I don't know what happens next for America but I know what happens to the protesters. Cops were run over and shot in the head last night. Conservative and (unwittingly) liberal media alike have laid the groundwork for the "restoration of order" at all costs. The police will win. People who are still protesting will become volunteers to demonstrate the absolute impunity that the badge grants. What will be left from this episode will be a shared experience of mass struggle, the complete unmasking of the american state, and the shocking trauma of watching video after video of violence against protestors. We've all been traumatized. I certainly have. That experience will become a keystone in the shaping of the collective memory and play a major role in whatever event is next on the list of the craziest year of my life.
Don't be hopeful, though. I watched a lot of demonstrations last year and the most memorable ones were in Iraq. People were protesting mass unemployment, oil profits going straight to corrupt bureaucrats, leftover scars from ISIS violence, and the feeling of complete helplessness against competing Iranian and US interests. Police responded in typical Arab fashion - live rounds, unhindered brutality, and absolute intransigence. This went on for a month. Anywhere from 300 to 500 people died. At the end, nothing changed. The state won. The elections scheduled for November 2019 have been indefinitely postponed. The provisional government is illegitimate. There's no moral to this story, except maybe that history has no master and we're all just vessels for the longue duree.
