Real Hope and Change
Sproul Plaza, Tuesday Night, 15 November 2011. These are Americans, not Democrats, Republicans, Tea Partiers, Liberals, etc. Our leaders, the Republicans and Democrats, have sold us out. If the Republic is to be saved, it’s up to the American people. This is what the Occupy movement is all about.
That’s what I wrote last night, it’s now Wednesday morning. A commenter below suggested that as a member of the 99%, they would like a say in who represents them. Exactly, said commenter should be in the front lines of the Occupy movement, because that’s what it’s all about. The two mainstream parties stopped representing the 99% decades ago, and have spent the past 30 years enabling the largest upwards transfer of wealth in history. Anyone who thinks that the Republicans or the Democrats are going to fix the mess they have made is living in a dream world. And the Tea Party is part and parcel of the Republican Party.
Speaking of the Tea Party, where the hell are they anyhow? Across the land Americans are assembling in peaceful protest, a constitutionally protected activity, exercising a right that our founding fathers fought and died for … and are being attacked by riot clad police. I thought the Tea Party was all about exercising our Constitutional rights? I don’t hear any of them condemning the police actions or supporting people’s right to peacefully assemble? Silence is consent.
The media in particular, both left and right, is unseemly in their support of the status quo. The Drudge Report in particular is wallowing in filth in its effort to demonize the OWS movement. I suspect Fox News is no better, but I only watch it when forced to. Even here in “liberal” Oakland, the first thing the reporter on TV did last night was try and ask members of the OWS if they were going to pay for all the expense their movement had caused? This of course is completely the wrong question, the question is why the hell are cities across the country treating peaceful protesters as rioters, and confronting them with expensive ranks of cops?
And yes, there have been some cases of vandalism and such. Such acts are rare, and do not even begin to represent the average OWS supporter. And back on point, if you treat people as rioters and confront them with riot police, a few of them are going to over react and throw things. This doesn’t justify treating the protests as riots, in fact the opposite, it shows that treating the protests as riots is going to cause some of the problems it is purporting to prevent.
I don’t know how this is going to all turn out. This is the first real populist movement in decades, not since the sixties has there been a grass roots movement to force real change on the establishment. And sadly despite a few limited gains, the establishment has retrenched and is more powerful then ever. And tens of millions of Americans have been propagandized into supporting a system that has stolen everything from them and left them with debts their grandchildren will be paying off. Not to mention a bizarre system of perpetual war, where corporations are people, and all freedoms are to be sacrificed in the name of “security.”
The Occupy Movement is first crack in the dam in the USA, and it has the powers that be running scared. Maybe it will inspire real change in Washington and Wall Street. Maybe it will result in the USA making the final transformation into a dystopian police state where freedom is just a memory. Maybe something else will happen that no one saw coming, that’s always a safe bet. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.
Doug Stych 16 November 2011
(Image published with permission of the photographer, all rights reserved.)
Doug's Darkworld 
So why do you think that the Occupiers are so different from the Tea Partiers?
Tom Dickson-Hunt
November 15, 2011 at 11:23 pm
http://coffeepartyprogressive.blogspot.com/2011/10/tea-party-vs-occupy-wall-street.html
unitedcats
November 15, 2011 at 11:39 pm
Not to mention, how many Tea party rallies were attacked by police in riot gear? —Doug
unitedcats
November 15, 2011 at 11:41 pm
I’m willing to entertain that there may be a difference, but I think you’ll have to do better than that. It’s a lot of fancy-looking propaganda. Also I rather think I qualify as one of the 99%, and I’d like some say in who purports to represent me, please.
Tom Dickson-Hunt
November 16, 2011 at 9:33 am
Tom, the TP presented an outline of their agenda that was false and led people to believe that they cared about the average American. Their actions in Congress have proved that they care about anything BUT the average American. There is truly a disconnect between people in Washington and the average American. I still see so often the attitude that people who are middle class and poor are just lazy, expecting handouts, won’t work to make their lives better. That they need to get a job or a better job. Those ideas have never been true of all the middle and lower class people. But those thoughts most often come from people who have never faced real hardships. There are a some people who have changed their lives and I am happy for them but to think that those opportunities are available for EVERYONE is simply a misconception. The sheer mass of the population is making those opportunities less an less available. Please read Atlus Shrugged by Ayn Rand and see radical Capitalism at it’s best. It preachs that the lower classes are there to serve the elite, intelligensia, the successful Capitalists. Is there class warfare in America? You bet there is. It has reached the breaking point. History teaches that Capitalistic societies seldom last much longer than about 200 years. Guess where we are!
Lee A Whittaker
November 16, 2011 at 6:36 am
Atlas Shrugged also explores the stifling effect of over regulation by the political elite.
