BoJo Ascendant

It's all happening, peeps -- Boris Johnson is slated to be the next Prime Minister of England.  I've held back from discussing him a whole lot here because, well, I sort of knew there was a lot more to come with this guy, and here it is.  He's no longer just MOUTHING OFF about Brexit; he's going to be PRESIDING over it after that razor's-edge win in the referendum that asked Brits whether they wanted to STAY with the European Union or GO.  

If you doubt Bojo's Chaos Cred, just make note of the fact that he's known globally as the British Donald Trump.  That's an impressive credential all by itself, frankly.  He is riding the crest of the chaos now, that's for sure, as a second Prime Minister beats a retreat in the wake of the Brexit decision because she just can't do it anymore.  Who can blame her, honestly?

I wonder, though, WHO'S THE REAL APPLE ROLLER HERE.  Nobody took BoJo seriously until the referendum to decide whether to STAY or GO; everyone assumed Britain would vote to STAY, as every American assumed Hilary Clinton, with her unassailable 1-percentage-point lead in the polls, would be the 45th president of the United States.  EVERYONE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE POND WAS WRONG.

But, again, who really rolled this apple into the middle of this party?

Maybe, baby, it was Tony Blair, the PM who presided over the Brexit referendum that never needed to happen in the first place.  Maybe if he had left it to a successor to address the question, he might just have been POSTPONING THE INEVITABLE.  But as it stands, Blair -- a guy whose idea of STICKING HIS NECK OUT politically is saying that heroin addiction is bad for the country -- is the one with egg on his face even though it was Bojo leading the charge all along to make Brexit happen.  He's getting BLAMED for everything that's happening now and BoJo, who is going to at least PRETEND to take the bull by the horns, is going to look sort of like a hero, where Blair looks sort of like a weenie for asking for the referendum and then dipping out when it didn't come out the way he wanted.

But Tony Blair, in agreeing to the referendum, was just doing what his constituents were BELLOWING FOR all this time.  They are supposed to have a government that represents the desires of the people, after all, am I right?

And there in the background, BoJo has been waiting.  He wasn't just kidding around, either, the way The Donald was when he decided to run for President.  Johnson is a goofus, but he's a goofus with a PLAN.  

The upshot:  I don't know what to think.  But I am buckling my seatbelt.  

THE POLITICAL PROCESS 

IS SUCH SWEET SORROW.

Disorderly Ponderations

What follows is not an excerpt from the book above, but it is a quote from the author and hey, what a cool jacket design, am I right?  (And I obviously mean "jacket design" in both senses here.) 

Ruth Kinna Speaks!  (The whole discussion can be read here.

"It’s very difficult for political theorists to think about anarchism in any other way than negative, because it seems to contradict everything that politics is based on: the idea that we need a constructed and defined order, and that we can’t coordinate our actions unless somebody helps us do it. Anarchists come along with the idea that anarchy is order, and what exists is disorder. That frightens people."

 Does it ever!  

And that's one of the things I like about it!

Are Youth Gangs Forces Of Chaos?

I'm thinking specifically of Mara Salvatrucha, better known simply as MS 13, a good-sized Salvadoran gang outfit with an ENORMOUS recruiting territory and branch offices all over Central and South America, as well as right here in the good old U.S. of A., where they may have first gotten started.  They have been more in the news lately which is what made me think of them.   I'm just wondering if you need a CHANGE OF ACUITY about these guys and gals.  Would you call them AGENTS OF CHAOS?

AT FIRST GLANCE the MS13 would appear to be CHAOTIC AS HELL and not in a good way.  They've appeared in the news in the past few weeks for some gory, hideous crimes.

ITEM:  MS 13 members hoping to RISE IN THE RANKS killed 6 people in recent memory using machetes, beisbol bats and knives.  22 people were involved and most or all are in custody as I type this.

(ITEM:  Now, why would it even take 22 people to kill six people?  If I put my mind to it I could kill 22 people myself without any help.  But I digress.)

ITEM:  After a man crossed out some of the gang's graffiti, some MS 13 guys set upon him, strangled him, cut out his heart and took photos before pitching pieces of him into a canyon.  Wow!  Total overreaction!  Most Janes and Joes would see this as CHAOTIC, DISORDERLY behavior.  What do you think?

ITEM:  A well-known branch office of this gang, called the Fulton Clique or just La Fulton, has a leader nicknamed Satan.  Satan is the name a LOT of people coming from a Christian standpoint trot out IMMEDIATELY at the first sign of DISORDER.  

ITEM:  La Fulton is not an administrative branch of MS 13.  (If they even have one.)  They are BUSY AS HELL DOING CRIMES.  

ITEM: Most people put an equals sign between CRIME and CHAOS.

ITEM:  Mara Salvatrucha got started because the future gang members, surrounded by urban dangers, decided to CREATE SAFETY for themselves and the people they loved.  They also wanted to RIGHT SOME WRONGS.

ITEM:  Most people put and equals sign between SAFETY and ORDER.

ITEM:  Most people put an equals sign between THE RIGHTING OF WRONGS and IMPOSING ORDER.

ITEM:  The authorities feel these crimes were committed with the goals of BRINGING MS 13 BACK TO ITS ROOTS.  Certain parties have said they were trying to get the gang out from underneath the heel of the Mexican Mafia.  If I could ask them, I suspect MS 13 members would largely agree that getting out from underneath the Mafia is a way of RESTORING ORDER.

SEE WHAT I'M GETTING AT HERE?  As gory and terrifying as their exploits are, these guys are probably just trying to MAINTAIN ORDER.

ALWAYS REMEMBER that while Order and Chaos are two sides of the same coin, Order itself is a 2-sided coin, as is Chaos:

Of course no policeman would see it this way.  When they arrest these gang members, they see themselves as IMPOSING ORDER ON DISORDER AND BEATING BACK THE CHAOS.  

But it's never that simple, is it?