“Fred Hampton was the leader of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. This film depicts his brutal murder by the Chicago police and its subsequent investigation, but also documents his activities in organizing the Chapter, his public speeches, and the programs he founded for children during the last eighteen months of his life.” – (IMDb)
One of the key aspects of Fred’s appeal, for me, lies in his recognition of the necessity of struggle. He wasn’t framing his discourse in the classic dichotomies – white/black, young/old, urban/rural, worker/managment. Rather, he saw the target of struggle as systemic reconfiguration. This is something Buckminster Fuller would’ve gotten quite enthusiastic over. In his schema, he called it ‘anticipatory design science’:
The conceptual framework for a design science revolution was probably first articulated by R. Buckminster Fuller as a panacea for problems caused by natural resource depletion, overpopulation and many other 20th century problems anticipated by Thomas Malthus and others. Fuller’s answer to the various dilemmas involved a concerted effort by design engineers to anticipate the needs of humanity and meet them before it was (is) too late. Fuller revered nature for its technological complexity, stating “In it’s [sic] complexities of design integrity, the universe is technology.” Fuller stressed that by utilizing these natural principles of technology, mankind could become an omni-sustainable utopia. Operatively, design science would be the continued utilization of these natural principles, and thus man’s vehicle to utopia. – (Wiki)
Buckminster Fuller and Fred Hampton provide meaningful avenues of revolutionary agitation. In my opinion, a coherent populist revolution will encompass the breadth of Hampton’s vision and angst, as well as the pragmatic liberation that underpins Bucky’s wisdom.
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Tags: activism, agitprop, assassination, conspiracy, documentary, google video, grass roots, history, politics, propaganda, Strategies for Revolutionaries, tyranny
