Whether or not the Occupy Wall Street movement has a legitimate or coherent purpose and to what extent its ongoing “occupation” of lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park represents a violation of the law have been discussed and debated since the first tent was pitched on September 17. But we might put these questions aside for a moment and hope to agree on one thing: that, regardless of one’s views about its message, the camp itself has become a disgrace. If this is utopia, then deliver us from it, for imperfection has a fresh and heady appeal.
For an organization whose rhetoric casually claims “unity,” and which absurdly considers itself to be a mouthpiece for 99 percent of America, it is devastating that division and infighting increasingly mar OWS’s New York City franchise. The kibbutz has fractured. Walking around the site yesterday, it was clear that “one world” has become many. There are now palpable borders within the commune, and battle lines have been drawn.
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The “original” protesters resent the “hangers-on” and the latecomers, as early fans of a rock band might hate those who discover their heroes only after they have become popular. As always, the hard-liners despise the reformers and those who would “compromise with capitalism,” and the anarchists predictably reject all such labels entirely. Meanwhile, an unfathomably asinine dispute rages over whether the movement should seek to represent the “100 percent” or the “99 percent,” with few taking the time to consider whether it actually does either. The homeless, much praised on placards and flyers, have clearly proven themselves useful only in the abstract, and have become a rather less attractive proposition now that they have joined the fray, bringing with them something of a crime wave.
Where unity does still exist, it is in the universal hatred felt toward the belt of “crazies” that surrounds the camp, even if the definition of “crazy” remains elusive to the vexed, and is largely reserved for anyone who “makes us look bad.” Fans of British comedy Yes, Minister will remember that “crazy” is an irregular verb: “I have an independent mind; you are an eccentric; he is round the twist.” Thus, in hushed tones, each faction complained to me about the others.
Moreover, OWS is discovering that it is by no means inured against the sort of political and economic problems that face all polities, utopian or not. A fistfight broke out yesterday on the testy northeastern side of the camp, when one protester fashioned and displayed a cardboard sign that read, “Food is for OWS only!” This, said some of those camped nearby, was “fascism.” “No, no,” came the rejoinder, “it’s only fair! We paid for it; it’s for us! You can’t just walk in and take our stuff!” And thus, in microcosm, the debate over welfare raised its head — as it always will.
Likewise, there is growing consternation over the group’s finances. The more than $500,000 that OWS has raised from supporters is in the hands of a shady eight-person finance committee, which is made up of “non-occupiers” who have a right of veto on proposals before they get to the General Assembly and are, thus, “becoming like the banks we are protesting.” Most of the money, the gripe goes, is “just sitting there doing nothing,” and “our ideas are not being listened to.” Worse still, some of this outrageous fortune has found its way into Amalgamated Bank, which has the temerity to deal with billionaires. To spend or not to spend, that is the question! It seems clear now that, however noble the protesters might consider themselves, and however unorthodox the community they have established, there will always be slings and arrows to suffer.
Then there is crime. Even as Zuccotti Park has become a sea of troubles, it has been regarded as unsporting to bring up its obnoxious elements, as if to report on the dark side is to tar all associates unfairly with the same brush. But the unpleasant are demonstrably in attendance, and are no longer necessarily in the minority. I asked a “press representative,” named Justin, how many of those in the park he considered to be genuinely part of his movement, and was surprised to hear him say “less than 50 percent.” Such a confession makes the “we are the 99 percent” chant seem somewhat comical. But then, it always has been. The idea that the camp represented something new by bringing a diverse group of people together was always solipsistic. Surely, I would ask, that is what America does? What is this country if not a grouping of different people who disagree, and who work out their differences through common institutions?
Every citizen has at least one gripe. There is something that abrades each and every one of us. But most of us do not join communes that earnestly and loudly pretend to be above the noisy and boisterous process we call democracy, even as our replacement society crumbles ignominiously around us.
— Charles C. W. Cooke is an editorial associate for National Review.
"Every citizen has at least one gripe. There is something that abrades each and every one of us. But most of us do not join communes that earnestly and loudly pretend to be above the noisy and boisterous process we call democracy, even as our replacement society crumbles ignominiously around us."
Re: "But most of us do not join communes that earnestly and loudly pretend to be above the noisy and boisterous process we call democracy"
Wait a second, what is NRO but a little insulated cocoon that earnestly and loudly pretends to be above the noisy and boisterous process we call democracy?
Cooke is a middle-brow pseudo-intellectual comfortably ensconced in a talking heads shop where he does nothing more than obsessively mind-dump the same topic over and over.
In the real world, a junior gas-bagging mediocrity like Charlie Cooke would have been laid off a long time ago.
"Wait a second, what is NRO but a little insulated cocoon that earnestly and loudly pretends to be above the noisy and boisterous process we call democracy?"
