Saturday, April 12, 2008
The whelplings of Jesusland
The above video may be old news to you, but it just came to my attention. The video depicts a Florida 16 year old named Victoria Lindsay being beaten by six teens who disagreed with something she said on the internet. The idiotic perps videotaped their crime with the intention of posting the evidence to the internet.
According to the complaints (here and here), the assailants are:
MERCADES NICOLE NICHOLS, 17
BRITTANY MARSHELLE HARDCASTLE, 17
BRITTANY NICOLE MAYES 17
KAYLA MARIE HASSELL 15
CARA LYNN MURPHY 16
ZACHARY JAMES ASHLEY 17
APRIL NICOLE COOPER 14
STEPHEN THOMAS SCHUMAKER 18
On various web sites, you can find addresses and phone numbers for these individuals. However, the information is incomplete and, in the case of Zachary Ashley, incorrect.
The beating took place in the home of Mercades Cooper, at 6124 West Calendar Court, in Lakeland, Florida. The primary assailant depicted in the video is April Cooper, whose parents live at 8 Oleander Circle, Lakeland, Florida 33801-2009.
These youths are being tried as adults. May their time in prison be pleasant and uneventful.
Now let's zoom out for the larger picture:
This nation, especially the southern part of this nation, has had a fundamentalist vision of Jesus shoved into its collective cranium for over a generation. The result of all this "Christianity" is a generation incapable of displaying any sign of human empathy. Self-pity and inchoate rage are the only emotions programmed into these humanoids. The affect-free kids in The River's Edge (based on a true story which shocked the nation in the 1980s, but which would not shock anyone today) are now having offspring of their own, and I hope not to live long enough to see the America they devise.
The ineducable whelplings of Jesusland bear only a morphological resemblance to humanity. Utterly nescient of history or culture or philosophy, inculcated with mindlessly gruesome "entertainment," buffeted by profiteers appealing to their misplaced arrogance and unearned indignation, these creatures curdle within a culture disdainful of both reason and the higher human feelings. Those few young people who remain capable of compassion are denounced by their peers as "emos" and relegated to the social gutters. We've taught our children to be stone-hearted in the face of tears and pain.
This post is political.
The above video perfectly depicts the massive cultural and religious failure which gave us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Give April Cooper a couple of years, a uniform and a rifle, and what will you have? Lynndie England. Get these kids interested in politics, and what will they turn into? Kossacks, DUmmies, Dittoheads and Free Republicans.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
The above video perfectly depicts the massive cultural and religious failure which gave us Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
I disagree with that. The explanation for those events isn't some novel, unusual development of the average enlisted men and women along religious lines (as compared to the status quo ante). That was the cover story, remember?
Instead, it was top-down direction by Bush & Co., emphasis on the 'Co.,' with only a few of those top figures notably religious zealots. Cheney and Rumsfeld, not so much or not at all, led by the 'reasoning' of John Yoo (didn't find evidence of any religious fanaticism as a basis of his reasoning), which was quite after the fact felony (and felony murder) capital punishment-prescribed war crimes ass-covering.
This is consistent with the findings of the famous Milgram Yale psych experiment, designed to prove 'it can't happen here,' but which DID happen here in that simulacrum at a 65% rate in 1961, among average persons who were not religious fanatics.
Indeed, among the few top personages who were religious fanatics, AG John Ashcroft showed the greatest sensitivity to how bad this was, at least as to historical appearances and judgments.
...sofla
I didn't mean to exonerate the Bush administration's culpability in the Abu Ghraib scandal. All of my previous writings from the disclosure of the scandal are evidence of my outrage that lower-level personnel went to prison while the higher-ups got off scott free. We have reports that Bush himself has seen videos of torture sessions.
Still, atrocities could not occur without willing accomplices.
I saw films of the Milgram experiments when I took Psych 101. Everyone compares what Milgram did to Abu Ghraib, but I think that the two situations differ more than most people realize.
The test subjects in the Milgram experiments were cowed by an authority figure who stood directly nearby, giving cold and officious orders. The test subjects (the ones administering the shocks) were clearly uncomfortable and unhappy. They did it, but look at the films -- they clearly do not enjoy doing it.
Conclusion: They were gulled into compliance by authority. A desire to please authority figures is simply part of the human psyche -- if it were otherwise, parent-child relations would be impossible, and the family would cease to function.
