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George Floyd, establishment martyr His killing saved America's elite institutions

Protecting the new establishment. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)

Protecting the new establishment. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)


May 23, 2022   4 mins

Was violent chaos inevitable in America in the summer of 2020? If it was not inevitable, it had at least been predicted. In a 2017 review of Bryan Burrough’s Days of Rage, an account of left-wing terrorism in the Seventies, the historian Peter Turchin suggested that a new era of civil disorder was on the verge of consuming America.

Writing in the early months of the Trump administration, he prophesied that at any moment, a “symbolic event” involving a “sacrificial victim” might ignite the powder keg of political violence and plunge the nation into bloody strife. Turchin cited the 1969 FBI murder of Fred Hampton, which inspired the insurgency narrated in Burrough’s book, and the 2011 self-immolation of the Tunisian fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi, credited with setting off the Arab Spring, as examples of such an event.

Just over three years later, the murder of George Floyd and the barely precedented wave of unrest that came in its wake seemed to fit the bill. Suddenly, Turchin’s warning of “the coming violence spike of 2020” looked remarkably prescient. As a result, he enjoyed a period of minor celebrity, and his dark prognoses spawned a small cottage industry of think-pieces. This was understandable: the chaos that erupted in the summer of 2020 left many bewildered, and Turchin’s treatment of it as a new iteration of familiar historical patterns was, in a way, reassuring — despite the fact that he claimed instability and even civil war were on the horizon.

Two years on, Turchin’s prophecies seem less apt. In the end, the nation avoided the escalating spiral of violence he asserted would follow from a “sacrificial” event like Floyd’s murder. Certainly, back in 2020 we saw an astonishing amount of property destruction and a smattering of isolated violent incidents, notably Kyle Rittenhouse’s fatal shooting of three men in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

But soon enough, most of the activist energy as well as the organisational prowess on display that summer was re-enlisted into the effort to elect Joe Biden. Since that was achieved, nothing comparable has occurred. The January 6 Capitol riot, for all its shock value, was a one-off event whose “body count” was made up mostly of rioters who died of natural causes; Rittenhouse’s acquittal late last year, contrary to predictions, led to no major unrest.

Rather than a “chain of revenge and counter-revenge” of the sort Turchin warned about, whatever sporadic instability has followed 2020 looks like an incoherent jumble of disconnected crises and panics, none of which has ever seemed to reach a definitive resolution. Claims of impending civil war continue to resurface now and again, but they seem to serve mostly as periodic ritual invocations ​​useful to a ruling elite that legitimises its rule by invoking states of emergency and must keep an array of spectral threats in reserve for this purpose.

In fact, the story that hovers behind all of the sound and fury of the past two years is the post-Trump reconsolidation of what some call “the regime”: the diffuse power structure consisting of the two major party apparatuses, government bureaucracies, the corporate media, and the nonprofit-industrial complex. Trump’s presidency posed various challenges to these structures, albeit ultimately more on a symbolic than a practical level. Nowhere has this renewed solidity been clearer than in the broad consensus in support of Ukraine. But perhaps surprisingly, the origins of this renewed stability may be traced back to the aftermath of George Floyd’s death.

As Turchin anticipated, in death, Floyd became a galvanising collective symbol, comparable to other quasi-sacrificial victims who have energised mass movements across history. A man who in life had been a precariously employed former aspiring athlete and rapper and who spent a decade drifting in and out of jail became, after the viral broadcasting of his death, a global icon. Transfigurations like this are not unheard of in history, but are more common in the realm of myth and religion than modern politics. It is fitting that so much of the Floyd iconography that suddenly appeared across the world framed him as a martyr, a saint, and even Christ himself.

A good deal of ink has been spilled over the question of whether “wokeness” — closely identified with the cause of racial justice given impetus by Floyd’s death — should be described as a religion rather than a mere political movement. But the question proceeds from an overly neat distinction between these two phenomena. Any political formation that succeeds in assembling an enthusiastic public must partake of “religious” elements. In other words, political groupings must be forged and renewed through experiences of “collective effervescence”, the sociologist Émile Durkheim’s term for the shared experiences of the sacred that bind people together.

This is what George Floyd’s quasi-sacrificial death offered to a large portion of the liberal public as well as to a centre-Left establishment struggling to counter the threat posed to it by Donald Trump. No doubt, the 2020 protests were often destructive and divisive, but contrary to Turchin’s prognosis of social fracturing, their ultimate effect was to channel previously scattered and demobilised popular energies into the anti-Trump coalition. In this light, it’s unsurprising that all the figureheads and institutions of this establishment, from politicians to corporations to NGOs to universities, were so desperate to associate themselves with Floyd’s image and memory.

