The intellectual, logical and ethical deficiencies of the tiresome “Occupy” movement are on full outrageous display on “Occupy Black Friday,” a Facebook page that is part of the effort to harm large retailers by interfering with holiday shopping. Naturally, as with segments of the “Occupy” groups that have advocated or engaged in violence, used anti-Semitic rhetoric, broken laws and made ridiculous statements, defenders of the movement will dismiss this as an aberration, not representative of the principles of the “Occupiers” as a whole. This is the group’s genius, or something: by being infuriatingly vague, it avoids accountability.
But an organization is accountable for the events it sets in motion, and the harm that its pretensions wreak. The idea promoted by the group’s Facebook page is for mobs of Occupiers to swarm stores during their deep discount sales today, interfering with shoppers and bringing commerce to a halt:
“The idea is simple, hit the corporations that corrupt and control American politics where it hurts, their profits. Black Friday is the one day where the mega-corporations blatantly dictate our actions, they say “shop” and we shop! Pushing their ledgers from red to black. This Black Friday, we will boycott all of the corporations that corrupt our government, and put profits before people.”
The idea is simple minded.
Like the rest of the Obama Administration-sanctioned class warfare behind “Occupy Wall Street,” the logic of the exercise is bigotry: if your company is large and successful, you and the company must be corrupt and evil. All 100 top retailers are specifically targeted, as if there are no distinctions among them—success alone is proof of malevolence. Consistent with anti-capitalist myth, this argument presumes that neither elected officials, voters nor consumers are capable of free will, as if the mere offer of a sale is a form of irresistible mind control (I would chew my feet off before I would go to a Black Friday sale. Gee, I wonder if I would also be immune to that drink that turns Indiana Jones into a mindless slave in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”? ) The group’s low opinion of successful commercial enterprise is matched by its lack of belief in human intelligence, autonomy, free will and respect for personal responsibility. These are comforting fantasies for the many Occupiers whose current occupational and financial plights are due to their own deficiencies and poor decisions. The primary bigotry is the “put profits before people” deceit, as if corporations that do not operate a non-profit charities are ethically depraved. Profits are people. In publicly traded corporations, they are retirement funds and college tuition payments, health care, quality of life enhancements and emergency resources. They are services, products and jobs. The idea that profits are morally wrong is pure Marxism (and pure hogwash), and it is amazing that the media has worked so hard to avoid giving the demonstrators that spout these slogans the labels they are begging for.
“Stop Black Friday” extends the logic of “Occupy Wall Street” to the shattering point, asserting that all large corporations are bad, and that being publicly traded on Wall Street is proof of malevolence:
“Keep in mind that we are not occupying small businesses or hardworking people—we must make a distinction between the businesses that are in the pockets of Wall Street and the businesses that serve our local communities. We are NOT anti-capitalist. Just anti-crapitalist. Below is a short list for publicly traded large businesses to Occupy or to boycott on Black Friday. Luckily, most of them don’t have good presents anyway. If you want to see the top 100 retail businesses for 2010 to boycott, click here…”
Let’s count the lies here:
1. People who work for large corporations are as hard-working as those who work for small businesses. The small businesses that are especially hard-working, innovative and effective experience success, which sometimes results in their becoming big businesses.
2. Being traded on Wall Street does not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, that a company is controlled by Wall Street. Wall Street can make as much money of a company’s failure as its success. Occupy Wall Street’s concept of Wall Street doesn’t merely lack nuance, it is incompetent.
3. Large companies not only serve local communities, they are often the lifeblood of communities. Orlando was a sleepy Florida backwater before the Disney Corporation created wealth, jobs and a tourist Mecca. No small business, or a hundred small businesses, could have accomplished such a transformation. There are thousands and thousands of examples of this, if not as dramatic.
4. The “Stop Black Friday” organizers are not only anti-capitalist, they are anti-American, and not very good at hiding it. The few “likes and interests” on the Facebook page that aren’t actual Occupy spin-offs include Michael Moore, Al Jazeera English, Bernie Sanders, Democracy Now!, and Noam Chomsky. Sanders is the U.S. Congress’s only openly Socialist member. Moore is an anti-Capitalist propagandist who has never allowed fairness or honesty to interfere with his advocacy. Chomsky is an anti-American zealot who never heard a conspiracy theory involving the U.S. government that he didn’t like. Is it possible to not be anti-capitalist and have these three men not only at the top of your “likes” list, but the only individuals on that list? No, it is not.
