Editorial
Is Zimmerman America's Dreyfus?
I've been tracking the George Zimmerman case and it does seem to have some surface parallels to the infamous Dreyfus Affair.
For those of you who may not know, Dreyfus was a Jew who was accused of passing French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was declared guilty and sent to Devil's Island in French Guiana where he spent almost five years.
In 1896, evidence was unearthed that a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy may have been the one passing information but that evidence was suppressed and Dreyfus's conviction was sustained.
It took many more years but Dreyfus was eventually set free. He was reinstated as a major in the French Army and served throughout World War I, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Regardless of whether Esterhazy was an agent of a greater power or whether the affair itself was orchestrated, the controversy surrounding Dreyfus was surely indicative of larger issues surrounding France at the time.
The issue then was anti-Semitism. And while modern France has in a sense moved on, it remains a society riven by class conflicts and economic inequalities that are either glossed over or sanctioned by law.
The French Revolution itself stands athwart the American revolution that was fought somewhat within a republican ambit, thanks to the framing of thinkers and visionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson.
The American Revolution's espoused aim was individual freedom. Unfortunately, the French Revolution was evidently influenced by the Age of Enlightenment and the Rousseau-like vision that humankind could be perfected by the proper application of logic and scientific thought.
The medium that was to provide this transformative grace was the government itself, in this the case a "republican" government that was created out of the terror of the Revolution and the busy bloodletting of the guillotine.
French society, in my view, has never entirely recovered from the Age of Enlightenment and still habitually looks to government to provide both solutions and economic succor.
In fact, they're apparently about to elect another socialist to the presidency and that's not going to end well, either. History continues.
And it continues in America, too, which began as a republic but is now surely turning into something else. The alphabet soup of American spy agencies as well as Draconian, authoritarian legislation now issuing out of Washington, DC, tells us that the formal US legislative process has gone badly wrong.
The US is surely an authoritarian state these days. There are millions on the government payroll, thousands of government spies and US official institutions are growing more and more frightened of their own people. The US Department of Homeland Security recently placed an order for hundreds of millions of hollow-point bullets. Homeland Security is a DOMESTIC agency.
Empire was achieved after World War II, but all empires eventually oppress their own citizens as well as those in other countries. That seems to be what's happening today.
Empires by their nature are pathological societies. Fear is a paramount signature of empires, along with corruption at the top, public shows of immorality and a general, evolutionary breakdown of civil society.
This is because empires substitute the rule of law for the discipline of private markets. Societies often begin anarchically, with private law and private morality enforced by the culture itself.
But over time, the private nature of society is gradually replaced by "law" and government mandates. What was once voluntary becomes coercive and people's behaviors become regulated by bureaucracies rather than by internal codes of behavior.
Within this context, society itself becomes increasingly unmoored. Once moral values have evolved into legal codicils, social mores become public passion plays. This is what's happening now with the Zimmerman mess.
Just as with the Dreyfus Affair, individual acts are being imbued with larger, societal characteristics. This can only happen in a society where the government has grown so large and intrusive that people are used to projecting their own problems and prejudices onto public events.
Once the private has become the public, it is relatively easy for government-controlled media to imbue almost any incident with moral and cultural power. In fact, in a healthier society such transformative conversations would not be possible. People would not put up with it.
But in a society where the power elite has worked relentlessly to make government the arbiter, such a trick is much easier to pull off. People have been trained to look to government for moral and legal insights.
In such societies, people no longer look inward – they've lost the habit of introspection. Instead, government itself sets the parameters of behavior and creates the larger societal conversation as well.
I would argue this is what's happening in the Zimmerman case. People are projecting their own prejudices and belief systems onto the case.
If Zimmerman is guilty, it's because he saw a young black man, assumed he was up to no good and shot him. If he is innocent, it's because he was attacked by the young man and shot him in self-defense.
I won't speculate on Zimmerman's guilt or innocence here. My point is only that the amount of attention being paid to the case and the heightened emotions it arouses may tell us more about the current state of the US union than about Zimmerman himself, or his actions.