Hence, the ironic result of the largest protests in US history was the political triumph of two politicians who had once implemented the same tough-on-crime policies the 2020 protesters decried. Two years after Floyd died, the upward transfer of wealth accelerated by the pandemic shutdowns that deprived him of his livelihood continues apace. Inflation is driving up the cost of living for ordinary people, black neighbourhoods are bearing the brunt of an upsurge in crime, and record numbers of Americans are overdosing on meth and fentanyl — both drugs in George Floyd’s system at the time he died. In a cruel paradox, his death, in meme-ified form, furnished a new ideological legitimation for the same ruling elite that created the conditions for it.

The recent exposure of how Black Lives Matters’ leaders enriched themselves with George Floyd-inspired donations suggests the movement’s lustre is wearing off. But in the meantime, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has offered our ruling cadre yet another noble cause for rallying the public — once again, making good use of a crisis partly of its own making.

In the long run, perhaps Turchin’s and others’ doomsaying will be borne out. But the restabilising function ultimately served by George Floyd’s murder reveals the resilience of an establishment capable of repurposing the fallout of its disastrous policies into ad hoc new means of justifying its rule.


Geoff Shullenberger is managing editor of Compact.

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ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago

What on earth can one expect from a society where a Black Police Lieutenant deliberately shoots and kills a White woman and gets away with it, whilst a White Policeman inadvertently kills a known Black criminal during an arrest and is condemned without hesitation?
Yet the ‘justification’ of this horror is rooted in the arrant nonsense routinely trotted out about the convicted criminal and ‘latter day saint, one George Floyd Esq! He was not, repeat not Jesus Christ reincarnated as some would have us believe, but really just another version of Barrabas.

What would the ‘Founding Fathers’ say about that I wonder?

Last edited 2 years ago by ARNAUD ALMARIC
Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary
2 years ago
Reply to  ARNAUD ALMARIC

Are you referring to the killing of Justine Damond, a law-abiding citizen who was shot dead at close range by a black Minneapolis policeman in 2017?

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago

No, I was referring to a Ms Ashli Babbitt, shot & killed by Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd.
To my chagrin I hadn’t even heard of the killing Ms Justine Damond, so I thank you.
Unfortunately here in ‘Arcadia’ news arrives rather slowly, if at all.

Brendan O'Leary
Brendan O'Leary
2 years ago

a precariously employed former aspiring athlete and rapper and who spent a decade drifting in and out of jail 

Presumably what led to him “drifting” – as if by accident! – in and out of jail was that he spent more time and effort on his (unmentioned in this brief resume) life of drugs and crime than his rapping and athletic aspirations , let alone his employment prospects

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago

Lacking all employment prospects (dead-end jobs aside) is it any wonder that he drifted into drugs and crime ?

Would you have done any better in his shoes ?

Alex Tickell
Alex Tickell
2 years ago

The autopsy said that Floyd did not die from lack of oxygen, but due to a “heart attack” and drug misuse,

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex Tickell

Why isn’t this extraordinary fact not better known may I ask?

Marianne John
Marianne John
2 years ago

I look forward to Candice Owens documentary about George Floyd and some truth about exactly who he was and what happened. Main stream media has proven they are not be trusted with telling us the truth.

JJ Barnett
JJ Barnett
2 years ago
Reply to  Marianne John

She’s got some big balls that gal. Good on her!

Candace is basically fireproof, so I hope she pokes at all the sacred cows. The current orthodoxies have become more smothering, at the same time as they are less supported by facts. Time for some tough interrogations (the function that used to be performed by journalists… way back when we remember having those).

Alex Tickell
Alex Tickell
2 years ago
Reply to  JJ Barnett

Candace for VP in the next DJT administration, How great would that be?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Marianne John

Tony Buck is a woke provocateur, as ghastly as AOC or Owen Jones.
Merely more aggressive.

Brian Villanueva
Brian Villanueva
2 years ago

George Floyd: the saint for those who know they’re too smart to believe in gods and saints.