5. I’ll by generous and dismiss as gratuitous nastiness rather than dishonesty the statement that “most” of the denizens of the top 100 retailers list “don’t have good presents anyway,” since virtually every product for sale in America is offered by those companies as a group.
The cracked-logic of the hate for discount retailers should (but won’t) put to rest the claim that the main objective of “Occupy Wall Street” is to point a finger of shame at the “one per cent” and decry income disparities. Buying shares of a publicly traded company is one of the ways the “99%” participates in commerce and shares in the profits; it democratizes capitalism. Those profits “Occupy” condemns go to ordinary people, like my late parents, who worked at middle class jobs, made middle class salaries, lived for 50 years in a small, Cape Cod-style, two-bedroom home, clipped coupons, saved like fiends, seldom used credit and retired with a couple million dollars in the bank, most of it in corporate stock. My mother never bought anything that wasn’t on sale. “Stop Black Friday” wants to hurt people like her.
This effort isn’t about Wall Street, and it isn’t about economic disparity. It’s about hating people who have any money at all, isn’t it? It is about demonizing success, and hurting less successful people to do it. Wall Street won’t be harmed by interfering with post-Thanksgiving sales, but if the companies targeted lose enough revenue, investors who are like my late parents will suffer. Lay-offs will hurt people who need jobs, and their families. The shoppers, like my mother, who can only afford merchandise if it is on sale will have to spend more, leaving them less money to spend with those virtuous small businesses, who will also be hurt. Kids whose parents can’t take advantage of sales at Toys ‘R’ Us, one of the targeted companies, won’t get the present they wrote Santa for. These people aren’t members of the “one per cent”—members of the “one per cent” don’t go to Black Friday sales.
The “Occupy” movement is getting desperate for attention. “We will show the politicians of Washington that this Occupy Movement isn’t just some phase, its ever-growing and pervasive,” the Facebook page says. That’s what this is all about, you see. A scream for attention. These people don’t care who they hurt, or whether ordinary Americans lose jobs and critical investment savings because of their actions. They are willing to hurt innocent people to stay in the spotlight, to create fear and prove their power. What they are proving is their contempt for everyone but themselves.
There’s a word for political activists who believe the way to win is to inflict harm on innocent people: terrorists. I don’t think disrupting a post-Thanksgiving sale quite rises to the level of terrorism, but the ethical rot at the core of the tactic is the same. And some of those who see nothing wrong with getting some Wal-Mart employees fired to strike fear into Wall Street executives may be capable of real terrorism. It is only a matter of degree.
I have believed from the very beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement that it is likely to end very badly. The blatantly unethical “Stop Black Friday” website confirms that belief.
UPDATE: As is frequently the case with such grand schemes, “Occupy Black Friday” proved to be mostly rhetoric, and very little shopping was actually disrupted. This allowed the unethical conduct on this annual insanity to be dominated, as it usually is, by the shoppers.
Ethics Alarms 
I won’t comment on your assertions, Jack, but I would like leave a pointer to one of the most enlightening videos I’ve yet seen regarding the creation and consumption of the “stuff” we buy. And Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
“From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.”
http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproject#p/u/22/9GorqroigqM
OK, just one rebuttal, Jack, cause I’m occupying Wal-Mart at noon today.
“. . .this is not a movement that hates rich people just for being rich. If it were that kind of movement we`d call it Occupy Silicon Valley. No. It`s not about hating the economic winners. It`s about hating the economic cheaters. We`re tired of the cheaters. We`re tired of people rigging the game so that they can get ahead and the rest of us can`t get anywhere.” – Van Jones
Geoge Carlin said it best – http://fattymoon.posterous.com/wanted-obedient-workers-george-carlins-best-t
This is non-responsive, Jeff. Preventing middle-class shoppers from buying what they want does not in any way harm what you call “cheaters.” It’s irresponsible and unjust. I’d like an honest rebuttal that does not involve recycling video propaganda. Wal-Mart is not Wall Street, and Wall-Mart employees and shoppers are not the 1%. Address that. I don’t think you can.
Jack, I do/did not prevent middle-class shoppers from shopping. Today I stood on a street corner, waving and acting silly. Lemme tell you one thing (this is an unscientific sampling) – for every “get a job” or “f**k you, there are ten honks and cheers. There’s a sea change on the horizon.
http://fattymoon.posterous.com/mr-pig-does-the-wal-mart-shuffle-on-black-fri
1. I blame global warming.
2. There are always changes. Many are needed. Black Friday has nothing to do with it. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. That was the point.