The US is a pretty miserable place right now with unemployment between 20 and 30 percent and food stamp usage soaring well beyond 40 million. People are looking for outlets for their frustration, and the Zimmerman affair provides one.
In this sense, it is perhaps a window into the collective psyche of the American people. The mechanism itself – this too-public dialogue about an issue that in another place and time would have been localized – is discouraging.
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Posted by bob on 04/23/12 11:54 PM
BFranklin's,
I agree with you. America has crossed the Rubicon. Lawlessness and corruption, like a cancer, metastasized through the entire American society.
I do not know who concocted the 911. Definitely, it has nothing to do with Asama bin Laden. But already the consequences are well beyond the imagination of the responsible parties. The process becomes less and less manageable.
It is very interesting that America military people are not excluding nuclear wars anymore. Now, they just call it "limited nuclear exchanges"... It becomes very interesting: where will we end?
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Posted by RF on 04/23/12 10:27 PM
I don't think it is as simple as Obama clutching straws-- Americaa is clutching straws-- yes Balck America will support him no matter what- a brotha is a brotha- but in truth white society is becomming the minority ion this country-- only the wealth seperates the truth Democrat, Republicans both are living off the tail of another era.. It doesn't matter to more that 50 % of the country if Obama's birth certificate is fake or not-Jon Corzine is the 1% and free to do with manipulating money as they please- under the guise of free market enterprise--I'ts difficult to find honest innocents at the levels of money needed to run for office much less run the country... they will all continue to do so- Republicans and Democrats untill the dam breaks..and the flood begins...
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Posted by TPaine on 04/23/12 02:17 PM
"If you bothered to learn TRUE history, you would have learned that property ownership at the time of Jefferson was at "the wishes of the King". "
TRUE history is that amerika always was a fascist country and that the founding fraudsters were slave owners who should have been hanged by the balls.
Reply from The Daily Bell
OK, you are not living up to your namesake.
Try to find more imaginative ways of writing.
Cursing is a kind of short-hand.
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Posted by BFranklin on 04/23/12 01:23 PM
One more point, you notice that this all took off after Sheriff Arapio's cold posse investigation found Obama's computer file he released on the government website to be a fake after an official foresic department investigation. Barry is desperate to stay in office and is definitely working behind the scenes to play the race card- his last option. The sad thing is that 95% of black people will continue to support him while he bankrupts them and the rest of the middle class and poor people, so that his criminal, corrupt cartel friends running the banks, Monsanto, and a host of other companies topping the most evil list, are rolling in profits. John Corzine continues to walk free after deliberately stealing millions out of client accounts.
Reply from The Daily Bell
This is an interesting if sad speculation ...
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Posted by BFranklin on 04/23/12 01:19 PM
Let's face it- this is just the latest excuse for black people to blame whites and or in this case, Hispanic people for all their problems. It's not enough they get illegal preferences over other races in hiring, education, and other areas, or that that the president and attorney general are black. No, even though they compose only a 15-20% of the US population- they want to be in charge of everything and get payback for things they blame on whites (in reality, maybe they should be blaming their black leaders who sold them into slavery.) In South Africa, when the minority whites ruled the blacks they called this apartheid and abhorent to democracy; however, that is exactly what they want in the US in reverse order.
They are mad beyond belief that that their so-called savior, the illegal Indonesian or Keyan running the Presidency, is the worst president in history and has only made things much worse for everyone. Perhaps he had good intentions before becoming elected and then was scared into the NWO party line, but the reality leans more toward his rotten character and Chicago gangland tactics. Their mad because he gamed them just like everyone else while destroying what was left after Bush of the free market and the democratic republic.
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Posted by RF on 04/23/12 12:09 PM
my right to doubt your opinion ,is why this is called America- why we have free speech and why this web site exists... The ASS umption is we should discontinue any opposing opinion, which is where the ASS lies.
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Posted by DrBryant on 04/23/12 11:08 AM
All ASSumptions.
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Posted by DrBryant on 04/23/12 11:06 AM
If you bothered to learn TRUE history, you would have learned that property ownership at the time of Jefferson was at "the wishes of the King".
