Occupy Wall Street

[Nerdanel]

"Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."

Mainstream media seems to mostly ignore the protests that have spread from Wall Street itself across the U.S.; either that, or they dismiss it as a leaderless movement without purpose. But some Americans are finally angry enough to stand up against corporate power and a money-based political system.

I, for one, am happy to see this happen - I've been waiting ever since the Arab uprisings started in the winter/spring. What do you guys think?

(some photos can be seen here)

[Insidious Rex]

I applaud the feeling behind these efforts and identify with the motivation. Lots of americans are frustrated and angry and tired of putting up with a society where the middle class is finding it harder and harder to survive and they are happy to limit the salaries of teachers and firemen while the super rich continue to catch all the breaks and are doing exponentially better than ever and where greed is promoted as a good solid capitalist impulse to be encouraged.

The problem is Im not sure what they will ever accomplish unless they intend to take things to another level ala French Revolution style "change". And a lot of americans are just looking at them as kooky liberals and smelly hippies out beating drums and organizing flash mobs online. So no one is really taking them too seriously yet and all theyve managed to accomplish so far is inconveniencing some Manhattan investment bankers from getting to their $200 Kobe Wagyu rib-eye lunch at BLT Prime.

Would love to see something substantial come from this but I think the odds are stacked against them and too many of their fellow citizens inexplicably defend the rights of the super rich and corporations to make obscene amounts of money at virtually no tax rate by doing stupid things with the life savings of the american middle class thus screwing up the worlds economies and knocking thousands of people out of jobs. And if the middle class and poor dont like it... well... let them eat steak!

[The Gaffer]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

too many of their fellow citizens inexplicably defend the rights of the super rich and corporations

This never ceases to amaze me.

[Insidious Rex]

Good to see the unions falling in with their support now but this movement is still quite headless and in danger of having half a dozen differing "goals" depending on who you talk to and when you talk to them. What I like about it is that at its heart its simply an expression of true anguish and frustration from people who dont know what else they can do. They just want to point at the scoundrels and tell them man you suck. I identify with that 100%. Will it develop into a left wing tea party like movement? Who knows. The left tends to be less confrontational when it comes to that kind of action. The left is by definition composed of a lot of folks who distrust group thinking so they dont do well joining together as one where as the right tends to react well to extremists in its rank and happily follows en mass.

[Earniel]

I understand the sentiment.

Even today the country over here is yet again in turmoil to save a bank that if I recall correctly hasn't been off government support since the crisis began, but that didn't stop the CEO and the board of directors to receive thousands of euros in bonusses. And the worst thing is, they don't see anything wrong with it, they feel they deserve it while everybody else gets to scramble to pay the bill in the end.

If occupying the stock exchange could change anything about that, I'd be pitching up my tent right now. But frankly, I just can't see that changing. This isn't just against one dictator or a corrupt regime. And pretty much every big corporation is in foreign hands anyway.

[inked]

The main stream media also ignored the folks on Wall Street who protested the bailouts before they were done. Google it.

[The Gaffer]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

I understand the sentiment.

Even today the country over here is yet again in turmoil to save a bank that if I recall correctly hasn't been off government support since the crisis began, but that didn't stop the CEO and the board of directors to receive thousands of euros in bonusses. And the worst thing is, they don't see anything wrong with it, they feel they deserve it while everybody else gets to scramble to pay the bill in the end.

If occupying the stock exchange could change anything about that, I'd be pitching up my tent right now. But frankly, I just can't see that changing. This isn't just against one dictator or a corrupt regime. And pretty much every big corporation is in foreign hands anyway.

They are all Beasts of No Nation.

Not only do they have us all rushing out and voting for them in our droves, like lemmings, they have our governments falling over themselves to provide the most attractive possible regulatory environment for them.

Yes they are very happy to take our bailouts but they don't seem keen on us having a say in how much they pay themselves. Because of course they "have to be competitive in an international market" to "attract the best talent".

We are like the victims of some sort of dystopian stupidity virus.

[Butterbeer]

They do a Flu Jab..on the High St for £7.50.. why , oh why can't they do one for this too?

[The Gaffer]

Yo, BB.

[Nerdanel]

Originally Posted by The Gaffer

They are all Beasts of No Nation.

Not only do they have us all rushing out and voting for them in our droves, like lemmings, they have our governments falling over themselves to provide the most attractive possible regulatory environment for them.

Yes they are very happy to take our bailouts but they don't seem keen on us having a say in how much they pay themselves. Because of course they "have to be competitive in an international market" to "attract the best talent".

We are like the victims of some sort of dystopian stupidity virus.

well said. and still some people seem to be fine with it, 'cause goverments shouldn't mess with companies, right? well, then they shouldn't bail them out either.

quote of the day: "We are like the victims of some sort of dystopian stupidity virus."

