Sacred and Profane: How not to negotiate with believers.

[Anti Federalist]

Interesting 7 page piece on Waco.


Sacred and Profane

How not to negotiate with believers.

by Malcolm Gladwell March 31, 2014

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2014/03/31/140331fa_fact_gladwell

[KingNothing]

"....by Malcolm Gladwell "

Ew.

[Occam's Banana]

It is very much worth reading the whole thing.

The obstinate & grunting ugliness of the one-dimensional "psychology" of government thugs (& their media lackeys) is revealed in this piece - especially as it exists with respect to "true believers" (be they Davidians or libertarians).

IOW: We are all Branch Davidians now.

(And I must spread some rep ...)

[phill4paul]

It is very much worth reading the whole thing.

The obstinate & grunting ugliness of the one-dimensional "psychology" of government thugs (& their media lackeys) is revealed in this piece - especially as it exists with respect to "true believers" (be they Davidians or libertarians).

IOW: We are all Branch Davidians now.

(And I must spread some rep ...)

rep covered.


“I am presently being permitted to document in structured form the decoded messages of the seven seals,” he wrote back. “Upon the completion of this task, I will be freed of my waiting period. . . . As soon as I can see that people like Jim Tabor and Phil Arnold have a copy, I will come out and then you can do your thing with this beast.”


By the morning of April 19th, the Feds had had enough.

They didn't have time for that.

[fisharmor]

The obstinate & grunting ugliness of the one-dimensional "psychology" of government thugs (& their media lackeys) is revealed in this piece - especially as it exists with respect to "true believers" (be they Davidians or libertarians).

They didn't have time for that.

For the last five years, every single individual horror in this story has been repeated ad nauseum in every police story we read here.
The only thing that makes Waco noteworthy at this point is the number of things that all happened in one sitting.

I do hope that there are people who read that piece and see the horrors for what they are. I hope someone gets woken up by it.

As for me, as I read every single horror in that story, all I thought was "Of course they did, that's what they do".

It'll still be a long, long time before a majority of us think likewise.

[PaulConventionWV]

A fascinating read. Thanks for posting. I was too young to comprehend what was going on when this happened, but I know it was a tragic event and it's interesting to learn why this kind of thing happens.