At that point in time, the Bank of England (owned by the King as was everything else) described slaves as "chattel property". Thus, in order to own property, a person had to accept the terms of the King, which included taking possession of any slave that came with the property. Further, in order to sell of free those slaves, a person would have to first get permission from the Bank of England/King.
Sidebar: I would contend that the "ownership" of the Bank of England has not changed in any appreciable way.
The King enjoyed the textile mills in New England turning out their production. The King also enjoyed the free labor from slaves to provide the resources for those textiles.
No other country in the world promoted slavery more than England, imho. Of course, they had a great deal of help from several African nations.
And let us not forget that Jefferson was a leader in the movement to end slavery, but, unfortunately, some never get taught that in our "modern" education system.
We could sure use another Jefferson in the White House to end the slavery we have today.
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Posted by DrBryant on 04/23/12 10:45 AM
First, what is the relevance that Martin was black?
Next, how YOU might leave a situation is based on YOUR experiences which may or MAY NOT be the same for Zimmerman... .thus the dangers of ASSumptions. Maybe Zimmerman has never watched a John Wayne movie.
Also, Zimmerman, having taken the time to gain a permit to carry a concealed weapon, would have known that "brandishing a firearm" is a crime and doing so might even be considered "assault with a deadly weapon". So, Zimmerman may have acted in a more disciplined manner than you might have.
Being a Vietnam Veteran, I too have a deep respect for what a firearm can do.
Hypothetically, Peter Pan could have flown down from Never Never Land, shot Martin while Tinkerbell hit Zimmerman in the back of the head. Lucky for you and me, hypothetical inventions are not considered EVIDENCE.
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Posted by Abu Aardvark on 04/23/12 06:20 AM
"The same is true for libertarian zealots promoting limitless "private liberties". It is absolute BS that citizens in civilized societies must be at ruling oligarchy mercy.
In other word, a promotion of limitless 'private liberties' is basically a promotion of slavery!"
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Is that you, memehunter?
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Posted by shakingfist on 04/23/12 12:22 AM
"a promotion of limitless 'private liberties' is basically a promotion of slavery!"
Bob, it sounds like you need a nap.
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Posted by Bluebird on 04/22/12 08:44 PM
I don't understand your (and other's) arguement, RF. IF reports are true and Zimmerman was laying flat on his back with someone banging his head on the sidewalk, how do you walk away? Given the same circumstances, I would get that person off me anyway I could. Yes, if I had a gun, I would stop it in the same way. Otherwise, it may be me lying there dead with my skull broken open.
However, NONE of us were there so all we can do is wait for the facts to come out in court, as that is how this country decides such matters. The one UNIMPORTANT fact is what color either man was!
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Posted by RF on 04/22/12 07:05 PM
if George Zimmerman were an 85 year old man, frail, previously attacked, this could be easily justifyed- but looking at Zimmerman in photos-he is not-- he is a young, strong, streetwise local who does Neighborhood Watch out of civic mindedness- in order to do so, fear of being attacked or fear of intervention in other's confrontations is not a frame of mind... He was active in this manner for years, and well aware of the dangers in any confrontation. there is where the doubt lies...
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Posted by RF on 04/22/12 06:53 PM
irrelevant? when carrying a gun, one must assume any confrontation is also carrying a gun--hence the need to carry-- the point of allowing the use of deadly force is to respond to deadly force-with deadly force- not imagined danger or percieved danger-or non existant weapons--shoot to wound -shoot to kill- it isn't a video game- someone lives-- someone dies-- the post case,is whether it was justifyed-or not-therin lies the legal tangle--- the rules to use have to mimic the law enforcment agencies guidelines- carry permits are Had Zimerman shot and killed your unarmed son ,I think your opinion would change greatly wouldn't it..????the legal problem is allowing everyone or anyone to shoot to kill if there was no weapon observed, or no real danger of deadly force..sure when we get to the Wild West stages in our society I will be there to shoot first ask questions later-but as yet we do not live under those rules of law...
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Posted by TPaine on 04/22/12 04:31 PM
]The US is surely an authoritarian state these days.
