The State of the Culture Today

[Boojatta]

Actually that's the title of a section of a book that was written in 1972. However, this little passage from that section might be of some interest:

myriad demonstrations occurring all over the world, sometimes against dire oppression, more often against perfectly legal but unpopular measures, and sometimes again from habit, with no defined object in mind, save expressing hostility to whatever is established. The word Establishment, torn from its precise meaning, now denotes any institution, even benevolent (such as the fire department), which is tainted with having existed prior to the mood of protest.

Another name for <...> is Civil Disobedience, also a term divorced from its true meanings, which was: defiance of a bad law to show that it was bad, by accepting the consequences of breaking it. Now Civil Disobedience is the breaking of any law so as to show that existing society commits injustices at large, and on this ground the lawbreaking asks to be excused. The riots, protests, sit-ins, and strikes have this in common: they substitute the pressure of group blackmail for the force of law and put both the law and the officers of government on the defensive as usurpers.

In countries that have traditions and charters of popular sovereignty, these outbreaks are protected by the guaranteed rights of assembly and petition, though the physical destruction, obscene libel, and disruption of ordinary life which now mark "protest" go far beyond the right of assembly and petition as originally defined, and could not be envisaged as a right by any sane instrument of government. <...>

Any comments?