The Narrative Image

I got some feedback from Pax (who I presume is an anarchist) regarding my post titled “PDX Peace March Spin”. Pax evidently wants to explain why some anarchists don’t support our troops and pointed me towards some anarchist literature available on the internet. As best as I can determine, anarchists (at least some anarchists) condemn soldiers for placing themselves at the disposal of ‘the state’. They blame soldiers for following orders instead of their “own guiding ethics” – for being part “marionette”. In short, it seems that anarchists don’t distinguish between the soldier and the state – that is, they seem to hold individual soldiers responsible for the political/policy decisions of their commander-in-chief. (Do anarchists vote?) I’m not sure that this particular line of reasoning is a fair or complete characterization of soldiers or the ‘state’. For me, what an individual soldier does is a sacred thing. To paraphrase, there is no greater way to show love than to lay down one’s lif...

According to a March 22nd Oregonian article ( Student’s Photo of War Protest Stirs Controversy ), a college student posted 240 photos of the peace rally and conservative Portland radio host Lars Larson picked only three of them to show that, “…some members of this community advocate killing soldiers”. (Note: I visited the Lars Larson site on March 24th to see how the images were used but couldn’t find them. The images reportedly show protesters burning an effigy of a U.S. soldier.) Another conservative commentator concluded that “Portland hates America”. It is frustrating that the images of a few self-styled ‘anarchists’ could be so readily used to misrepresent the actions of over 10,000 other activists who marched in a positive, peaceful manner to express opposition to the war. It shows that in the increasingly polarized battle between liberals and conservatives, each side seems to have already formulated their respective conclusions making data that fits these predetermined conclusio...