Rad Geek People's Daily

Go Down, Pharaoh. Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-02-05). “If you mention the idea of a revolution driven by civil disobedience rather than violence, you’re apt to hear the old saw that such revolts only work in countries with good-hearted leaders at the reins, not savage regimes held together by torture and terror. But contrary to the popular stereotype, Gandhian uprisings don’t succeed by shaming rulers until they can’t bring themselves to crack down. They succeed by delegitimizing authority—by breaking the braces that support the structures of social control, so the rulers can’t crack down. Political power is not a pyramid fixed in stone. It’s a complex, dynamic ecology of shifting loyalties and allegiances. When those loyalties and allegiances shift swiftly and in sufficient numbers, the result is a revolution. … If there’s an iron law of politics, it’s that everything can always get worse. But if you want a reason to be optimistic about Egypt, there’s this: Unlike a coup, an invasion, or anything involving a vanguard party, a people-power revolution strengthens rather than disrupts civil society. Of all the ways a regime can fall, this is the path that’s most likely to lead to a freer country. When it comes to political models, the liberated zone in Tahrir Square beats a barracks any day.” (Linked Saturday 2011-02-05.)

By: PW. PW, Comments on: More on the Non-Existent "War on Cops" (2011-02-04). #25 – The most interesting stat on that link is far and away the disparity between cops and the general public on sexual assault. The others are fairly close, or only slightly skewed to the cops or the general public. But for sexual assaults, cops show up at more than… (Linked Saturday 2011-02-05.)