I know that some of you are confused by the comments on social media about a “State of Emergency” being declared in the State of Missouri. Many of you expressed disarray and confusion as to why there was a state of emergency being declared and so I thought I would spend some time to translate Gov. Nixon’s declaration into more transparent language so that it could be more easily understood. Here is the translation, with footnotes at the bottom. A quick note, this blog post is mostly an intellectual, somewhat humorous reaction to my anger and frustration at the situation both in Ferguson and here in DC. If you need a more emotional response to validate the visceral anger, fear, dejection or apathy you might be feeling in America’s White Supremacist Patriarchy please go here. If you are looking for something a little more “we laugh so that we don’t cry” response from the Well Examined Life you will have to wait for me to stop crying.

WHEREAS, the peace of mind of middle class and partially enfranchised [1] residents of the City of Ferguson and the St. Louis region [whose support of our civil institutions is necessary for the patriarchal white supremacist hegemony [2] to flourish as it does] have experienced periods of unrest over the past three months due to unrest fermented by the disenfranchised [3] ever unruly Black population; and

WHEREAS, the United States and St. Louis County authorities’ power is contingent on a monopoly on “legitimate” violence [4] justified through the criminalization and dehumanization of non-white and non-male citizens as non-human persons [5]; and

WHEREAS, the United States Department of Justice and St. Louis County authorities will soon announce their unwillingness to bring criminal or civil charges against the officer in question; and

WHEREAS, regardless of the outcomes of the federal and state criminal investigations, there is the slight possibility of expanded unrest; and

WHEREAS, the State of Missouri needs expanded unrest to justify its expanded power and control [6]; and

WHEREAS, our middle class and partially enfranchised citizens have the precarious privilege to passively assemble and own small amounts of property and large amounts of debt the State of Missouri is committed to protecting those rights [7]; and

WHEREAS, capital and businesses must be protected from devaluation and damage; and

WHEREAS, an invocation of the provisions of Sections 44.010 through 44.130, RSMo, is appropriate to ensure the safety and welfare of our fully enfranchised citizens.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JEREMIAH W. (JAY) NIXON, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI, by virtue of the power vested in me by the barrel of a gun [8] and by the legitimacy vested in me by the Law of Missouri, including Sections 44.010 through 44.130, RSMo, do hereby declare a War of Terror in the State of Missouri.

I further direct the Missouri State Highway Patrol together with the St. Louis County Police Department and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to operate as a Unified Command to protect property, capital and hegemonic interests in the City of Ferguson and the St. Louis region.

I further order that the St. Louis County Police Department shall have command and operational control over security in the City of Ferguson relating to areas of policing Black Bodies [and the occasional holocaust survivor], acts of non-conforming and conduct otherwise arising from a desire to remove the current social order.

I further order that the Unified Command may exercise operational authority in any and all such other jurisdictions it deems necessary to protect aforementioned interests and ensure hegemonic control of both capital and civil society and that other law enforcement agencies, non-profits tied to the state through funding [9] and all citizens who receive privileges based on their conformity [voluntarily or otherwise] to prevailing social codes and racial order shall assist the Unified Command when so requested and shall cooperate with operational directives of the Unified Command.

I further order, pursuant to Section 41.480, RSMo, the Adjutant General of the State of Missouri, or his designee, to forthwith call and order into active service such portions of the organized militia as he deems necessary to protect life and property of hegemonic authorities and it is further directed that the Adjutant General or his designee, and through him, the commanding officer of any unit or other organization of such organized militia so called into active service take such action and employ such equipment as may be necessary to carry out requests processed through the Missouri State Highway Patrol and ordered by the Governor of the state to protect life and property and support hegemonic authorities.

This Order shall expire in thirty days unless extended in whole or in part by subsequent opportunities to use fear and racial animosity to further State interests or utilize frontier economics [10] to instigate gentrification [11] in predominately non-white communities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused to be affixed the Great Seal of the State of Missouri, in the City of Jefferson, on this 17th day of November, 2014.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon
Governor

ATTEST:

Jason Kander
Secretary of State
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[1] Partially enfranchised citizens in a capitalist white supremacist patriarchy are those citizens for whom the public services, utilities and civic institutions generally work yet who are still not represented in any larger institutions or systems of power. These citizens generally can expect to be treated respectfully by the police, have adequate public utilities and receive disaster relief in a timely manner yet are left out of most economic growth and political decision making. This is generally the Cis-White-Native Born-Middle class and the Upper Middle Class strata of more marginalized groups. Exceptions exist but are uncommon

[2] Hegemony is the systems, institutions and [to a small extent] individuals who exert power and influence over cultural norms, widely held beliefs and social and political practices in a society to maintain the status quo, particularly the people or class who currently have the most power.

