting Isaiah 61), when the brilliant linguist and missionary Henry Martyn was employed by the British East India Company from 1806 (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Martyn), he found that the East India Company had banned the recitation of the ‘Magnificat’ for fear of giving the “natives ideas above their station”.
Plus a change, plus c’est la meme chose!
🙂
And we democratically chose to raise a two fingered salute, turn our backs and walk away from our 27 closest friends and neighbours and prostrate ourselves as vassals of this dystopian empire.
True
What struck me forcibly about Trump trying to rally the religious right for his re-election day by turning up outside a church waving a bible is that you know full well that the thought never crosses their minds that Christ’s crucifixion was a public execution and so was George Floyd’s in Minneapolis!
Or that the reason the Romans crucified Christ, and persecuted the early church, was that, in preaching the supremacy of God the Father, it denied that of Caesar.
And a question posed in the New Yorker: Is Capitalism Racist? (meaning American capitalism, inherently) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/25/is-capitalism-racist
Trump’s facial expressions often mirror those of Benito Mussolini