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.
It is the first changes among familiar things that make such a mystery of time to the young; afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive." (Mr. Bell)
Indeed it may be only by risking the incoherence of identity that connection is possible.
The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.
There are quite a lot of YouTube clips of me that have gone viral. One that I think of is of a young woman at a lecture I was giving - she came from Liberty University, which is a ludicrous religious institution. She said, 'What if you are wrong?' and I answered that rather briefly, and that's gone viral.
We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.
America is a mistake, a giant mistake.
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