The names Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp, along with Doc Holladay, Johnny Ringo, Ike Clanton, and Curly Bill, etc., are well known in U.S. folklore. Those names are infamous because of the role each of those people played in the notorious gunfight at the OK Corral in Tomestone, Arizona, U.S., in October of 1881.
Unfortunately, since most people in the U.S. don't have a practice of studying history, or anything else, the bulk of most people's knowledge of the above events is shaped by movies and other popular culture pieces they've seen on the subject. The 1993 movie "Tomestone" with Kurt Russell as Wyatt and Val Kilmer as Doc Holladay is a common source of understanding about these events for most people, but there are many other recreations. The gunfight was actually portrayed in an episode of the original Star Trek series. Kirk, Spook, McCoy, Scottie, and Checkov were banished to Tomestone, Arizona by the alien Malcosions to be the Clantons and Mclaureys to be killed by the Earps and Holladay in the episodes recreation of this gunfight.
The truth in history is that the Earps, including Wyatt, and Holladay, had as checkered a background as any of the Cochise County, Arizona, "Cowboys" e.g. "Curly Bill" Broious, Ringo, the Clantons, Mclaureys. Wyatt was actually arrested and charged with a variety of crimes before becoming a so-called lawman. He was incarcerated and would have lived out his life in prison in relative obscurity if he had not escaped from prison. In other words, Wyatt Earp escapes from prison, becomes a lawman and later uses his reputation to prevent his good friend Doc Holladay from being involuntarily shipped to another state to stand trial for murder. Meanwhile, Assata Shakur escapes prison in 1979 and is seen by the very same powerful structure that venerates and extols the legends of Earp and Holladay, as a murderous criminal. Johnny Ringo, an enemy to Wyatt and Doc Holladay, was found dead from a gunshot to the head. All fingers pointed to Wyatt Earp and Holladay who had been on a rampage against the Cochise County "Cowboys" after Morgan Earp was murdered and no one was brought to justice from that incident. Earp and Holladay didn't rely on prayers for justice. They didn't let justice take its course. When they didn't get what they felt they deserved, they took matters into their own hands. At the very least, Wyatt Earp and Holladay were gang members who actively retaliated when one of their gang was killed. And, for that, they are folkheroes, but the Mau Mau, the Maroons, Huey P. Newton and the Black Panthers, etc., are criminals for taking matters into their hands when there was enough systemic injustice against them to make Earp and Holladay's heads swivel off their shoulders.
The point is history would have to judge Shakur as a conscientious freedom fighter while at best showing Earp and Holladay as questionable characters with very limited integrity, but that's not how most people view these circumstances today, is it? And, this contradiction cannot be seen as an isolated instance. In fact, we would argue that most history is severely and unashamedly slanted towards the forces supporting imperialism and against the forces of justice. And, the cold piece about all of this is if you don't actively study history, there is absolutely no way you will be able to know the difference, regardless of how conscious you think you are.
If you need evidence of how strong this system's propaganda mechanisms are, even over your ever so conscious mind, just think about a time when someone told you that a third party has slandered or otherwise harmed you or people you care about. When this happened, how quick were you to see right through it as opposed to accepting, on some level, the intended acrimony against the person being snitched on, despite the fact you have no independent evidence besides what you have been told. And, even if you claim to be the most integrity laced person in the universe, you certainly have been victimized by someone else telling another party something damaging, but untrue, about you. When the latter happened, how many people you thought you could depend upon immediately believed the slander against you before they even talked to you about it, if they talked to you at all? So, if we can identify with those examples on any level, we have to recognize how easy it is for capitalism to extend its propaganda message through our self-proclaimed consciousness. Its an objective fact, if you don't have independent study and analysis, you are unable to prevent yourself from believing the propaganda, at least to some extent.
This is why we label this system generated propaganda as bourgeoisie information. We call it that because the information has absolutely no concrete connection to material reality. Its based solely on what the system convinces you to believe on an emotional level because when we think on this level we are unable to ask the appropriate questions. When we don't ask the right questions, we operate in a reality of lies and confusion. Again, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holladay are commonly thought of as heroes, although objective evidence says they were no more heroic than their nemesis's who are commonly thought of as criminals. Meanwhile, a person like Assata is thought of by freedom fighters as the ultimate freedom fighter, yet those freedom fighters can find people among their family and friends who would label Shakur a terrorist without hesitation.
