Butler's Take on the Turkish Sheep

I think everybody's seen that news story already, so I'll spare you a recounting, and just point you instead to Butler's thoughtful take on it in his latest LRC piece, Saving a Dying Corpse. One snippet:

With its newly-concocted perpetual war upon an unseen enemy -- combined with greatly expanded police powers -- the established order seeks to force free men and women back into the herd upon which its violent control over life depends. That we may take our places in the serried ranks set out for us by the state so that we remain subservient to the state, is the purpose underlying the present 'war on terror.' As with the sheep in Turkey, the consequence will be that we will follow one another over cliffs leading to our mutual destruction. In the tapestry of human history, it is but the latest expression of the state's continuing war against life.

Also worth noting is a rather separate point he makes, which strikes to the heart of my disdain for the music monopoly:

Creativity has always posed a threat to those who refuse to adapt themselves to more productive alternatives. Because we have learned to regard institutions as ends to be preserved, rather than tools to be utilized, fundamental changes that threaten the institutional order must be resisted. Such is the case with the worldwide shift from vertically-designed and hierarchically-structured systems of centralized control, toward more decentralized, horizontally-networked social systems. Feudalism -- grounded in politically-defined privileges, rights, and status -- was unable to sustain itself in the face of an industrial revolution that rewarded people on the basis of exhibited merit in a free marketplace. So, too, the neo-feudal, politically-structured institutionalized order will be unable to resist the oncoming liberalizing trends.

Have I mentioned that he's agreed to do an interview with me? :) I'm really looking forward to that one ...