AC Harper
AC Harper
2 years ago

George Floyd may, or may not, have been a triggering event, but to argue that things have reverted to normal is wishful thinking.
Joe Biden is extremely unpopular, Kamala Harris even more unpopular, and neither seems capable of leading America in any direction other than ‘confused’. There are even rumours that Joe Biden may have to stand for President again because there doesn’t appear to be anyone else. This is the collapse predicted by Peter Turchin’s cliodynamics – it’s just in slow motion until the final bust up.

M. Waugh
M. Waugh
2 years ago

Did Chauvin appeal his conviction for murder ? After looking at the footage multiple times, I could understand a conviction based on negligence, but find it difficult to accept one based on intention or reckless indifference to harm,much less grievous harm.

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  M. Waugh

Exactly, an absolute travesty of justice is ever there was one, that brings eternal shame on the whole concept of the US Legal system.
Together with the slaughter of Ms Ashli Babbitt and Ms Justine Damond, one really has to wonder what is going on in the rotten heart of the “Defender of the Free World”.

Alex Tickell
Alex Tickell
2 years ago
Reply to  ARNAUD ALMARIC

Couldn’t agree more the worst miscarriage of justice that i have ever witnessed and there have been a few. Sheer cowardice by the judiciary in the face of supposed “civil unrest”
America is in grave danger unless the people return Donald John in 2024 and give some hope to the Western world

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  Alex Tickell

Spot on Sir!

R Wright
R Wright
2 years ago
Reply to  M. Waugh

I remember watching the full video the day it was released and being shocked that anyone could have construed it as murder.

Allison Barrows
Allison Barrows
2 years ago

I was an elementary school kid during the “days of rage” riots. The most notable difference between then and now is Big Money. Now we get concierge rioting: paid transportation, convenient printed signs and other cool branded merchandise, mics instead of bullhorns, per diem compensation – you get the picture. It’s all corporate-sponsored now. That’s why there were no riots after the Rittenhouse acquittal: the paymasters knew it was a loser. On to funding the next destabilizing outrage, brought to you by [insert logos here]!

Mike Michaels
Mike Michaels
2 years ago

George Floyd did the world one great service. The authorities’ allowing of marches etc in his memory at a point when we had been locked down in fear of a terrifying “pandemic” for weeks. Apparently this mingling and mixing was acceptable, unlike any lockdown protest, because “racism”. This was the moment most thinking people realised that Corona was not quite what we were being told. BLM marches were allowed to go ahead because they had the same purpose as covid, the destruction of the west.

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike Michaels

Good man! At least someone is paying attention!

Mike Michaels
Mike Michaels
2 years ago
Reply to  ARNAUD ALMARIC

Thank you.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Mike Michaels

With attackers like you, the West doesn’t need friends.

John Dowling
John Dowling
2 years ago

I watched a lot of the Chauvin trial, there was so much doubt as to the real reason for Mr Floyd’s death, fentanyl overdose was most likely. Officer Chauvin was hung out to dry by his superiors and condemned to satisfy the baying lynch mob outside.

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  John Dowling

Salem all over again?

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  John Dowling

I think you mean involuntary manslaughter at best don’t you?

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago
Reply to  ARNAUD ALMARIC

No. Since no one in Chauvin’s position could have been so stupid, as there not to have been a possibility that the death was inflicted deliberately.

Sue Sims
Sue Sims
2 years ago
Reply to  Tony Buck

Could you rewrite that sentence so that it makes sense?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  John Dowling

Floyd’s death was very plausibly manslaughter, but nothing more.

J Hop
J Hop
2 years ago

A good deal of ink has been spilled over the question of whether “wokeness” — closely identified with the cause of racial justice given impetus by Floyd’s death — should be described as a religion rather than a mere political movement. But the question proceeds from an overly neat distinction between these two phenomena. Any political formation that succeeds in assembling an enthusiastic public must partake of “religious” elements. In other words, political groupings must be forged and renewed through experiences of “collective effervescence”, the sociologist Émile Durkheim’s term for the shared experiences of the sacred that bind people together.”
So, these people are wrong in that it’s NOT like a religious experience, but I am right and here I will describe it as it IS a religious experience…

Lesley van Reenen
Lesley van Reenen
2 years ago
Reply to  J Hop

What about calling it a cult?

