After spending two days at the epicenter of the Occupy Wall Street campout, I have yet to encounter anybody with a serious platform, or to glean any coherent sense of why they are there. The terminal vagueness which is the hallmark of the demonstration was best articulated by Trey Parker and Matt Stone in 2004’s Team America, in which a disgruntled and effusive Tim Robbins puppet complains that, “the corporations sit there in their… in their corporation buildings, and… and, and see, they’re all corporation-y… and they make money.” This is a sentiment I have heard repeatedly from attendees, almost verbatim. It is always accompanied by derisive gestures toward the skyscrapers towering overhead, whose construction, I am informed without irony by the union members who have now got in on the action, is a source of well-paying union jobs.
When I try to transcend the inchoate vitriol and ask What Should Be Done About All The Problems?, indignation turns quickly to silence, or frustration — or both.
In truth, those camped out in Zuccotti Park are running a commune more than a protest. They have established a small communitarian village, which is punctuated by a small cabal of the angry, the insane, and the ignorant. Nothing I have seen is representative of a serious movement, and even less is indicative of any substantive thought. John Maynard Keynes is nowhere to be seen; instead, Occupy Wall Street has become an irresistible magnet for performance artists with generic grievances, and those who consider Stéphane Hessell’s absurd pamphlet, Indignez vous!, to be a serious rallying cry. So prevalent are these types, in fact, that a significant portion of those in attendance might as well be wearing t-shirts announcing, I’m Only Here For The Drum Circle And Organic Arugula.
The upshot is that a stranger walking past the scene would – does – have trouble ascertaining precisely what it is that the protesters are after. Within twenty yards, I saw, often self-contradictory, signs against nuclear weapons, tax loopholes, the tea party, cuts to government spending, and the bailout; and for the legalization of drugs, high-speed rail, free college education, redistribution of wealth, and confiscatory taxation. It is telling that the most coherent signs in the park are the ones advertising the table offering free quiche and lentils.
“For the first time in my life,” a number of hand-drawn signs announce, “I feel at home.” No doubt. And to walk into the middle of the park, into the heart of the commune, is to gain a key insight: Like the sheep-like disciples that Brian inadvertently picks up in Monty Python’s movie (“I say you are [the Messiah], Lord, and I should know; I’ve followed a few!”), many of the people here are simply looking for a movement, any movement. They are looking for an expression of something that will cast them as the brave little guy fighting against an unjust world, and — perhaps more importantly — to say, “I was there.” How many Facebook profile pictures have changed in the last fifteen days, casting the protagonist as an endless advocate of justice. “We are the 99%,” the signs read. Not really — they are a thousand people in a public park. The 99% are swarming around them, getting on with their lives.
Joseph McNamara, at the Hoover Institution, has seen the Occupy Wall Street protests and is worried about an “American Autumn.” He even goes as far as to suggest that “the world may be on the brink of unimaginable political and cultural revolutions.” As someone who has been down to Zuccotti Park, I can say fret not. The perennial nature of this sort of thing should be noted, but even as Leftist protests go, this is a damp squib, the importance of which has been dramatically overstated because of its famous location and the ubiquity of media outlets looking for a narrative. Far from being the Lexington of the Left’s revolution, Zuccotti Park has become the stage for something quite different: It is the first posthumous Grateful Dead concert, with a sprinkling of Brechtian aestheticism thrown in for good measure.
The question must remain. Is it legal for them to
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusehave an encampment. If not, why is Bloomberg allowing them to remain there?
It's most certainly NOT legal for them to have an encampment, and Bloomberg should be ashamed of himself for allowing it to reach this point.
I live in the area (on Broad Street at Wall, right across the street from the stock exchange), and it's an absolute disaster area. I've filed an encampment complaint with the local precinct and called 311 to complain several times. In fact, I urge ALL New Yorkers to call 311 and complain, even if you don't live in the neighborhood. The exact complaint to reference is 'encampment'.
But the bottom line here is that this is going to become a riot. These people have indeed set up a small communal village right in the middle of the financial district, and they're not going anywhere. At some point, sooner or later, they're going to have to leave, and they're not going to cooperate. They're going to break windows and throw rocks and light cars on fire.
As soon as the mattresses and sleeping bags started to get put down, the cops should have been all over it. If these people want to march every day, let them file for a few weeks worth of protest permits, and go home at night like everyone else. It is absurd that we now have to even deal with this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHave you placed a call to the Gambino family yet?
When I lived at 32nd between Madison and 5th (that only SOUNDS posh), the Gambinos had three of the six garbage trucks that nightly would arrive at separate 1-hour intervals to empty the dumpsters.
According to a friend of mine in the Morgenthau Family at that time (that's the DA's office), the Gambinos were kings of the rubbish racket.
