William S. Burroughs vs. George Edgerly Harris III on how to handle the police

By Jack Brummet, Protest and Civil Disobedience Ed.

Point

Photographing an anti-war protest on October 21, 1967, Bernie Boston captured this famous image. As the National Guard closed in on a group of protesters, George Edgerly Harris III (later known as gay activist and theater leader Hibiscus) walked up and and started placing carnations in their gun barrels. 

Counterpoint

William Burroughs, on seeing the photograph above, said "The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high window."

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Dr. Benway (From Wm. Burroughs' Naked lunch), with two Burroughs photos

 Dr. Benway. . .looks around and picks up one of those rubber vacuum cups at the end of a stick they use to unstop toilets.  He advances on the patient. . ."Make an incision Doctor Limpf," he says to his appalled assistant. . ."I'm going to massage the heart."
 Dr. Limpf shrugs and begins the incision. . .Dr. Benway washes the suction cup by swishing it around in the toilet bowl. . .
 Nurse: "Shouldn't it be sterilized, doctor?"
 Dr. Benway: "Very likely, but there's no time. . .Did I ever tell you about the time I performed an appendectomy with a rusty sardine can?"
 Dr. Limpf: "The incision is ready, doctor."
 Dr. Benway forces the cup into the incision and works it up and down.  Blood spurts all over the doctors, the nurse and the wall. . .the cup makes a horrible sucking sound.
 Nurse: "I think she's gone, doctor."
 Dr. Benway: "Well, it's all in a day's work."

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William Burroughs on the famous "flower in the rifle barrel" photograph

By Jack Brummet
Social Mores Editor

William Burroughs had plenty to say when he saw this famous photograph from a Vietnam protest rally:

"...giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high window. "

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