AC Harper
AC Harper
2 years ago
Reply to  J Hop

I think it’s too easy, in certain cultures, to identify particular social enthusiasms as ‘religious’ since this is the familiar way they play out.
Yet I’d argue that Wokism is not a religion (there is no supernatural involvement) but that Wokism and Religion (philosophical world views and political extremisms, and even died-in-the-wool supporters of particular sports teams) share common features. Among the features are the separation into those who have gained the special knowledge and those who are still ignorant. The Good and the Evil. Those who signal their virtue and those that don’t. Those whose enthusiasm cannot be challenged by real world events, and those with a more informed attitude (and therefore beyond the pale).
I’d argue too (h/t Lesley van Reenen) that Wokism is not a Cult either. Cults tend to have specific characteristics (a Glorious Leader, a definitive body of work, thought-terminating clichés, isolation of cult members from friends and family) not present in Wokeism.
In a world going through an ’emotional phase’ these enthusiasms are more likely to take root, and are more dangerous because of their insulation from reality.

Mathieu Bernard
Mathieu Bernard
2 years ago
Reply to  AC Harper

I would mostly agree that Wokism is not a religion per se for the reasons you’ve described. However, there is a certain gnostic element involved, given the separation between “those who have gained the special knowledge and those who are still ignorant.” I therefore understand Wokism as more of a secular spirituality with some loose parallels to traditional religious faiths. If there is a “Glorious Leader” it would undoubtedly be Karl Marx, who synthesized the quasi-spiritual ideas of Hegel and Rousseau. (Marx is rarely invoked by the Woke, however; most likely because he is a dead, white, male who happened to be a racist. But I speculate.) Others, such as Gramsci, Horkheimer, Adorno and Marcuse further developed his ideas into what is known as “Critical Theory.” The gnostic elements of Theory are unmistakable: 1)The existing social order is comprised of structural oppressions that serve to uphold the interests of the system, 2) the vast majority of people are ignorant of their own oppression (false consciousness) 3) the work of critical theorists is to enlighten people to the secret knowledge of the conspiracy against them by the system, 4) as people awaken (hence the term “Woke”) to the true knowledge of their oppression, they move from false consciousness to “critical consciousness” and continue the work of liberation. The whole process eventually leads to state socialism and ultimately the communist utopia. So Wokism is neither a secular, materialist movement, nor a religion – but it is at the same time faith-based, irrational and dogmatic.

R Wright
R Wright
2 years ago

At least in death Fentanyl Floyd the aspiring rapper, Esquire, made himself useful to someone.

Lindsay S
Lindsay S
2 years ago
Reply to  R Wright

He certainly did more for his family in death than he did in life.

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  Lindsay S

$27 million, minus ‘expenses’. wasn’t it?

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago
Reply to  R Wright

Why sneer at the dead ?

Why sneer at someone done to death by a cop ?

Why sneer at someone who lacked your opportunities in life ?

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Tony Buck

Because he really wasn’t a very nice man, and his death has been exploited by the woke scum as a pretext for two years of disgusting racism against white people.

Christopher Barclay
Christopher Barclay
2 years ago

By the absence of protest since January 2021, I assume that no black person has been shot by a police officer in the US. If my assumption is wrong, then it would look like BLM was supported and the protests promoted in order to get a Democrat elected President.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago

My response to the disgusting photograph accompanying this article:-
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Peter Mott
Peter Mott
2 years ago

Not entirely fair to call Turchin a “doomsayer”. He believes history moves in cycles so there is no end point of “doom” – just the start of a new cycle.

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago

Many of those posting below clearly imagine themselves to be defenders of the West and its civilization.

But there are no deadlier enemies of the West than such dweebs posing as its defenders.

For what civilization propped up by such people, has even the tiniest hope of surviving ?

ARNAUD ALMARIC
ARNAUD ALMARIC
2 years ago
Reply to  Tony Buck

Four angry posts ‘on the trot’, have you sought help may I ask?

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago
Reply to  ARNAUD ALMARIC

I would need help if I wasn’t angry.

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago

What horribly cruel people right-wingers are, witness many of the comments below.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Tony Buck

What horribly cruel people left-wingers are, witness many of the comments by Tony Phuck.

Tony Buck
Tony Buck
2 years ago

In many of the posts below, can be heard the hellish, mocking voice of the Rich deriding the Poor, the Snug deriding the outcasts, the Smug deriding the tragic, the Winners deriding the Losers.

In one thing, at least, George Floyd was Christlike – being derided by Evil people.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
2 years ago
Reply to  Tony Buck

“In many of the posts below, can be heard the hellish, mocking voice of the Rich deriding the Poor, the Snug deriding the outcasts, the Smug deriding the tragic, the Winners deriding the Losers.”
Oh, so you don’t like woke Remainers either.