Reason First: Demonstrations

If there is to be a United States of America, let it be for the thought behind the videographer who captured the death of George Floyd. Let it be an America that captured the spectacular flight of the Spacex Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. This juxtaposition of viciousness and man’s grandeur and success paint a portrait of where Americans are in 2020.

In the midst of a pandemic, the creeping idea of initiation of physical force seeps through the cracks of society like droplets of COVID-19. It infects anyone susceptible to it. And for those most at risk, it kills them. How can the feelings of destroying private property ever be held to the same light as a rocket launch? The looting and anarchy represent a chasm within the social structure. The mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was a glorious symbol of man’s mind. What is glorious about knocking over a police car and setting it ablaze like a pile of firewood?

The Viciousness

There is no place for such behavior first made by the pernicious police officer. His ugliness in the role of being a proctor of justice turned alleged murderer is but a branch connected to the roots of racism still embedded in this country. George Floyd is just another name to be etched in the pantheon of fallen men, women, and children whose melanin just happened to have a tint.

The Joy

But to look at that shining, shimmering space vessel breaking the bounds of the earth signalled accomplishment. The magnificence of it all was enough to spark wonder and kindle joy in an individual. Yet there’s glass on the street and blood soaked t-shirts from being pelted by tear-gas grenades. even the “nonviolent” protests bring out a debasement within the culture. They say, “we’re not fighting, we’re not looting” but under their signs are minds that hold onto collectivist views that are just as damaging as a club or pistol. How is one supposed to parse through these events?

Privatization Now

Reason and individualism are the only real antidotes. Laissez-faire capitalism will arise once the aforementioned are instituted in this nation. Once people stop looking to the unknown and unknowable for guidance or Marx or Kant as direction in their lives, then there might be a breakthrough. The young children running around in sneakers disrupting order and wreaking havoc on cities across the nation ought to seek more productive activities. They ought to not march and sing and hold hands either. They ought to fight for privatized schools, privatized fire departments, and privatized everything but the police, law courts, and military.

The fight for privatization is an incredibly important ideal. Yet it is insufficient if people wish to latch onto food assistance, housing, and other programs. If this happens, then the country will slowly bleed out by way of draining the pockets of the citizens.

There ought to not be “rights” for jobs, gender, class, race, or sexual orientation. There should just be individual rights. For all the burning of the towns around the nation, that ought to be the focus. CEOs like Elon Musk who powered the Crew Dragon project used individual rights to protect his patents, found his companies, and grow his multi-billion-dollar fortune. George Floyd was not as fortunate as Musk. His skin color led an ogre to crush him until he died.

Floyd and Musk

What needs to be stressed is the fact that Floyd and Musk were both born in Generation X. But upon the umbilical cord being cut, both experienced divergent paths. Floyd and Musk both showed different abilities and skills. It was not luck but talent that promoted Musk (despite his mixed premises) to ever higher levels of existence. Floyd served in an honorable profession as a security guard. While the economic disparity is evident, what is also clear is the fact that programs like government schools and affirmative action hindered Floyd from achieving like Musk. Now, it is of course possible to be a billionaire without a degree or even a diploma, but what would it have looked like if Floyd had the chance to not be numbed by his schooling or told that he couldn’t raise himself higher on the ladder? Would he have still been the target of the evil cop’s lethal knee?

In seeing the Crew Dragon capsule before it took flight, it was like seeing a white tube of toothpaste standing erect. And then, in the moments leading up to the launch, orange and red shot out from the bottom in a cloud of white billowing smoke. It took to the sky. Meanwhile in most of the cities across the USA vandals and looters showed up to damage or destroy property that didn’t belong to them. Social distancing has taken a backseat as thousands of people have participated in some of the most heinous crimes that this country has ever seen. But what about the seeds to all of this menace? The cop’s knee in Floyd’s neck was the origin of this. What those who continue to pick up stones and demolish police vans ought to know is that of course they are hurting those institutions but mostly they injure themselves. The back and forth between law enforcement and the citizenry is like a miniwar with both sides flexing and posturing without reaching any sort of understanding.

Splendor in the Sky

But to look at the journey of that rocket soaring past the atmosphere seemed like a splendor in the sky. tens of miles below, the United States remains in turmoil. Whole police forces must contend with individuals who have written essays, maybe earned degrees, or maybe even become educators. What this shows is that when a monstrous act occurs, the ideas of civility and order become cast to the wayside and the primal ideations kick in at that point.

And the same ones who advocate for “if there is no justice, then there is no peace” should check themselves. Their ancient texts scream for mercy and clemency rather than justice or getting what you deserve. So, that whole notion of forgiveness and bowing and scraping is only good on one particular day but on all others, it appears that the cage is unlocked and the tiger of rage runs loose.

That product of mind and ingenuity that blazed across the sky from Kennedy Space Center known as the Crew Dragon truly sculpted a figure of virility and idealism. The near decade drought of America sending human beings into space has finally ended. What has not ended is the clamor for members of the population with higher concentrations of melanin to be confident without being arrogant and command respect without being egotistical (the first ‘t’ is the problem). They should not cower or become docile under the muzzle of a police gun. They should act in accordance with the ideas of rationality and integrity.

Aloft

In both anarchism and statism, there is a common thread: the demolition of the individual. Anarchism says that there should be no rights because a government will always be evil. Statism states that a government is too good for the individual. Both are two twisted sides of the same toxic coin. As the riots and demonstrations continue, Crew Dragon carries Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley aloft. Do you think that George Floyd would have liked to see this view if he still had life in him?