“In Marxist philosophy, the term Cultural hegemony describes the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society — the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores — so that their ruling-class worldview becomes the worldview that is imposed and accepted as the cultural norm; as the universally valid dominant ideology that justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural, inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.” Wikipedia.

[3] Disenfranchisement is when an individual or group is prevented from meaningful participation in a society or political system due to legal obstacles, social coercion or the maldistribution of life chances to the extent that they become subjected to social change and not merely subject to it. Meaningful participation here is best understood as not merely unchecked self-determination or freedom to because the basic tenets of any meaningful social contract restrict human behavior for the common good. Rather meaningful participation means the ability to influence critique and collectively change the tenets of any social contract they enter or otherwise become a party to. Systematic misdistribution of life chances means an unequal and unfair likelihood of instances of life limiting situations, choices and resources such as high infant mortality rates, shorter life spans, educational attainment, criminal record etc due to categories to which one is socialized [i.e. forced into by society like race, gender and sexuality]

[4] One of the integral tenets of the idea of the modern state is the monopoly on violence. Which is to say, the state and it agents [officially designated or proxy agents] are the only members of a society for whom violence is a legitimate means of coercion i.e. not a crime. In a white supremacist patriarchy men are often designated as proxy agents either through implicit or explicit deputation. Explicit deputation like lynch mobs protected by the sheriffs or implicit deputation through the “a man’s whom is his castle” and stand your ground legal justification.

[5] For a primer on non-human personage google the three-fifths compromise. For a more contemporary example follow #blacklivesmatter on twitter. For an contemporary, less racial, and less centered on violence example on non-human personage read this article “Men are people and women are women.”

[6] God fearing, Freedom loving Americans would never give up freedom unless it would truly necessary or at least, if they thought it was truly necessary. This is why the State sometimes plays up the danger of nebulous treats like terrorist or riots. If you are afraid you are unlikely to question the people with guns, provided they point the guns at someone else. FYI, America has been in a state of emergency since 2001 having been extended under both Bush and Obama. Another one has been in effect since President Carter issued it  in response to Iran hostage crisis.

[7] It’s clear from the fact that they are talking about quelling mostly non-violent protests with the military that they are not concerned with protecting freedom of speech. Before you get side tracked by talking about how riots are not freedom of speech remember that the protests have been overwhelming non-violent and that there have been several other riots in America since the Ferguson Riot  yet the military only get called in when the interests of the state are questioned. So, when they say rights and property they really mean property rights and not just everyone’s property rights but those who support their hegemonic control. Let’s not forget the times when the state has let Black neighborhoods burn.

[8] Not all power comes from the barrel of a gun, but if Hobbes was right about anything, its that the State’s power usually does. However, power and legitimacy are not the same thing. Power [in this limited context] is what makes you do what they want, legitimacy is often what stops you from complaining about it. People Power, for instance, derives its legitimacy and power from the people. The state derives its power from the threat of violence and its legitimacy from the constitution, other laws and years of a post-civil war culture of habitual mass submission broken up only intermittently by uprisings and demonstrations whose energy is usually channeled into reform movements or simply repressed.

[9] The silence from non-profits that work in low-income communities of color, like the unions that represent them, is deafening.

[10] Frontier Economics: [noun] A pernicious isotope of Reaganomics that utilizes “crisis capitalism” to systematically disinvest in urban POC communities to lower property values, remove employment opportunities and lower the quality and increase the price of social services in an effort to increase crime, lower educational attainment and hamper organic institution building so as to support a narrative shift in which said communities become “bombed out” wastelands whose “native” populations are unwilling AND unable to take care of it; therefore justifying the use of hegemonic powers to instigate gentrification and to incentivize “urban pioneers” to re-settle the inner city; much like homestead acts and colonial settlers in the American West except with militarized police instead of the military and prisons and charter schools instead of the reservations and “Indian schools.” After the dust settles, and the incarceration rate of POC in Ferguson increases slightly, expect either “spontaneous” infuses of capital to deal [nominally] with any property damage but mostly with increasing the hegemonies control of the economic life of residents or [infinitely more likely] the disinvestment in the community by the state and civic institutions. This will be followed, years later, by a reinvest of funds to remove the urban blight created by the disinvestment.

[11] gentrify: [verb] the process of using middle class, typically white youth to shorten upper class professional commutes [and line their pockets] by systemically weaponizing culture and capital in such a way as to necessitate the forced or otherwise involuntary removal of urban POC either through the criminalization of marginalized culture and increasing cost of living or through destabilizing POC communities to instigate “voluntary’ “self-deportation” facilitated by systematic disinvestment and intrusive government interruption such as placing children in wealthier [often whiter] homes as wards of the state, militarized policing, and decrease in non- DOJ government services.