While we’re on the topics of deviance and stripping language of meaning, there’s another quote from Jerry Rubin’s “Do It!” that I think is really great. I don’t know if this is supposed to be a real or fictionalized conversation, but it works either way:

Cops enter an occupied university building to arrest students:

“You’re under arrest for trespassing.”

“We’re not trespassing; we’re overthrowing the government.”

“I don’t care what you’re doing. You’re under arrest for trespassing.”

It’s hard to see yourself as Che Guevara when society tells you that you’re “trespassing.”

Amerika tries to take the symbolic meaning out of our actions. Look at the criminal record of a political activist. It reads like the record of a sex deviant - public nuisance, loitering, disorderly conduct, trespassing, disturbing the peace.” […]

Amerikan youth is looking for a reason to die. A reason to die is a reason to live. Amerika gives us no reason to die - or live.

That end part about seeking a reason to live or die is interesting because it’s so unfashionable to talk nowadays about giving your life to a cause. The only people who seem to bring it up anymore are Christians who - despite being firmly in control of the nation and world - seem to believe that they are the oppressed minority. I never hear young radicals today saying that they would give their lives for anything or anyone. So maybe Rubin was right. Maybe he spotted the trend correctly, and symbolic meaning has been leeched out of our actions and our lives…