Just a suggestion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"It's most certainly NOT legal for them to have an encampment, and Bloomberg should be ashamed of himself ..."
Bloomberg. What a leader! How did such a tough city like NY produce such a tissue in the wind?
"But the bottom line here is that this is going to become a riot."
And, call me crazy, but I bet the MSM will say it was all the fault of the big, mean NYPD and their capitalist masters.
BTW: Captcha was "tune in." Maybe next will be "turn on" or "drop out"!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey can have the encampment, but no trans-fats or smoking is allowed, and the salt intact will be closely monitored.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf no trans fats are allowed, then that basically outlaws their presence.
Because, from everything I've seen and heard, from their own mouths, that's what currently inhabits Zucotti Park -- trans fats.
Empty human capsules, swimming slipstream with no direction. Like empty fat calories in the belly of down-town.
The reason Bloomberg doesn't shut it down is because he's busy living vicariously through them.
When he was 18-22, Bloomberg was at a crossroads. And, unlike so many of his friends, he chose the path most-often traveled, and committed himself to joining the establishment, and in moments like this, he feels a tug in his heart of regret.
He's jealous of them, because he sees them living out their youth in the alternative means that he eschewed for himself decades ago.
He quickly consoles himself by squatting onto his ivory toilet seat with his feet on the cold, jade floor as he reaches for the 24-karat gold flush handle. (It's a courtesy flush, prior to the silk/cotton-blended clean-up.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEveryone gets a pony!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere's George Soros money behind this?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat may be, but since a Tea Partier was once pictured holding a sign saying "get your government hands off my Medicare", that means the OWS movement is instantly better, at least according to all the liberals that dogpile on the recent posts here.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThese look like reasonable ways to give power back to the people.
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You don't understand why people are freaking enraged? Who did you talk to down there? You have completely mischaracterized the protest and the protesters.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHopefully, you've seen Reservoir Dogs.
I know you cannot see me, but I'm holding my left thumb and pinkie finger about a millimeter apart, a la Mr. Pink at the diner.
You know what it is my fingers are holding, right? I'll entertain your requests. Pick your favorite Strauss.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhile these proposals aren't half bad, they aren't the goals of the protestors.
The guy who made the list wrote at the end that "these demands should be the priority and focus for the Occupy Wall Street movement."
The key word is "should." This one guy with a particular viewpoint proposing them as the goals. The OWS folks haven't accepted them as their goals.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"We should reverse the effects of the Citizens United Supreme Court Decision which essentially said corporations can spend as much as they want on elections. The result is that corporations can pretty much buy elections."
Only "approved" entites can speak, according to the 99%.
"We must also liquidate both the public and private debt that has been growing out of control."
Wow. That is staggering. You have NO IDEA what that would do to retirement accounts, investment and growth in this nation, and the economy.
That has to be the dumbest idea I've heard in . . . forever.
I think I'm done reading.
Really, try to follow things to logical conclusions before supporting things, like "liquidating all debt."
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Corporations should be highly limited in ability to contribute to political campaigns..."
They are. In fact, they can't contribute to political campaigns at all, as corporations. Corporate PACS are limited to a maximum of $2,500 per candidate.
Citizens United didn't change any of that. It dealt with the right of corporate associations to engage in political speech, independent of political campaigns. That right was determined to be constitutionally protected in the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision.
The doctrine of corporate personhood, incidentally, wasn't a creation of the Southern Pacific case. It goes all the way back to the Middle Ages. That's why you can sue a corporation for running you over with its delivery truck, instead of just suing the driver with ten bucks in his pocket.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The doctrine of corporate personhood, incidentally, wasn't a creation of the Southern Pacific case. It goes all the way back to the Middle Ages. That's why you can sue a corporation for running you over with its delivery truck, instead of just suing the driver with ten bucks in his pocket."
I think you need a tort law refresher. The doctrine allowing you to sue the driver's boss is called respondeat superior. It has nothing to do with corporate personhood.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis whole thing has the smell of a tactic organized, somewhere, somehow, by the Obama campaign. Here is an astroturf symptom of the "rage" he will try to build on and amplify with his new leftist populist campaign. I would guess that the protesters overwhelmingly support Obama's re-election and that is their real goal.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"a serious platform, or … any coherent sense of why they are there."
Chaos and disorder are an end in themselves, and also a means to provide more power to those who most desire it. Because hey, someone's got to put a stop to all this insanity! Save us Obama from the irrational violence in the streets!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAnother good crisis that mustn't be wasted.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Burning Man crowd is restless. Must have been a tame burn this year.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou beat me by four minutes!
Had I not taken the time to check the dates on the Burning Man and Occupy WS site, I would have beaten you.
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