salem’s essay > i predict a riot
http://issuu.com/melas.salem/docs/ipredictariot_essay
abstract >
This essay will explore the nature of the police, its historical role and place in society today to examine an institution of the state which predicates its role as one which ‘serves and protects’ the community. Reflecting on the philosophies of Michel Foucault, the ideologies of Marxism, in combination with personal accounts of activism in confrontation with the police in Melbourne I will form a critique of the police as a medium of control of the state; a manifestation of the consequences that will be inflicted upon defiance of the social constraints and dictums that maintain the dominance of capitalist ideology. Power relations and knowledge will be encompassed within this critique to nullify questions of equality in the interchange of positions of power, of positions in the police force with ordinary members of society in aide of reconciling where true power and control lies, in the unity of people. But far from outline the many reason why we should all be revolutionary socialists I will restrain my impulses, remain with the limits of the curriculum and provide an analysis of the nature of the police in tandem with what society deems to be within public control, the public spaces of Melbourne, City Square; the events of Occupy Melbourne, as a tangible example of where the limits of our control lie. I will endeavor to propose that rebelling against the system is the only way to truly exercise power.
archandphil 
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