My view of the Charleston butchery
The photo of the killer says a lot to me. I think instinctively in terms of history. And this young man practically threw his view of history in people's faces, wearing the flags of the old racist South Africa and of Ian Smith's Rhodesia across his chest like heraldic badges.
Of course, those old governments would never have welcomed or tolerated this kind of spree violence. Whatever their own way of keeping the kaffirs in order, anyone who indulged the kind of fun this fellow did would be arrested and condemned, probably to life without parole.
But then, this young man knew nothing about them from his own experience. To us older people, white South AFrica was yesterday; but in fact, white rule ended in 1994, and nobody in his twenties or younger can remember it even in its last, compromising, deal-seeking days. Rhodesia ended in 1980. Those flags have the same relevance to daily reality as a Confederate stars and bars.
And what tells us about this man is that he lived in an evil romantic fantasy of his own, raiding an imagined past for symbols to clothe his hatred and his sense of alienness. He cultivated his hatred of the present, of reality, by making up his own version of a glorious fallen past, much like the various cultists - from the remains of the KKK in America to our own Italian lunatics, not just neo-Fascists and neo-Communists, but even neo-Bourbons and neo-Habsburgs. There apparently is no age so miserable, so oppressive, so impoverished, that some alienated gaggle of fantasists cannot use it as as the imagined golden age.
His area of obsession is more recent than that of most such cultists. He was looking at a short period, a few decades at most - South Africa broke away from the Commonwealth in 1960, Rhodesia in 1966; and the whole drama was over by 1994. Even his choice of target is redolent of the period: black churches were not particularly the target of KKK-related violence until the sixties, when the prominence of black clergymen in the civil rights movement brought them to the attention of racist murderers. At least, this is my impression after reading two accounts of KKK activities, one from the twenties, the other from the sixties.
Again, the young monster built a fantasy version of his heroes' activities. The KKK, like other terrorists of their time, weren't suicides (that came later); they did not go rampaging gun in hand across churches, looking for personal notoriety. They preferred the shadows, safer as well as more impressive, and just placed anonymous bombs and fire-bombs.
The Zinn Centre people and their likes may find it pleasant to speak of a tradition of attack on black churches, but that is plainly wrong. There have been no attacks on churches in decades; and the characteristics of this one have nothing to do with what the KKK used to do. This is a rampage killing like those at Columbine or Virginia Tech - a modern kind of crime; only, it has chosen a black church rather than an educational institution for its target.
Such attacks are always carried out by loners or tiny groups of friends. I have spoken of movements of disaffected cultists such as our Italian worshippers of Bourbon and Habsburg glories; but there actually is some safety in numbers. These groups tend to exercise a certain group control over the lusts and fantasies of individual members. They may parade in ugly uniforms or issue delirious magazines, but they don't generally go looking for trouble by themselves. The time is not yet, they would say. The same emchanism that brings people together to nurse each other's fantasies and resentments keeps them together, talking and playacting. Sometimes these groups do erupt into violence, like various Communist and Fascist groups did in the late sixties and early seventies; but that is if they come to feel that, for some reason, an opportunity has come, a often thanks to outside support - Soviet behind-the-scenes support of seventies terrorism has not been proven in a court of law, but it is, in my view, certain.
Individuals, on the other hand, are uncontrolled. Individuals don't have to consider the view of the movement, don't have to think of their fellow group members. Indiiduals have nobody to discourage them.
Of course, those old governments would never have welcomed or tolerated this kind of spree violence. Whatever their own way of keeping the kaffirs in order, anyone who indulged the kind of fun this fellow did would be arrested and condemned, probably to life without parole.
But then, this young man knew nothing about them from his own experience. To us older people, white South AFrica was yesterday; but in fact, white rule ended in 1994, and nobody in his twenties or younger can remember it even in its last, compromising, deal-seeking days. Rhodesia ended in 1980. Those flags have the same relevance to daily reality as a Confederate stars and bars.
And what tells us about this man is that he lived in an evil romantic fantasy of his own, raiding an imagined past for symbols to clothe his hatred and his sense of alienness. He cultivated his hatred of the present, of reality, by making up his own version of a glorious fallen past, much like the various cultists - from the remains of the KKK in America to our own Italian lunatics, not just neo-Fascists and neo-Communists, but even neo-Bourbons and neo-Habsburgs. There apparently is no age so miserable, so oppressive, so impoverished, that some alienated gaggle of fantasists cannot use it as as the imagined golden age.
His area of obsession is more recent than that of most such cultists. He was looking at a short period, a few decades at most - South Africa broke away from the Commonwealth in 1960, Rhodesia in 1966; and the whole drama was over by 1994. Even his choice of target is redolent of the period: black churches were not particularly the target of KKK-related violence until the sixties, when the prominence of black clergymen in the civil rights movement brought them to the attention of racist murderers. At least, this is my impression after reading two accounts of KKK activities, one from the twenties, the other from the sixties.
Again, the young monster built a fantasy version of his heroes' activities. The KKK, like other terrorists of their time, weren't suicides (that came later); they did not go rampaging gun in hand across churches, looking for personal notoriety. They preferred the shadows, safer as well as more impressive, and just placed anonymous bombs and fire-bombs.
The Zinn Centre people and their likes may find it pleasant to speak of a tradition of attack on black churches, but that is plainly wrong. There have been no attacks on churches in decades; and the characteristics of this one have nothing to do with what the KKK used to do. This is a rampage killing like those at Columbine or Virginia Tech - a modern kind of crime; only, it has chosen a black church rather than an educational institution for its target.
Such attacks are always carried out by loners or tiny groups of friends. I have spoken of movements of disaffected cultists such as our Italian worshippers of Bourbon and Habsburg glories; but there actually is some safety in numbers. These groups tend to exercise a certain group control over the lusts and fantasies of individual members. They may parade in ugly uniforms or issue delirious magazines, but they don't generally go looking for trouble by themselves. The time is not yet, they would say. The same emchanism that brings people together to nurse each other's fantasies and resentments keeps them together, talking and playacting. Sometimes these groups do erupt into violence, like various Communist and Fascist groups did in the late sixties and early seventies; but that is if they come to feel that, for some reason, an opportunity has come, a often thanks to outside support - Soviet behind-the-scenes support of seventies terrorism has not been proven in a court of law, but it is, in my view, certain.
Individuals, on the other hand, are uncontrolled. Individuals don't have to consider the view of the movement, don't have to think of their fellow group members. Indiiduals have nobody to discourage them.