Actually, NRO is just a website which publishes conservative opinion (to the obvious distaste of you). I don't believe anyone on NRO's staff has taken up residence in a New York park for two months demanding that someone else pay their monthly S,G, and A expenses.
Does the "M" stand for Moron?
Stevie boy,
Like many of the slingers of garbage on this web-site (many of whom are lefty trolls like yourself though some shoot in from the Eastern side as well), your entire output here consists of ad hominem attacks. There is no intellectual core to your posts, simply insult after insult. And these are not even clever.
If you don't like what Cooke has to say, try to an argument next time. Your (lack of) education is showing.
Get over it or change the channel to something else. Nobody is making you read articles you've already decided to dislike.
This is somewhat like when an annoying bit of trash takes over the news. Recently, it was impossible to find anywhere on the radio that wasn't obsessed with the Conrad Murray trial. Guess what? I turned off the radio and put on an audio book to listen to during my drive instead.
The fact is, #OWS is an ongoing event that serves to illustrate a wide assortment of the fallacies and failings of the left. It is going to get intense scrutiny and detailed coverage. Perhaps this is something you'd prefer to read about in a more concise report five years hence but other find a nearly real-time reportage fascinating. Nobody is required to partake.
Frankly, your behavior reminds me of the arrested adolescents who go to a video game site, find an article on a product they don't like, and make a comment that adds nothing at all to the conversation. Why are some people compelled to do this?
Please explain your assertion that "NRO [is] but a little insulated cocoon that earnestly and loudly pretends to be above the noisy and boisterous process we call democracy".
We are in the midst of the first ever GLOBAL protest against corporate greed and their molestation of our government. People around the world are standing together to raise their voice against the oppression of the 1% and their corporate welfare and lobbying which are eroding our economy and country from the inside out. See my artwork for the movement as well as resources and videos of the protests at External Link Get informed and get involved… all you have to do is raise your voice for change!
I appreciate your passion and your getting involved. However, I think we are at completely opposite poles when it comes to premises. If a government puts itself up for sale, it is the government that is corrupt, not the various lobbying groups trying to win influence with it. And it is therefore the government that should receive the larger share of the wrath.
Whether we call that "crony capitalism" or "crony socialism" - the common trait is a government that actively sells its favors. That it should look for "buyers" where the money is (or with the 1%, in OWS parlance) is only natural.
So, please tell me (you or someone else sympathetic to the OWS cause). Why is it not the government that we are protesting? The government, that is, that dishes out crony deals, that shovels money to special interests and to the likes of Solyndra, that exempts GE from taxation, etc.? The government, that gleefully takes Wall Street money by the tens of millions of dollars?
Here is when I get cynical. It is never the government's natural thirst for power that is dubbed "rapacity" and put under the microscope. It is the private sector's natural self-interest that is labeled "greed" and demonized as a chief source of evil. And that transactions with the former are coerced (and therefore their abuse more pernicious), while those with the latter are voluntary does compound to this logical puzzle.
And I get even more cynical when I observe how much money the current administration has both taken from (as contributions) and dished out (as favors/bailouts) to conveniently cherry-picked mega-corporations. This is the same administration that uses one arm, sleeves rolled up, to hold the megaphone for its street-level populism; while with the other, sleeved in an expensive suit, it shakes the hands of the likes of J. Immelt as it seals deals worth billions of OUR dollars.
So, color me jaded, but I can't help thinking that OWS is at best a group of well-meaning but uninformed people trying to make a difference based on the incomplete data they have; and at worst, a government/union-organized distraction designed to build a strawman to avert the nation's eyes from this administration's abysmal record.
So far, I haven't heard any cogent argument (with evidence) that should make me change my mind.
"solipsistic" - Really? I have always been of the opinion that that word has no place in polite conversation. Egotistical to the Extreme is more to the point. The other being so philosophically tainted, I just can't get my head around it in this context. I just replace it with "egotistical" and then it makes sense.
Talk about being hoisted on your own reductios; the loss of neighborhood by a group that denies in principle that good fences make good neighbors, the need to identify which is whose, and the impossibility of respecting diversity of opinion without respecting and having faith in common institutions. The crucial difference between the Tea Party and the Occupy Archepelago is that the former defends these very things the latter rejects.
This wasn't meant to form any utopia this was meant to cause disruption and chaos. It was meant to take President Obamas scandels with "Fast and Furious" and the green industry bailouts off the front pages. It was meant to deflect blame from President Obamas ineptness on the economy to the Republicans via their Wall Street supporters.And with the help of the MSM liberal press it is working.
So, the occupiers had their few days of fun and oneness in September - chanting their ludicrous chants, strumming guitars, banging on bongos, and carrying their Christmas lists on a sign. Now we're into November and lo and behold they have to figure out how to survive, but without a system and rules - that would be so unOWS. "Don't take mine. I paid for that." "What's going on with our money?!" "Stay out of my tent. I was here first!" And so it goes.
A few more months of this and these people will be on their way to Occupy Moscow.
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