I don't think it is ever necessary to give up "civil rights" for the "greater good". I put both "civil rights" and "greater good" in quotations because I do not believe that either of those things exist. As we creep into the third great Red Scare this only becomes more clear.
In late July dozens of anarchists from all over the west coast were subpenaed to a grand jury in Seattle. Unlike a regular trial, a Grand Jury determines whether a criminal indictment will be issued. These anarchists were indicted based on a bank vandalism that occurred during Seattle's May Day protests. However, because it is only a preliminary hearing they need practically no evidence at all to put them on trial. Even if nothing is ever found on them, they can still be kept subpenaed for a maximum of 3 years. In essence, its a modern day witch hunt.
The concept of rights is based in authoritarian thinking. One of the first and most famous examples of the concept of "rights" is the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi. In this code and its surrounding mythology the Babylonian gods are the ultimate authority and law is passed from them to the priest-king class. For the next 2000 something years, this paradigm would barely change from Babylon, to the pagan Roman empire, to the Europe-wide dominance of the Catholic church. The creation of the secular state built up the myth of rights even more.
The worst thing about civil rights is that it lulls people into a false sense of security. The danger of this cannot be understated. History has shown that no government has ever really believed in rights on a moral basis. The state reverts to rights based justifications when they want to do something like "liberate" a third world country, but throw them away when accused of torturing citizens of that same nation.
It can even be so bad that when the state blatantly ignores the "rights" that it is assumed to be protecting people will ignore it or not even ever see it happening. Luckily, there are still many that can see past the fragile veneer of civil rights that protects the secular state and know when to resist.
While the example of anarchists might appear as though there was no evidence, there might be more to that story than what was released.
ReplyDeleteTheir actually hasn't been any more evidence besides the fact that anarchists attacked a Nike store on May 1st in Seattle and that the people subpenaed also happen to be anarchists. The majority of them don't even live in Seattle but in Portland and Olympia. But with a Grand Jury the point of the court itself is to question if charges should be brought up, so they don't need evidence of any crime to subpena. What makes this case so crazy is that no witch trial this blatant has occurred since McCarthy.
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