I’m watching something I just rented from Netflix Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst which just came out on DVD. The promo copy says that this is “still a controversial chapter in American history.” I’m not so sure that this is true. I think that everyone, including most of the participating members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (a deadly mix of black convicts and loopy middle-class white radicals), regret and see the futility of their amateurish and immature quest to use “armed struggle” to achieve a “people’s utopia.” Far from controversial, it just goes to show you how crazy things were then; people could act out their revolutionary ways and not have people stop dead in their tracks and say “you’re kidding, right?”

The SLA story resonates with me personally for a number of reasons. It was a the big story of the day when I was in high school–think of it as the Lindberg baby of the 1970s. It domniated the news and school conversation. I even had (and still have) the original FBI wanted poster for Patty Hearst and the Harris’s. Also, 20-plus years later, Emily Harris under the name Emily Montague worked at the Walt Disney Company with several people I know (none of which knew her of her background until her rearrest in 2003).

Listening to their communiques reminds me of Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) and his various clubs which consisted of just him and his stuffed animal. Even with just clubs of two, Calvin would still act and speak if it was a large, formal organization with “calls to order” and readings of the minutes, etc. Like them, the SLA never had very many members (the “army” peaked at 13) however in their taped messages they refer to themselves as Commander of this and Field Marshall of that. One person interviewed on the DVD remarked that the SLA was like a revolutionary version of Peter Pan–that is no grown ups to ruin their pretend-Maoist version of the world. I would love to have been a fly on a wall at those meetings–”Commrade, have you seen my Seas and Crofts 8-track anywhere?” Also whoever was reading the taped SLA demands after the kidnapping souned like they were struggling and unfamiliar with any word greater than two syllables.

“It is hard to imagine life within the walls of the safe house: intense political discussion, faux-military discipline, guns everywhere, and free and open sex.”

One member, soccer mom Kathleen Soliah (aka Sarah Jane Olsen) participated in the deadly bank robbery below and aided SLA members in their attempt to kill Los Angeles officers with pipe bombs. Showing that her poor judgement had not faded along with her youth, upon accepting a plea bargain over two decades later Ms. Soliah/Olsen walked outside the court room and told reporters that despite the plea she was innocent. This unwise move ultimately led to a judge to sarcastically ask her “Were you lying to me then or are you lying to me now?” He then slapped her with two 10 year consecutive prison sentences. (Well deserved I might add.)

One of the first things the SLA did to fight racism in our society was to murder the Oakland Schools Superintendent Marcus Foster, a black man, because he supposedly favored a police plan for students to carry identification. Five months later they kidnapped Patty Hearst.

Four months later, several members of the SLA were apprehended “LAPD-style,” a battle I and millions other watched live on TV. Unfortunately, the two key SLA members (the Harris’s) were not in the house at the time of the shootout as they were busy shop-lifting. Also during this time in an apparent attempt to improve the world the SLA killed a nice and otherwise ordinary church worker Myrna Opsahl who happened to be making a bank deposit the day the ‘gang that couldn’t shoot straight’ robbed that bank.

All-in-all, a group of goofball criminals and lefty loons play acted as a revolutionary “army” and were actually taken seriously in places like Berkeley. Fortunately, we can now look back and giggle at their naiveness–something I hope we are able to do one day with al-Qaeda and their equally ridiculous “communiques” and pathetic attempts for changes in the world order.

In case you are wondering who the Symbionese were and whether they were ever liberated, in the SLA’s words”

’symbionese’ is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body.” (Murder, kidnapping, bank robbery and ripping off your neighbors notwithstanding, of course.)

 What a lovely bunch of coconuts.

technorati: SLA patty hearst revolutionary loony left

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 at 7:57 am by Insider and is filed under Big Thoughts, Nemesises ... Nemesi?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.