Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the concept of law and order, suggesting it masks deeper injustices and necessitates resistance.
Mumia Abu-Jamal's quote challenges the notion of law and order as a benign framework for society. Instead, he argues that this perception is a mere illusion, underpinned by a history of systemic injustices such as racism and genocide. The quote emphasizes that accepting the status quo without questioning its fairness is truly the irrational stance, advocating instead for resistance to an unjust system.
In practice
In a speech about social justice at a rally.
At the risk of quoting Mephistopheles I repeat: Welcome to hell. A hell erected and maintained by human-governments, and blessed by black robed judges. A hell that allows you to see your loved ones, but not to touch them. A hell situated in America's boondocks, hundreds of miles away from most families. A white, rural hell, where most of the captives are black and urban. It is an American way of death.
Many claim that it is insane to resist the system; but actually, it is insane not to.
Prison is a second-by-second assault on the soul, a day-to-day degradation of the self, an oppressive steel and brick umbrella that transforms seconds into hours and hours into days.
Somebody once told me, black people, in and of themselves, are cosmopolitan. There's cosmopolitanism within the black experience. There's an incredible amount.
We are anxious because we do not know what roles to pursue, what principles for action to believe in. Our individual anxiety, somewhat like that of the nation, is a basic confusion and bewilderment about where we are going.
The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves - a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future.
There is this to be said in favor of drinking, that it takes the drunkard first out of society, then out of the world.
But nobody ever forgot anything, not really, though sometimes they pretended, when it suited them. Memories were permanent. Sorrowful ones remained sad even with the passing of time, yet happy ones could never be recreated - not with the same joy. Remembering bred its own peculiar sorrow. It seemed so unfair: that time should render both sadness and happiness into a source of pain.
Modesty and conscientiousness receive their reward only in novels. In life they are exploited and then shoved aside.
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