Now compare those Milgram images to what we saw at Abu Ghraib. Those photos were not the result of the cold and efficient carrying out of orders. What you saw in those photos was sadism. The soldiers showed true malefic creativity, and they clearly took erotic pleasure in humiliating their captives.
Compare Lynndie's obscene grin and "thumb's up" gesture to the uneasy reactions of the subjects in the Milgram experiments.
That comparison tells the story of everything that has gone wrong in our society.
Am I out of line in bringing religion into the equation? Consider:
We've been undergoing a religious revival, or series of revivals, since the 1970s. We are now, by far, the most religious heavily industrialized nation on earth. If religion truly spoke to our better selves, then Americans would be more compassionate, more unwilling to countenance brutality.
Are we?
I honestly believe that if the Milgram experiments were repeated today, the test subjects would show less hesitation and fewer signs of unease. A few subjects might even flash a Lynndie-esque grin as they press the button.
Don't believe me? Then let's change the experiment a bit. Let's restage the Milgram experiment, but this time the victim is Middle Eastern -- and the authority figure broadly hints that this person has done unspecified "bad things" in the past, and has agreed to participate in this experiment in order to avoid jail.
In other words, the experiment would be set up in such a way as to give torture both social sanction and emotional satisfaction.
What would happen then?
Similarly, I don't buy the oft-heard excuse that online behavior is so brutal because the nature of the internet is impersonal.
I think the answer is simpler. "Christian" America is becoming a nation of sadists.
Joe,
What exactly was the perceived offence of the girl that was beaten? I mean, does it have any connection to your "religious" angle? I heard something on the news about a money angle (post the video on the Internet and charge for viewing?) which doesn't make it any better.
The girl's alleged offense was insulting her school friends on MySpace.
I brought in the religious angle when I zoomed out (so to speak) to take in a vista of American society as a whole. We are the most religious industiralized society. If religious indoctrination made for better citizens, then our children would be better ore caring and compassionate than were their grandparents. Are they?
Your fellow Xtians sent Siegelman the Jew to prison over trumped-up filthy lucre charges, apparently easy enough to accomplish in Alabama. They tried to do the same to the famous Allegheny County Jew, Cyril Wecht, including testimony about kosher hot dogs in their case so the jury would get it. Get it? Remember Kubrick's conversations with Freddy Raphael? How about Harry Golden, remember him? He said "Charlotte [NC] likes their Jews".
I agree with your general take on religion, well at least the kind that has been promoted by the Christian Right, I just wondered if THEY ALL WENT TO THE SAME CHURCH or something.
I used to live in Plano, TX which was once voted the most conservative "burb" in US, upper middle class...soccer Moms... anyway, I had a bunch of clients that went to this mega-Church and they used to tell me all kinds of stories. One of them was about this couple whose daughter came down with cancer. As good Christians everybody cooked casseroles and took turns babysitting for the other kids and you know... meanwhile the Dad and one of the other Moms sort of hooked up and eventually the kid died. The Mom started a website about her experience with this type of cancer and met a guy from Houston and sort-a-hooked up with him. Well the mom and dad ended up divorced and the mom moved the guy from Houston in the same house she had with her X. Now non of this is all that unusual except, THEY ALL(the mom , the dad, the other mom and her husband and the guy from Houston)KEPT ATTENDING THE SAME CHURCH and everybody knew the whole story!
That's very disturbing. I'm pleased to note to myself that my 5'-0" wife could clean up that whole room full of beasts without breaking a sweat.
Let me pose a question:
Did the propaganda of Joseph Goebbels affect German culture in his time? Do you think it can't happen here? Dou you honestly soppose techniques have not evolved? That they are not being employed?
Now that my heart-rate is getting back to normal, here is a very important report about "myspace" and associated phenomena I think everyone should read.
Is The Devil in Your Laptop?
http://www.larouchepac.com/files/pdfs/071127-lpac_myspace.pdf
Gary McGowan
to gary mcgowan, anon 8:16,
I am surprised that Joseph hasn't removed your comment because you reference a larouche article.
The LaRouche fanatics are zombie brainwashed all american looking white middle class twentysomethings who are in desparate need of being committed to psychiatric facilities because their arguments make absolutely no sense whatsoever.