Make no mistake about it, the political elite are not there for YOU anymore, they are completely bought and paid for by corporate interests.
“campaign contributions” should be called the Payoffs and Bribes that they are !
Opportunities get stifled when the government gets involved.. I can provide dozens of examples.
Most importantly it is important for everyone to understand the current money/banking system that has taken over. They are the real force behind the politicians. They also control your money and the value of your savings.
Do not mistake Crony Capitalism (facism) that we have now with Real Capitalism. In Real Capitalism the government does not bail out banks, or insurance companies… thus saving the elite who own these businesses.. all at the expense of the taxpayer.. No sir, that is Feudalism.. and thats what we now have.
Your now only a serf on the corporate/government plantation.. is that what you want for your children?
People are going to stay serfs until we get past sniping at each other. Tea Party, OWS, need to support each other. Infighting insures nothing will ever change, and your kids will be in perpetual bondage in a police state.
John Galt
November 16, 2011 at 7:05 am
I’d like to weigh in with some thoughts on the Occupy Wall Street movement, the Tea Party, and protesting in general, as these topics have irked my conscience quite a lot lately.
First off, I am not affiliated with the Tea Party or any other political party (namely Republican and Democrat), nor have I chosen to become involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement in my city. The reason for the latter is complicated by my previous involvement and experiences gleaned from volunteering in our local peace community (a hodge-podge of liberal, religious, secular and student organizations coming together to call attention to injustices, with the goal of promoting peaceful coexistence in our communities and abroad). I chose earlier this year, after nearly 3 years involved, to leave the peace community because of 1.) ineffective tactics (inaction in the form of holding signs by the street; film showings that preach to their own choir and fail to draw in other members of the public; etc.); 2.) incoherent and incompatible visions for the future shared by the many members (no real consensus could be reached, especially if non-liberal voices were brought into the fold); 3.) lack of funding for carrying their message wide and far, with little foreseeable way of raising additional funding outside of begging; 4.) lack of radical initiative for taking on, undermining and/or changing the institutions and trends that are degrading our collective way of life in the modern age (no, yammering away about our elected officials in op-ed pieces isn’t doing any good). These problems in the peace community have extended to the Occupy Wall Street movement, as much overlap between these movements exist.
The Tea Party has funding, but as others have pointed out here and elsewhere, it is little more than an extension of the Republican Party created for further exploiting lower-class, disgruntled albeit patriotic (i.e., drank the koolaid) Americans. Just another way to take advantage of people who wish for real change by conflating average people’s values with corporate interests. The Christian Fundamentalist movement and their televangelists are doing a terrific job of deceiving scared and vulnerable people to accept that propaganda.
While I can absolutely appreciate what the Occupy Wall Street protesters are attempting, I’m left doubting that inaction in the form of standing in protest is really going to bring about lasting change. It seems to me that in order to honestly confront these mammoth banks and multinational corporations we must find ways to undermine them. Big business lobbying efforts have completely corrupted our political system, so seeking legal remedy is out. These systems thrive on money and on us accepting the reality that’s been (and is being) constructed. I wonder if evading paying taxes isn’t every bit as useful as standing outside in protest, though both are likely to arouse police interest. Wars are being funded by our tax dollars, as are the bailouts. I wonder if there isn’t any way out of this money labyrinth we’ve allowed to grow up all around us, which is forcing us all into a modern form of slavery. I also wonder if the rise of civilizations of this scale in and of itself isn’t largely to blame, providing the incentive for bureaucratic nightmares and top-down political hierarchies to form in an effort to manage the masses. Can we not break off into smaller segments refusing to be ruled under such an umbrella? I’m thinking that in order to deal lasting damage to Wall Street, this means dealing damage to the United States as a whole, to our economy and our entire way of life as has been experienced over the last century.
It seems to me that there can’t be enough cops and military men to hold the country together, to stop protesters, to pursue tax evaders, and to invade other countries all at once. So perhaps the solution (the destruction of the system currently in place) should be multifaceted and in a sense chaotic (which is where anarchy comes in handy). But that says nothing as to what we would be able to construct in its place or whether millions of people will be capable of reaching a reasonable amount of agreement moving forward. While people are willing to argue and complain and cast blame, how many of us are as willing to soul-search, to delve into learning about human history, to aim to think outside of the box, or to improve our own selves? More and more it seems to me that no change will ever prove fruitful long-term so long as we as individuals remain corrupted, apathetic, ignorant, and willfully blind.
That’s all I’ve got today.
ProphetBob
November 17, 2011 at 4:32 pm
“whether millions of people will be capable of reaching a reasonable amount of agreement moving forward”
Alien attack would bring us together…lol, Michio Kaku and Ratigan talk about it towards the end of this little vid around 5:00…
Pyrodin
November 18, 2011 at 7:46 am