My Sunday thoughts: the question of the moment is whether the protests will push for *reform* or pursue the mirage of *revolution*. I think the jury is still out, but the academic-journalistic complex is clearly pushing in the second direction, which matches their world view.
"Reform" recognizes that we must strive as hard as we can to realize permanent values (e.g. justice) which transcend us, and which we can achieve only imperfectly because evil (e.g. racism) lurks within everyone (original sin) and cannot be ultimately eliminated, only contained.
By contrast the "revolution" thinks that evil can be eliminated, because it resides NOT IN US but in "the system" and the system can be changed by the exercise of power. Thus it expresses a dualistic, non-biblical (gnostic) type of religiosity (modern prototype: Marxism).
So revolutionary politics is utopian (shut down the police), Manichean (evil=white supremacy), perfectist (we will "solve" the problem of racism) and ideological (it deals with abstractions). Social redemption will come from the exercise of power and, if necessary, violence.
The tragedy of the modern left is that, unless it is inspired by rigorous non-perfectism and by non-dualistic religiosity, it is drawn to the revolution like a moth to the flame, where it burns. We'll see if this happens again in the present circumstances.
This burning usually takes the form of replacing an oppressive power with a more oppressive one. This was the tragedy of 1968 in Europe. Today it could simply mean bringing even greater destruction to the American inner cities.
My advice to well-meaning protesters: stay away from the intellectuals in academia and in the press because they are today the high priests of secularized gnosticism. Organize at the grassroots, through churches, professional and business groups etc. Then reform will be possible.