Being able to recognize and understand bourgeoisie thought is critical in liberating our minds. The international bourgeoisie, e.g. the capitalist classes, want us to believe things like resistance to efforts to fight oppression is "human nature" in some people, but this analysis strongly represents the bourgeoisie thought model, meaning the logic exists within people's warped minds, but cannot stand up to material reality. Human nature is the manifestation of things we do by instinct. How we treat people. How we respond to people. How we interact with people, none of these things are driven by instinct as much as they are by how we are socialized. Yet, if we believe aspects of people's anti-human behavior are somehow "human nature" then we unconsciously accept the notion that those behaviors cannot be changed. In other words, if we believe someone who says trying to unite humanity against the bourgeoisie is impossible because most people just won't cooperate because that's most people's "human nature" to not cooperate with efforts like that, then we are forced to believe there is nothing more we can do. The question is when we come to that conclusion, who does that benefit? Certainly not us because unity is the key to solving pretty much every problem we encounter on this earth. It benefits the bourgeoisie who never want us to unite because us doing so means trouble for them. That's why we say bourgeoisie thought because its generated, owned, and perpetuated by the bourgeoisie against the masses of people.
What then do we call healthy, revolutionary, productive thought? We borrow from Sekou Ture's correct analysis about the people's and anti-people's class. Bourgeoisie thought is anti-people's class. Revolutionary anti-capitalist, pro-socialist thought is the people's class thinking. We would argue that the primary task we have before us is that of convincing people to join organized study processes that are designed to train people how to think people's class instead of anti-people's class. To get people to see the masses of people on the side of justice like the system has convinced so many of us to see people like Wyatt Earp as a hero, or at least an anti-hero. Our victory in this regard will be much stronger because it will be rooted in justice instead of lies and hypocrisy. In this backward society, bourgeoisie thinking has led millions to believe that Columbus was a hero. That people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington (slaveowners, killers of the Indigenous peoples), Earp, Holladay, Jesse James (an armed robber no less), and Al Capone are to be celebrated. And all of this backward thinking is of course based in the main prize - that the U.S. is to be celebrated and honored as a heroic and free country instead of the international criminal, bully nation, murderer, thief, and extortionist that it is.
Whenever we get to the point where we are no longer satisfied with symbolic (in our minds) victories of the power structure acknowledging us in some way, and grow to recognizing that our true power is in getting the masses of people to embrace our correct narrative of history, we will begin to truly win this fight on all levels.
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holladay, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Bush, Barack Obama, none of them are heroes. None of them are to ever be celebrated. Only the masses of people who fight, bleed, and die for justice are to be celebrated. The moment we institutionalize that thinking, its lights out for the bourgeoisie.
Unfortunately, since most people in the U.S. don't have a practice of studying history, or anything else, the bulk of most people's knowledge of the above events is shaped by movies and other popular culture pieces they've seen on the subject. The 1993 movie "Tomestone" with Kurt Russell as Wyatt and Val Kilmer as Doc Holladay is a common source of understanding about these events for most people, but there are many other recreations. The gunfight was actually portrayed in an episode of the original Star Trek series. Kirk, Spook, McCoy, Scottie, and Checkov were banished to Tomestone, Arizona by the alien Malcosions to be the Clantons and Mclaureys to be killed by the Earps and Holladay in the episodes recreation of this gunfight.
The truth in history is that the Earps, including Wyatt, and Holladay, had as checkered a background as any of the Cochise County, Arizona, "Cowboys" e.g. "Curly Bill" Broious, Ringo, the Clantons, Mclaureys. Wyatt was actually arrested and charged with a variety of crimes before becoming a so-called lawman. He was incarcerated and would have lived out his life in prison in relative obscurity if he had not escaped from prison. In other words, Wyatt Earp escapes from prison, becomes a lawman and later uses his reputation to prevent his good friend Doc Holladay from being involuntarily shipped to another state to stand trial for murder. Meanwhile, Assata Shakur escapes prison in 1979 and is seen by the very same powerful structure that venerates and extols the legends of Earp and Holladay, as a murderous criminal. Johnny Ringo, an enemy to Wyatt and Doc Holladay, was found dead from a gunshot to the head. All fingers pointed to Wyatt Earp and Holladay who had been on a rampage against the Cochise County "Cowboys" after Morgan Earp was murdered and no one was brought to justice from that incident. Earp and Holladay didn't rely on prayers for justice. They didn't let justice take its course. When they didn't get what they felt they deserved, they took matters into their own hands. At the very least, Wyatt Earp and Holladay were gang members who actively retaliated when one of their gang was killed. And, for that, they are folkheroes, but the Mau Mau, the Maroons, Huey P. Newton and the Black Panthers, etc., are criminals for taking matters into their hands when there was enough systemic injustice against them to make Earp and Holladay's heads swivel off their shoulders.