[Earniel]

[...]they have our governments falling over themselves to provide the most attractive possible regulatory environment for them.

Ought not be a surprise, considering a good part of directors in big companies are government dudes. They're just providing for their own retirement. But when it comes down to it, politicians and management hotshots alike, never quite seem to understand whyyyyy people are not going to look favourably upon them putting tens of thousands of [insert your coin here] into their own pockets when the company they run has to endure lay-offs to generate that money. Employees having to pay for their own pens, but the management top dogs make over a million a year, even without the whole slew of bonusses added? That just can't be good management, can it? Never mind ethical. And they just never get it.

Because of course they "have to be competitive in an international market" to "attract the best talent".

Hah, have I heard that tune before.

[The Gaffer]

Of course, it is easier to pay a few people a vast amount than it is to pay a vast number of people a small amount. And of course, that same "few" are the ones that decide who gets paid how much...

Double standards abound. If you are talking about giving pay rises to the workers you hear all about the need for austerity yet if you want to tax the rich more you are playing the politics of envy.

Now add to this heady mix a stiff dose of cuts to welfare, health and social services and pensions and you just have to wonder how far they would have to go before people said "Enough"?

[inked]

To be sure the OWS types are as pure as the driven snow and ideologically pure!

Here's an interesting list of supporters:
http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2011/10/31...l-list-of-ows/

Anytime you can get the first two on the list to agree, I'd say the ideological purity is OTD (out-the-door), but that just may be me.

[The Gaffer]

Speaking of ideological purity, which we weren't, but hey, never being one miss the opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of many of the expressions we see of modern Christianity, What Would Jesus do?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15551157

[inked]

You have merely to see what a fine jobe Rowan is doing as head of the Anglican Communion to gather what my sentiments about his thoughts on this matter are. He is the chap, after all, in favour of Sharia courts in Britain and who is a self-proclaimeed "hairy leftie" among other egregiosities.

Then again, there's Canada and especially Quebec, see here:
http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/11...s-for-worship/

Gotta love the secularists, ya know.

[Draken]

Originally Posted by inked

Gotta love the secularists, ya know.

Thing is, hard not to be secularist. There being no god, and all.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by inked

You have merely to see what a fine jobe Rowan is doing as head of the Anglican Communion to gather what my sentiments about his thoughts on this matter are. He is the chap, after all, in favour of Sharia courts in Britain and who is a self-proclaimeed "hairy leftie" among other egregiosities.

Then again, there's Canada and especially Quebec, see here:
http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/11...s-for-worship/

Gotta love the secularists, ya know.

So a woman who rents a publicly-owned building fails to read the rental agreement and violates its terms, and this means religious freedom is destroyed- how?

And if this had happened to a Muslim group you'd be screaming that their use of a public building showed how the government is trying to impose Sharia law on us all.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by inked

To be sure the OWS types are as pure as the driven snow and ideologically pure!

Here's an interesting list of supporters:
http://pjmedia.com/zombie/2011/10/31...l-list-of-ows/

Anytime you can get the first two on the list to agree, I'd say the ideological purity is OTD (out-the-door), but that just may be me.

Well, other than Obama they're all in the 99%

Plus the Commies and Nazis had a lot of common principles- anti-democracy, anti-bourgeois, anti-capitalism- or at least finance capitalism on the part of the Nazis i.e. rootless cosmopolitan capitalism i.e. Jewish capitalism- and drew support from the same social sectors.

I remember seeing a picture of a rent strike in a working-class district of Berlin in 1930- windows were festooned with hammer-and-sickles and swastika flags in even numbers; one of the most popular plays of the early Nazi theater was a story of a WWI veteran who became a Communist before at last rallyng to his old freikorps comrades to die gloriously for Adolf in a street fight.

Political extremists can flip pretty easily; most of the founding fathers of neoconservatism were originally Trotskyites.

I would guess that members of the CPUSA and the American Nazis come from roughly the same social background.

[Insidious Rex]

Hardly worth the words of explanation graymouser. Its akin to saying because Hitler liked cheese cake, anyone else who likes cheese cake is somehow complicit. I believe in statistical circles that would be called a false correlation error. Of course you often see these purposefully used by political hacks...

[Lotesse]

Well... *interjects* I kinda like cheesecake. I mean I'd never eat more than one slice at a sitting; i'm not maniacal about it, but-you know? I don't not like it. I like a lot of YOU here, though! I remember you all. It's been 5 years already, perhaps a bit longer.

Long Live the Occupy Movement! #Occupy Every-bloody-thing.

It's been awhile, fellow Entmooters! *kisses* I came back to Entmoot cuz 'm experiencing a Tolkien reboot. I re-read The Hobbit at Christmas, and am now halfway thru the LotR trilogy, once again, reading it like a wildfire burns upon the Brown Hills. Good times, good times...