In a world of role-reversal, it would perhaps make the most sense to embrace the 21st century where the leftwing no longer seems to be the rude, vulgar, authentic force and instead insist that law and order is threatened by right wing terrorism as it bit by bit seeks to cast us into chaos on every front....
I'm not right wing, but I do enjoy occasionally listing to Theodore Dalrymple, mostly because he worked in prisons, and draws on his experience. He argues along the lines Zizek wrote here.
I think the argument is, if the left abandons law and order, the right will fill the vacuum with authoritarianism. I believe this.
We are not going to de-fund the police. In Ontario the right wing Ford government has reduced the educational requirements of people entering the police force, this is a blatant attempt to keep the police racist and sexist. The left leaning parties have no interest or plans on how to recruit or train the police. The vacuum, means that right wing parties push to get what they want, an authoritarian police force.
'start over from scratch' is not an option. Many of the other ideas that the left has for reforming the police, such as extra training for soft skills, don't really work. I just don't hear any good ideas. That's the issue, the left really doesn't put out a comprehensive plan for policing communities that needs it.
That's the problem, the only people shouting for law and order are the right wing authoritarians.
The left has giving up on poor communities, they have no plan. This is also why people in such communities have stopped voting. No one really addresses the issue they have. Many times it's simply a few thugs, that should go to jail, everyone knows who they are, they terrorize a neighborhood , and never seem to get busted.
The left speaks of police reform, but gives no examples of how to accomplish it.
This is what Zizek is talking about, currently law and order is only used to protect the statue quo of right wing people, because the left has given up and is too scared to use the police force.
Take the example of loud cars and motorcycles. It's typically right wing people that drive such cars. The police don't bother to do anything because the police sympathize with them. It would be nice if a left wing candidate said we are going to put funding to hire extra police, to confiscate all the loud cars and motorcycles bothering the good average people of the city. But, the left wing politicians are too scared to use such power.
The left must embrace law and order | Slavoj Zizek ( www.newstatesman.com )
In a world of role-reversal, it would perhaps make the most sense to embrace the 21st century where the leftwing no longer seems to be the rude, vulgar, authentic force and instead insist that law and order is threatened by right wing terrorism as it bit by bit seeks to cast us into chaos on every front....