It’s Always 9/11: Stability Maintenance

I’m reading an interesting article in the April 12 New Yorker about China’s crackdown on its Central Asian ethnic minorities–which is strangely pertinent to our situation here in Portland. I quote:

“As the 2008 Olympics approached, Chinese authorities became obsessed with the concept of weiwen, or “stability maintenance”–intensifying repression with a ferocity…the Party was a captive of its own delusions: by overestimating the chance of an imminent societal rupture, it had become blind to the root causes of discontent. Reflexive crackdowns designed to eliminate a “phantom of instability”…would lead to a downward spiral of repression and unrest, which could bring about the very collapse that had been feared all along.”

Sound familiar? Mayor Wheeler (with the assist of Governor Brown) is so obsessed with “stability” (aka “law and order”) and overestimating the danger of minor disruptions and vandalism, that he is blind to the racism, economic inequity, isolation and depression that leads to this unrest. By continuing his repressive rants and actions, he is propelling Portland towards the very social and economic collapse he fears.

Totalitarianism does not belong to any part of the right/left spectrum. Totalitarianism happens when society is dominated by people who think their way is the only way, and dismiss any dissent as sociopathic. Hannah Arendt, in her Origins of Totalitarianism, notes that totalitarianism is not complete when conformity is imposed from above, ie by the police. It only becomes complete when the people become their own police. No wonder Wheeler is dissatisfied with tear gas, rubber bullets, flash bangs and “kettling” ( a technique borrowed from the SS). By asking the general populace to “unmask” the protesters (see my previous post, “Unmask the Rioters”) he is taking us wittingly or unwittingly down another step towards totalitarianism. We’ve come a long way–down–from “keep Portland weird”.

Tags: April 12 2021 New Yorker, recall the mayor, totalitarianism