Yeah, but at the itme it was 'founded' by despicable slave-owning criminals like jefferson everything was fine and dandy.
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Posted by bob on 04/22/12 03:56 PM
"Well the point is that one is walking around with a gun and another without a gun and finally the guy without the gun is shot in the head. The rest is speculation."
This statement is just a "half truth". In other words, your statement is fraudulent. You forgot to mention that the man with a gun had a broken nose and multiple injuries to the back of his head he could not inflict by himself.
PS
fabien_hug, people in the US mainstream media might greatly benefit from your "natural expertise".
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Posted by bob on 04/22/12 03:34 PM
[Hypotheticly maybe Zimmerman whacked himself on the back of the head with his pistol to make the story right... ]
Certainly, it is not any different than a suicide of Stalin's close associate Ordzhonikidze with TWO gunshots to the back of his head. A few months later, all Ordzhonikidze brothers and their families were arrested and executed. Back then, it was called "the socialist justice".
As for the Zimmerman case, it is irrelevant whether his attacker was armed or unarmed. Assuming that a person is attacked, the defender had the right to use appropriate means to defend himself and protect his life.
Finally, there is no f**ing justice in Zionist-controlled America anymore. Remember that the GE's NBC News deliberately edited the 911 call to instigate racial hatred. Yes, blatant injustice and winds wars are allover. Regardless of our wishes, we a participants in this play!
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Posted by Bobby7 on 04/22/12 03:20 PM
Yo my man, Tony,
I was looking at photos of Mr Martin that were on his website & he didn't look like the angelic little boy he is being presented as. It reminded me of another Martin - Martin Luther King Jr.
Forty years after his death, the popularity of Martin Luther King remains extraordinary. He is perhaps the single most praised person in American history, and millions adore him as a hero and almost a saint. The federal government has made space available on the Mall in Washington for a national monument for King, not far from Lincoln's. Only four men in American history have national monuments: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt; and now King will make five.
Yet this man was a Plagiarist, a womanizer & adulterer:
To colleagues, King justified his adultery this way:
'I'm away from home twenty-five to twenty-seven days a month. F***ing's a form of anxiety reduction.'
Despite his obsession with sex and his betrayal of his own wife and children, and despite Christianity's call for fidelity, King continued to claim the moral authority of a Baptist minister.
King strongly doubted several core beliefs of Christianity. 'I was ordained to the Christian ministry,' he claimed, but Stanford University's online repository includes King's seminary writings in which he disputed the full divinity of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection, suggesting that we 'strip them of their literal interpretation.'
The FBI surveillance files could throw considerable light on his true character, but they will not be made public until 2027. On January 31, 1977, as a result of lawsuits by King's allies against the FBI, a US district judge ordered the files sealed for 50 years. There are reportedly 56 feet of records - tapes, transcripts, and logs - in the custody of the National Archives and Record Service.
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Posted by kenn on 04/22/12 02:21 PM
What's telling is no one knows jack diddly yet all are forming opinions. What we're seeing is mob justice.
What's even more telling is apparently so many want racial tensions that these days that all it takes is a person half white.
Then adding to the confusion,,, the NAACP backing Marissa Danielle Alexander (also in Florida) in a stand your ground issue?
One could argue that one side seems to want their cake and eat it too...
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Posted by RF on 04/22/12 12:04 PM
The question is wherher in a confrontation with an unknown black youth would you not BACK away - face first- jes like the John Wayne, left the bar after the guns were drawn-backing out the door--hasn't Zimmerman sense enough ?? common sense in a gunfight-- a display of weapon should follow -while backing away-
distance is the great equalizer- an unarmed youth would be plain dumb to attack after seeing a weapon... an armed youth might draw-- many states have "stand you ground" laws- but they are not "right to kill" laws..
interpertation- when deadly force in present the right to use is granted- where the procecution can make murder 2nd degree of it-- he failed to see a weapon..I've bought and sold guns at for years- I have a deep respect for what they can do- the video game mentality is not an option-
Hypotheticly maybe Zimmerman whacked himself on the back of the head with his pistol to make the story right...
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