Posted on 10/18/2011 5:10:50 AM PDT by Clive
The incarnation of the Occupy Movement that I witnessed this past weekend, Occupy Ottawa, showcased why those of us who really want to change the world for the better are best to stay far from the madding crowd.
Many anecdotes illustrate this. For example, when I was there a man recognized me from television and wanted to discuss the media portrayal of the protests. He believed we had inaccurately accused them of having no goals and wanted to prove to me otherwise.
I welcomed the opportunity and he in turn extolled the virtues of a figure I knew little of, Lyndon Larouche. When I went home and researched Larouche I was shocked to discover his philosophy of conspiracy theories, 9/11 truth, racism and more.
But anecdotes are not enough to indict a crowd. That man was, hopefully, not representative of the rest. The only way you can discuss the group as a whole is by figuring out what unifies it. When it comes to the Occupiers, the unifying element is not content (their actual claims), but form (the way they're going about things).
Their form was to invite everyone to Confederation Park where all attendees, through facilitators shouting from a platform, would mutually agree upon what they wanted and how they would go about getting it. After an hour they had only gotten so far as introducing the rules. By the following evening they had made it to discussing whether to keep the proceedings at the park or move elsewhere. I don't think - at the time of this writing - they have yet to discuss any political matters. A tedious yet thorough affair.
Another tedious yet thorough affair is the 2,500-year long march of democracy that much of humanity has been engaged in since the first voters assembled in the agora in ancient Athens to commence the tradition that eventually liberated and enfranchised a large swath of mankind. Of this, the Occupiers seem either oblivious or careless.
If it were any other way, you'd think - based on their passion for change - they'd be busy registering to give deputations at City Hall or the Parliament Buildings, writing and meeting with their Members or running to be a Member. In other words, too busy to visit the park.
I'm not sure how many of them appreciated that those in Parliament only a few blocks from where they stood are engaged in exactly the same methods as Occupy Ottawa, the only difference being Canadian democracy has had the benefit of a long history of tweaking and perfecting. All of these discussions we engage in about per vote subsidies, corporate donations and term limits are just more evolved versions of the procedural matters debate that took place that rainy Sunday evening in the park.
Should any given Occupy movement draft a bill requesting, for example, that regulations be tightened on collateralized debt obligations and a Member of Parliament is willing to table it as a private member's bill then that will be a shining example of the tedious wheels of democracy serving their purpose. There are kinks in our national armour; correcting them is a noble pursuit.
But if instead they conclude that the system is rigged because the people they voted for didn't win, or because they don't have the things they want, then their cries for reform will actually be a slap in the face of those working within the system to make the world better for all.
The Occupiers are currently straddling the line between engaging democracy with zest and becoming the barbarians at the gates tearing it down. Depending on what they conclude, they could tumble into either side. Occupy with caution.
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They asked on guy "what would you like more....weed or a job?" They guy says "a job, so I can buy weed."
And, that was the most cogent exchange I heard. Quite sad, actually.
When defeated, a liberal foot soldier’s first instinct is to wallow in victimhood.
They amass to whine and taunt the victors-sort of like the more recent Obama speeches.
This remind me of a couple of scenes from Life of Brian where the People's Front of Judea and the Judean People's Front were arguing in the stands about who was the real revolutionary group, and after Brian was arrested, where John Cleese began writing a proclamation (strongly worded letter) about the injustice that had been perpetrated.
Life DOES imitate art!
HAHAHAHAHAHOHOHOHO!!! < gasp> < Wheeze!>
You deserve what you get Mr. Furey.
Its here I know many are ready.
That says a lot right there. Sure, I go to work every day to put a roof over my family's head and food on the table. I go to the job I have because it helps protect people - even the idiotic "protesters" who don't have a clue how the real world works, or how dangerous a place it really is.
And yes, if that sounds condescending towards them that's because it is intended to be. Insulting too. Their fundamental ignorance of their own fragile existence is offensive to me.
That was one of the funniest and truest scenes in cinema.
Actually, their notion of participatory democracy is a good deal older than representative democracy. That’s what Athenian democracy was, and, to the extent it existed, that of the Roman Republic.
Participatory democracy re-emerged in the French Revolution, where it gave a wildly disproportionate voice to those who could show up every day in Paris and and shout loudly. IOW, the activists and those rabble they paid to support them. The vast majority of French people were disenfranchised either by being too busy to show up, or by distance from Paris.
Same thing happened in the Russian Revolution. The “soviets” were originally worker and soldier committees open to anybody who showed up. Over time those without fanatical devotion stopped showing up every day, leaving the soviets to fall totally into the control of the Bolsheviks, who did have fanatical devotion.
IOW, participatory democracy isn’t really “rule by the people” at all. It’s rule by the activists, which, oddly enough, doesn’t bother the activists.
I would suspect that a great many of the Occupiers are people for whom life has not been fair...at least in their terms. Other people have more than they do, and it’s NOT FAIR!!! don’t you know.
Canadians are lucky. They never had to endure the appearance of Lyndon LaRouche on the scene every four years.
Michael Medved has given over a full two hours of his radio show to OWS protesters to try and articulate why they are there and what they hope to accomplish. It was an EPIC FAIL all around.
"Bread, Land, Peace - All Power to the Soviets"
The people bought it and the result was a coup that established a "reign of virtue". Thermidor took decades to arrive.
Took me a while to figure out your metaphors.
But you are quite correct.
Bump
Like all liberals, these astroturfers want everything handed to them. They don’t want to have to work for the change they think should just happen. It’s why they won’t succeed and it’s why thinking people do not take them seriously.
This is international street theater and these aren't revolutionaries, they aren't even functioning citizens for the most part, no more to be feared than those papier-mâché puppets that stalk the streets of Paris every time this sort of thing comes around and just as grotesque. There are real revolutionaries out here, and mostly we'd rather quietly clean our guns than shoot anyone with them. If the real one ever goes down it won't be neatly packaged with press packets in time for the eleven o'clock news, and there won't be any drum circles and there won't be any tents and there won't be any puppets.
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