I am so disgusted with the larouchies, yesterday about 10 of them scattered throughout an audience of roughly 5,000 attendees interrupted Al Gore's keynote speech at the San Francisco RSA Conference2008 taunting and harassing him. When I left the Moscone center after his talk, one of the LaRouchies was saying that they have the answer to saving the world, not Al Gore. What hogwash.
it seems they are like trolls waiting in the shadows to deliver their insane message of Larouche as savior, that he has some plan to save the world. Crap! bastards!
Getting back to topic, yes, it is unbelievable how just plain mean these young white middleclass girls are, resorting to blows because one gal exercised her freedom to express her opinions on an internet myspace webpage. It was so vulgar, ugly, like a pack of hyenas who set upon a lone target in some desparate bid to get some attention. how sad
anon from SF
Anon who is bashing my post and the LaRouche Youth Movement - post using your real name and we'll talk. (Let's see, you are from San Fernando? Santa Fe? 'frisco?) Your criticism is foolish? Stop trying to lean on Joseph to delete my comment.
Anyway, I didn't come here to argue with you. I finally found something in the PDF I gave the link to above--something I'd been intending to track down for weeks now, but never getting around to it...
< imagine blockquote >
NSNA first began playing around with the idea of social networking through the Internet on EIES, the Electronic Information Exchange System, one of the first networking technologies, and they coordinated their early conferences with this technology.
INSNA players developed some of the software for social network analysis, such as UCINET and SOCNET, which could analyze social networking sites such as myspace.com, facebook.com, ancestry.com, or multiple interface gaming, such as Microsoft's “Counterstrike." The cybernetic “change agents" developed technologies to map the flow of rumors through society, which they claim spread like the transmission of epidemics, such as AIDS. This technology could also be used to create social movements, thereby setting the stage for gang and counter-gang conflicts--techniques entirely coherent with those used in Venetian or British colonialism.
These programs could be used to steer or “herd" popular opinion into a desired direction under one condition: the existence of willing guinea pigs. This required people to provide full psychological profiles that could be used for manipulation. If the “guinea pigs" bought into the positivist's binary view of mankind, then the game theory matrices could be set up through a vast array of “Karl Rove talking points." In other words, the social engineers could outline a “group think" matrix, like a “Choose Your Own Adventure" book."
< imagine /blockquote >
As it turns out, this chapter of the PDF can be seen as a webpage article here:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5odmvy
Gary McGowan
I've referred t LaRouchie pieces on occasion, even though I think that dear old Lyn is out of his freaking gourd.
I once had access to a small cache of material from his "Lyn Marcus" days. Amazing stuff. I like Dennis King's book, but we need a new bio...
I suspect Lyn is more sane than we are.
About 7th-8th grade when they start teaching Euclidean geometry with all its axioms and postulates, did you get a creepy feeling? I did. So did Lyn, but he put it to good use. I didn't live in the U.S. (or had at least stopped watching TV) when he was running for president or when they orchestrated the monumental smear campaign against him in the 80s. Dennis King was part of that.
Some of the Lyn Marcus stuff is still available on one of his websites, although I couldn't recommend it in my top 100 of things by him to read. He's not trying to hide it. I suppose if one starts with some presumption that "He's just a conspiracy theorist, who does (this or that)..." that's all they'll see. Likewise if someone is just taking a peek to confirm he's nuts, that's just what they'll come away with.
He and his colleagues have produced a veritable LIBRARY FULL of good stuff (some more listenable, watchable or readable than other-but I find the university library to be like that too). It is a source of amazement to me that more people can't find things they value therein. wlym.com
As to the political interventions, I and others used to raise holy hell in the 1960s and that was real cool, eh? Now his people do things only mildly disruptive and they are dissed for it. Go figure.
I find that fact kind of scary.
Gary McGowan
I'm sorry, I promise to stop after this, but I neglected to mention
(Turn on your pop-up blocker-they are not LaRouche pop-ups, though.)
http://american_almanac.tripod.com/contents.htm
If you can go there with an open mind and not find something really good, I am just amazed. Choose an article whose subject is of genuine interest to you.
Gary McGowan
I am trying to get used to new people around here and some like GMC throw things around without much background and following them (or not) becomes a vetting exercise.
I am going to put my faith in Joe to confirm or denounce less than logical or truth worthy assertions.
Up till now, GMC strikes me as a snack-er...you know...take a bite.. leave the table... come back.. and leave crumbs everywhere!
Post a Comment