Halloween
Dear readers,
Excuse my absence. I have been writing my thesis. I am going to try to write a few shorter blog posts in the interest of writing more frequently and probably with less depth. Chuckles suggested that he would read the blog when I started writing satirical Sci-Fi. Any thoughts on that?
This post is a note on the celebration cum carnival cum melee that is Halloween in Madison. I will continue my tradition of going to State Street at around 2AM to witness the systematic enactment of coercive force by the state on the mob. It is a classic moment where the drunks are too drunk. Both the revelers on alcohol and mischief and the police on power and their spiffy riot outfits.
Last year I was surprised to see that the tactics used by the police were to entrap those refusing to leave by surrounding them and limiting their ability to escape. I would expect that since the point is dispersal that they would try to start in the middle and push out. But, hey, I am just a silly pacifist. What would I know about coercive force?
In the interest of interactivity, I pose a question: What is the role of coercive force in the state, in society, and in culture? And, more interestingly, what experience have you had with coercive force? Any heads knocked out there? Tear gas?
I will certainly taste a bit of that during my witnessing mission this weekend. Wish me luck.
posted by Breathing at 4:38 PM
2 Comments:
it's probably a little late but good luck anyway. with this and everything else.
i wanted to have something intelligent and incisive to say about coercive force but it just seems to be that there should be NO role for coercive force in our society. but then you get into the problem of things like enforcing laws (like domestic violence laws). some intimidation may be required. which makes me feel sad and puzzled. i never want to think Hobbes is right about the nature of man but maybe he was. ?
I hope it wasn't too rowdy. And I wonder how well the stadium floodlights did in revoking the empowerment of anonymity from the costume-sporters and the bar-dwellers. I thought it was a good, yet expensive, idea. But not a good enough idea for me to stick around and risk getting billyclubbed in the head.
And as far as the map goes, I couldn't shrink it down, either. I just posted another long post so that it would bleed into an area that didn't have writing on the side. I'm pretty computer illiterate, when it comes right to it.
Post a Comment
<< Home