Sociocultural Antibodies

During the metamorphosis of organisms in nature (Such as A butterfly) the autoimmune system of the organism that is changing attacks the part of the body (Imaginal Cells) that are catalyzing and supporting the metamorphsis.

This seems to be happening in our culture as we speak. When seen first hand it puts my heart in my throat as I realize the power and inertia built into the suppressive and violent system we are choosing to operate within as a culture. My first response to the article contained below was fear and loathing...precisely the responses that this kind of news is designed to create...because my flight or flight responce is quick to follow any fear and loathing emotional responce. But as I sink further into awareness of the matter at hand it becomes apparent that running off into the hills, or picking up a sign to run off and join the abused protesters in the streats will not be as affective as connecting peace, justice and sustainabilty together in mainstream society. It is obvious that the kind of protesting and activism that have been used in the past will not work. It seems like a more grassroots, decentralized actionist approach based on personal and community empowerment will be the order of the day. Building active, cross cultural coalitions of concerned citizens of all ilk is thenext step in the evolution of our society towards something more green and democratic. Protest and critisism are fine, but without active solutions they wont get us anywhere. So, I guess my soap box speach of the day is: Get off the soap box on the streat corner and get back to the business at hand...the hard work of educating and empowering a population that is having its intellegence and willpower sucked away by economic and cultural warfare.

Activists I salute you.

Now back to the grind.

Its a long hard road, but nothign good is ever easy.

Here is a report from the bioregional listserve that set off the preceeding thoguhtscape
From bioreg@yahoo.com about the Republican National Convention...On TV its all fan fair and glitter...
On the streets....



News from Minneapolis:


Glenn Greenwald

Saturday Aug. 30, 2008 12:44 EDT
Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis

(updated below -- with video)
Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly
intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of
25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering
homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them
to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes,
seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of
the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department
handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public
venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire
code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent
teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected
protesters were staying.
Jane Hamsher and I were at two of those homes this morning -- one which had
just been raided and one which was in the process of being raided. Each of
the raided houses is known by neighbors as a "hippie house," where 5-10
college-aged individuals live in a communal setting, and everyone we spoke
with said that there had never been any problems of any kind in those
houses, that they were filled with "peaceful kids" who are politically
active but entirely nonthreatening and friendly. Posted below is the video of
the scene, including various interviews, which convey a very clear sense of
what is actually going on here.
In the house that had just been raided, those inside described how a team of
roughly 25 officers had barged into their homes with masks and black swat
gear, holding large semi-automatic rifles, and ordered them to lie on the
floor, where they were handcuffed and ordered not to move. The officers
refused to state why they were there and, until the very end, refused to
show whether they had a search warrant. They were forced to remain on the
floor for 45 minutes while the officers took away the laptops, computers,
individual journals, and political materials kept in the house. One of the
individuals renting the house, an 18-year-old woman, was extremely shaken as
she and others described how the officers were deliberately making
intimidating statements such as "Do you have Terminator ready?" as they lay
on the floor in handcuffs. The 10 or so individuals in the house all said
that though they found the experience very jarring, they still intended to
protest against the GOP Convention, and several said that being subjected
to raids of that sort made them more emboldened than ever to do so.
Several of those who were arrested are being represented by Bruce Nestor,
the President of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild.
Nestor said that last night's raid involved a meeting of a group calling
itself the "RNC Welcoming Committee", and that this morning's raids appeared
to target members of "Food Not Bombs," which he described as an anti-war,
anti-authoritarian protest group. There was not a single act of violence or
illegality that has taken place, Nestor said. Instead, the raids were purely
anticipatory in nature, and clearly designed to frighten people
contemplating taking part in any unauthorized protests.
Nestor indicated that only 2 or 3 of the 50 individuals who were handcuffed
this morning at the 2 houses were actually arrested and charged with a
crime, and the crime they were charged with is "conspiracy to commit riot."
Nestor, who has practiced law in Minnesota for many years, said that he had
never before heard of that statute being used for anything, and that its
parameters are so self-evidently vague, designed to allow pre-emeptive
arrests of those who are peacefully protesting, that it is almost certainly
unconstitutional, though because it had never been invoked (until now), its
constitutionality had not been tested.
There is clearly an intent on the part of law enforcement authorities here
to engage in extreme and highly intimidating raids against those who are
planning to protest the Convention. The DNC in Denver was the site of
several quite ugly incidents where law enforcement acted on behalf of
Democratic Party officials and the corporate elite that funded the
Convention to keep the media and protesters from doing anything remotely
off-script. But the massive and plainly excessive preemptive police raids in
Minnesota are of a different order altogether. Targeting people with
automatic-weapons-carrying SWAT teams and mass raids in their homes, who are
suspected of nothing more than planning dissident political protests at a
political convention and who have engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever,
is about as redolent of the worst tactics of a police state as can be
imagined.

UPDATE: Here is the first of the videos, from the house that had just been
raided:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wShi41LcoCg&feature=user

http://www.alternet.org/election08/97029

http://qik.com/video/249562