Ferguson and Beyond

The situation in Ferguson, MO, is a lot like the situation in Gaza. If people are oppressed for a long enough time, they eventually go crazy and start fighting back. The odds are the same as well. Israel is affluent and well supplied with American arms. Ferguson and St. Louis police (and now the National Guard) come from an entirely different economic culture and are also very well armed. As a consequence, Israelis have suffered little damage and only a few lives while Gaza residents have suffered huge losses. The result will be similar in Ferguson. The fight is desperate but it is also hopeless.

It is impossible for most Americans to understand the hopelessness of life for young black men in American ghettos. They are treated like trash and, when they fight back, they are shot dead. The only hope for the entire situation is a huge investment in urban re-development, education, and job training. But that is not going to happen so long as the ultra-wealthy of this country have so tied up our Congress that there will be no new funds for any such program. The whole situation will continue to descend into chaos. I can only imagine that there will be many more Fergusons. But the ultra-wealthy will have no problem with that because they have well insulated themselves from the rest of the world and country and, indeed, can pay for their own security. 

One of the really spooky aspects of this discussion is that America's situation in the world as a whole has a lot of resemblance to Gaza and Ferguson. While Americans naively see themselves as "peace keepers," the underdogs of the world see us as the great oppressors. We can carry this just so far and then they will begin to fight back just like any other oppressed people. That has, of course, already begun and we call them "terrorists." But, at what point, will the rest of the world come to see America's passion for domination as a grave danger and what will they have to do in order to reign us in? The remainder of the 21st Century is not going to be a pleasant experience for Americans.