Mumia: The Perils of Reform
https://socialistaction.org/2020/07/11/mumia-the-perils-of-reform/
July 11, 2020
By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
For years — indeed, for decades — we have seen the mirage of reform
being presented by neoliberal leaders and their media tools, only to
awake too late to ghoulish nightmares of shattered promises and hopes
betrayed. For reform is betrayal, a devil’s bargain of better days to
come — that only brings worse days. Today, the nation shocked by the
savagery of George Floyd’s curbside execution for all the world to see.
Just five years ago, politicians claiming themselves progressive, sold
illusions of police body cameras as some kind of solution. But George
Floyd, not to mention Rayshard Brooks, put the nail in that coffin. For
it meant nothing when it came to changing cop behavior.
Today’s reformers in Congress promise much, but they can and will
deliver little but new illusions. Reforms are but reformulations of old
promises, of old wine in new bottles, of things to come that never make
it. For that is the nature of capitalist society: new items to sell that
ended up producing new problems.
New days need new ways of thinking. They need creativity. They need deep
change that truly transforms. Not discussions, but relationships. And
who will dare say that this miserable present is awash in outright
oppression — not the lie of service, but truly repression, suppression,
and oppression. New oppressive systems can only bring more of the same.
To quote Dr. Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party: “We
want freedom, not another reform.”
Audio available here.
This commentary was originally published at PrisonRadio.org and recorded
by Noelle Hanrahan.
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Richard Dawkins
“The total amount of suffering per year in the natural world is beyond all
decent contemplation. During the minute that it takes me to compose this
sentence, thousands of animals are being eaten alive, many others are running
for their lives, whimpering with fear, others are slowly being devoured from
within by rasping parasites, thousands of all kinds are dying of starvation,
thirst, and disease. It must be so. If there ever is a time of plenty, this
very fact will automatically lead to an increase in the population until the
natural state of starvation and misery is restored. In a universe of electrons
and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people
are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find
any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has
precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no
purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”
― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life