I will ask these questions just one more time:
1. Who feeds the Occupiers? Farmers and corporations.
2. Who dresses the Occupiers? Tailors and corporations.
3. Who provides their protective tents against the weather? Corporations.
4. Who allows their ‘freedom of speech?” The Constitution of the United States, which they presumably distrust.
5. Who encourages their illegal behavior, their completely phoney lack of “love’ for all workers when women are regularly being raped at the Occupier sites? That I don’t have an answer to, except for underground Obama supporters and/or the fact that these people are lazy socialists who want the world handed to them on a platter. (Just for the record, even in Socialist/Communist/Fascist nations, SOMEONE does the work… slaves, e.g., as in China).
6. If the evil corporations don’t provide the basic needs of the “Occupiers,” then the Os can just go back to wearing bearskins, eating squirrels and rats, and making their own moccasins. THEY ARE MORONS.
Frankly, I’m sick to death of the whole argument. Martin Luther King had a specific objective in mind, obeyed the law, and practiced peaceful — really peaceful — demonstrations to advance his goals. He is and will be a national hero; the Occupiers are lazy slobs, taking advantage of an economic situation over which they have no control to basically stop the US system from working. Good for them. The assholes.
Elizabeth, this short video should bring roses to your cheeks. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
http://www.forbiddenknowledgetv.com/videos/socio-economics/black-friday-madness-of-a-lost-society.html
(Count the number of ad hominem attacks.)
Wow, the most absurd thing I’ve seen all week. “Martin Luther King obeyed the law”. And he was arrested 30 times why? He regularly broke laws that his conscience told him were unjust. The movement as a whole embraces the principles of Kingian nonviolence, but not everyone who participates in our actions or arrives at our occupations does. They will, in time, form their version of the Black Panthers. In the meantime, they hang out with Occupiers and make us look bad. We actively try to restrain them, or clean up their messes, but that doesn’t make headlines.
To your first three points: corporations do not “do” anything. Corporations are man-made fictions of capital, paperwork, and control. People do everything. Can a stack of paper work a field or assemble a product? Can paper move it from one place to another? Of course not. Secondly, protesting the evils of corporations is not the same as saying corporations are evil. Jesus might disagree with me here: the central principle of a corporate idea is the love of money, and he called that the root of all evil. In my mind, the evils of corporations are simply that evil men use them to defraud millions or suppress the rights of workers and escape liability for their crimes by waving some paper around.
To your fourth point: You presume quite a bit about people you don’t know. The Constitution is a document outlining the most basic organization of our republic. The Bill of Rights was drafted in order to prohibit that republic from infringing on our natural human rights with laws. God himself allows my freedom of speech, by virtue of allowing me life. He also allows my freedom of thought, motion, association, and use of tools. These rights can only be taken away from me through use of violence, and they certainly do not depend on ink stained into hemp paper by men who risked everything for the same God-given freedom I am willing to die for.
To your fifth: Ghandi and my own conscience encourage my illegal behavior. Every protest in US history that made any difference was attacked by the police. Rapes have happened at occupations, I can’t deny that. It is a tragic side effect of good intentions: to feed, clothe, and shelter the poor. Sadly, there are vile people who are also poor, people who have so little power over their own lives that they use violence against women to feel any power at all. It’s disgusting and wrong. You will find few Obama supporters at Occupations. To most of us, Democrats and Republicans are both part of the same problem, which is politics corrupted by corporate campaign money, and government that no longer works for ordinary people, instead choosing to aid the wealthiest in a 30-year class war that we’re just now finding out has been going on. We don’t want the world handed to us, we want the people of the world to realize that this beautiful planet is the common inheritance of all mankind, not simply the inheritance of those with the luck to have the right idea, or to meet the right people, or to be born to the right parents. We want confidence that our species will survive another thousand years here, which cannot happen under the cancerous design of today’s society. We want to see a world where everyone’s abilities can be put to good use, and by using those abilities, they can also secure food and land and relative safety. We reject the idea that a few hundred should be allowed to make choices that impact the lives of millions, yet not affect their own lives. We are all connected, whether or not we all realize it.
You may regard MLK as a national hero, as is the norm today. But I assure you, had you been his contemporary, you would have laughed at him and scorned him and shot at him with every bullet the media provided at the time, and there were many. You would have defended the inequality he was fighting against as necessary part of society, would have twisted his words against their meaning, would have given up on him and his people long before they did. It’s OK. We still love you.