The point is history would have to judge Shakur as a conscientious freedom fighter while at best showing Earp and Holladay as questionable characters with very limited integrity, but that's not how most people view these circumstances today, is it? And, this contradiction cannot be seen as an isolated instance. In fact, we would argue that most history is severely and unashamedly slanted towards the forces supporting imperialism and against the forces of justice. And, the cold piece about all of this is if you don't actively study history, there is absolutely no way you will be able to know the difference, regardless of how conscious you think you are.
If you need evidence of how strong this system's propaganda mechanisms are, even over your ever so conscious mind, just think about a time when someone told you that a third party has slandered or otherwise harmed you or people you care about. When this happened, how quick were you to see right through it as opposed to accepting, on some level, the intended acrimony against the person being snitched on, despite the fact you have no independent evidence besides what you have been told. And, even if you claim to be the most integrity laced person in the universe, you certainly have been victimized by someone else telling another party something damaging, but untrue, about you. When the latter happened, how many people you thought you could depend upon immediately believed the slander against you before they even talked to you about it, if they talked to you at all? So, if we can identify with those examples on any level, we have to recognize how easy it is for capitalism to extend its propaganda message through our self-proclaimed consciousness. Its an objective fact, if you don't have independent study and analysis, you are unable to prevent yourself from believing the propaganda, at least to some extent.
This is why we label this system generated propaganda as bourgeoisie information. We call it that because the information has absolutely no concrete connection to material reality. Its based solely on what the system convinces you to believe on an emotional level because when we think on this level we are unable to ask the appropriate questions. When we don't ask the right questions, we operate in a reality of lies and confusion. Again, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holladay are commonly thought of as heroes, although objective evidence says they were no more heroic than their nemesis's who are commonly thought of as criminals. Meanwhile, a person like Assata is thought of by freedom fighters as the ultimate freedom fighter, yet those freedom fighters can find people among their family and friends who would label Shakur a terrorist without hesitation.
Being able to recognize and understand bourgeoisie thought is critical in liberating our minds. The international bourgeoisie, e.g. the capitalist classes, want us to believe things like resistance to efforts to fight oppression is "human nature" in some people, but this analysis strongly represents the bourgeoisie thought model, meaning the logic exists within people's warped minds, but cannot stand up to material reality. Human nature is the manifestation of things we do by instinct. How we treat people. How we respond to people. How we interact with people, none of these things are driven by instinct as much as they are by how we are socialized. Yet, if we believe aspects of people's anti-human behavior are somehow "human nature" then we unconsciously accept the notion that those behaviors cannot be changed. In other words, if we believe someone who says trying to unite humanity against the bourgeoisie is impossible because most people just won't cooperate because that's most people's "human nature" to not cooperate with efforts like that, then we are forced to believe there is nothing more we can do. The question is when we come to that conclusion, who does that benefit? Certainly not us because unity is the key to solving pretty much every problem we encounter on this earth. It benefits the bourgeoisie who never want us to unite because us doing so means trouble for them. That's why we say bourgeoisie thought because its generated, owned, and perpetuated by the bourgeoisie against the masses of people.
What then do we call healthy, revolutionary, productive thought? We borrow from Sekou Ture's correct analysis about the people's and anti-people's class. Bourgeoisie thought is anti-people's class. Revolutionary anti-capitalist, pro-socialist thought is the people's class thinking. We would argue that the primary task we have before us is that of convincing people to join organized study processes that are designed to train people how to think people's class instead of anti-people's class. To get people to see the masses of people on the side of justice like the system has convinced so many of us to see people like Wyatt Earp as a hero, or at least an anti-hero. Our victory in this regard will be much stronger because it will be rooted in justice instead of lies and hypocrisy. In this backward society, bourgeoisie thinking has led millions to believe that Columbus was a hero. That people like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington (slaveowners, killers of the Indigenous peoples), Earp, Holladay, Jesse James (an armed robber no less), and Al Capone are to be celebrated. And all of this backward thinking is of course based in the main prize - that the U.S. is to be celebrated and honored as a heroic and free country instead of the international criminal, bully nation, murderer, thief, and extortionist that it is.
Whenever we get to the point where we are no longer satisfied with symbolic (in our minds) victories of the power structure acknowledging us in some way, and grow to recognizing that our true power is in getting the masses of people to embrace our correct narrative of history, we will begin to truly win this fight on all levels.
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holladay, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, George Bush, Barack Obama, none of them are heroes. None of them are to ever be celebrated. Only the masses of people who fight, bleed, and die for justice are to be celebrated. The moment we institutionalize that thinking, its lights out for the bourgeoisie.
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