If the comments on our recent posting of Rob Morris' YouTube video are any indication, the War on Drugs is a divisive topic among our viewers. This is not surprising as it is a political, economic, social and racial issue that is complicated and has few clear alternatives that a majority of Americans would agree on, even if they agree that it isn't working (which itself doesn't appear to be a consensus). Given the power of the status quo, particularly with regards to government initiatives, this lack of clear alternatives suggests that the War on Drugs is here to stay, regardless of the government's nomenclature du jour.
However, despite that fact that changing the nation's policy on drugs is an uphill battle, people have not stopped trying to do so. With that thought in mind, we are happy to be able to bring part II of Rob's video series The Drug War Is Awesome! to our readers below. In addition, for anyone who is interested, Rob is now on Twitter, and can provocatively be found at TheFederalGovt.
Linking the drug war to the Monroe Doctrine requires some mental contortions. Monroe preceded the Drag War by about a century (give or take a decade).
ReplyDeleteI'm also skeptical of the assertion that it is our drug war that fosters communism. Communist rebels in Colombia are increasingly funded by gold, not drugs: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-12/gold-eclipses-cocaine-as-rebels-tap-colombian-mining-wealth.html. Venezuela remains communist and thrives because of their enormous natural resources (i.e. oil and gold), not because of our drug war.
Thanks for the interesting comments.
ReplyDeleteThough I personally believe there is something to what you are saying, I also think that things are a little more complicated than stating absolutely that Drug War funding, or gold, or (insert your pick here) does or does not fund political movements in Latin America.
I think that US intervention in the region has had many implications that are difficult to state in absolutes. This notion, as well as action in Iraq and Afghanistan all seem to me to be factors in the growing non-interventionist sentiment in America in recent years.
In any case, glad to see that Rob's video is causing some dialogue on the topic and bringing well-informed readers to the site. Thanks for stopping by!
The point I am trying to make with these videos is that the drug war is allowing us to carry on with very oppressive behaviors that we like to tell ourselves we've grown out of. We like to tell ourselves that we're over Slavery and Jim Crow, and we've moved into a post-racial utopia. In reality the drug war allows us to continue oppressing low-income African-Americans. Similarly, while we like to tell ourselves we are now better friends to Latin America than we were, the Drug War allows us to exert a very malign influence. The point is emphatically NOT that the Drug War is as bad as slavery, or Jim Crow, or our treatment of Guatemala or Chile or Cuba during the Cold War, but that it is more similar to these things than we like to tell ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I don't think your article supports your point very well. Nothing in there disputes my statement that "Colombia still has communists because of the money they make off of our drug laws". Anyway, I quibble. Thanks for taking the time to watch it. This is my go at satirical film-making. If I do any more I'll try to make my message clearer. Thanks again for watching!