| Can we all just agree on one thing in 2021: that violence is NEVER the answer to any problem?
Apparently not, especially if you’re privileged, white, liberal and a Kennedy. Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy and daughter of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, recently reviewed three books for The New York Times Book Review. The topic of the three books? “Environmental disaster” and the review included a book written by a fanatical Swedish professor, Andreas Malm. His book? “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” and it was published, according to The Daily Signal, “on January 5 by Verso Books, which calls itself ‘the largest independent, radical publishing house in the English-speaking world.”
According to Ms. Schlossberg, “in this lyrical manifesto, noted climate scholar (and saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines) Andreas Malm makes an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse.” “We need, he argues, to force fossil fuel extraction to stop – with our actions, with our bodies, and by defusing and destroying its tools. We need, in short, to start blowing up some oil pipelines.” Schlossberg went on to call it “a compelling but frustrating treatise.” Apparently while being educated at Yale and Oxford, Ms. Schlossberg missed the opportunity to study the non-violent teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and that of her great uncle, Senator Robert Kennedy. She would be well-served to read this speech from Senator Kennedy delivered the day after the senseless assassination of Dr. King. That speech included this prophetic line, delivered two months before an assassin’s bullet tragically took Senator Kennedy’s own life: “No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of the people.” It might help her understand that calls for violence are never “compelling” only ignorant of the horrific damage done in its name. |
In a normal world, no one would hear about the absurd rantings of an obscure professor from Sweden. However, when a Kennedy heir writes about it and it appears in the “paper of note”, it’s worth noting – not what the fanatical and deranged professor is proposing but that an American of great privilege believes is worthy of our consideration. That’s the real concern here – she elevated what should be summarily dismissed and granted it consideration and validation.