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” – MLK
“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.” -MLK
“Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.” – MLK
“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.” – MLK
“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.” – MLK
“Civil disobedience. . . is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity and war and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.” – Howard Zinn
“I care so deeply about this matter that I’m willing to take on the legal penalties, to sit in this prison cell, to sacrifice my freedom, in order to show you how deeply I care. Because when you see the depth of my concern, and how civil I am in going about this, you’re bound to change your mind about me, to abandon your rigid, unjust position, and to let me help you see the truth of my cause.” – Ghandi
Martin Luther King, Gandhi and others are collectively insulted by this activities evocation of them. I have better things to do than knock down ridiculous, non-factual, fantasy left-wing cant—if I did, and my sock drawer was in order, these would be some of my targets, so easy that a well-read 7th grader could do the demolition job:
“corporations do not “do” anything. Corporations are man-made fictions of capital, paperwork, and control. People do everything”, “the evils of corporations are simply that evil men use them to defraud millions or suppress the rights of workers and escape liability for their crimes by waving some paper around..”; “Democrats and Republicans are both part of the same problem, which is politics corrupted by corporate campaign money, and government that no longer works for ordinary people, instead choosing to aid the wealthiest in a 30-year class war that we’re just now finding out has been going on.”
And this doesn’t even get to the ethical whoppers.
“Martin Luther King, Gandhi and others are collectively insulted by this activities evocation of them.”
Why? we are inspired by them, their nonviolence, their courage, their ability to speak the truth with power. You would argue, perhaps, that they would be against those dreaming of a better world?
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” -Ghandi
The difference between you and I? I don’t need to resort to insults to make an argument. I’m not participating in ad hominem anymore. It’s degrading – I don’t want the brief rush of superiority when it further divides people. Why should I spit venom at my brother? Look, your generation went ahead and polluted the earth already, and we’ll have to clean it up the place. We’re moving in, after all. But don’t expect us to pay your debts and play your games. We’re developing new ways of cooperating that are founded in autonomy, equality, and consensus. If you really are unaware of the systemic bipartisan corruption, that’s fine. As Thomas Jefferson said, “Ignorance is closer to truth than error.” I can only urge you to self-educate and try to get your understanding closer to the reality that faces us. Your mind is your own to change, as you see fit.
Kishin D:
Some points well taken. But to compare MLK and his mission to the Occupiers is grossly unfair. MLK wanted to change the world for blacks, to give them a fair chance to succeed in a predominantly while society. The Occupiers want to stop the world, have it handed to them on a silver platter, and expect anyone who has worked for a living to support them.
Big difference.
OK, I tried not to respond because I typically don’t like discussions with the clearly closed minded but if you would take the board out of your butt for a minute, I would say that if you are the best voice the right has for the defense of women, I would rather remain undefended thanks. 1, 2 and 3 are ridiculous. There is a huge difference between a family farm and factory farming. There are over 30 million people working in the garment industry worldwide and most of them are women, many of them are children. Small hands are coveted for workers in the industry. Getting paid by the perfect piece, not by the hours put in and often in terrible conditions. I don’t even think they would consider themselves tailors but you go ahead and live in rose-coloured glasses land, buying $10.00 Wal-Mart t-shirts and telling people that the person who made it is a tailor that is paid enough to eat, house and clothe themselves and their children. Do you even know how many $10.00 t-shirts they would have to make an hour to be able to support themselves? I do not consider myself a socialist but I am sure I would fit nicely into your definition of one. I can assure you, however, that I have a very strong work ethic and spent many years working very hard in the food industry. I haven’t eaten squirrel but I would rather try it than eat a chicken that has been force-fed growth promotants so it develops twice as fast to produce meat that is questionably edible.
If you are sick to death of the argument, stop arguing. Don’t spew your hate-filled diatribe all over the screen.
Danielle:
I don’t usually talk back to unintelligible responders, but (1) if you would define the term “BOARD IN YOUR BUTT,” and (2) the gravamen of what you are clearly trying to say without effect, I will respond appropriately.
“Board in your butt?” How gentile. What a wonderful way to foment real dialogue. Where did you learn your language? Your points make no sense, at least they are not responsive to my comments. Make some clear points, and perhaps I’ll respond. Meantime, you need a few lessons in (1) civility; and (2) writing and dialogue.
Are you sitting in one of the “demonstrations” now? If so, you can thank Steve Jobs and others for giving you the option of writing insulting drivel to the rest of these readers..
I can see how you would consider THEY ARE MORONS and The assholes to be so much more gentile than board in your butt which was meant to suggest you are rigid, unbending, stiff, unyielding, inflexible – you pick your adjective. Yes, it was an insult in that any of those states of mind typically add nothing relevant to discussion. Now, I too am sick to death of the arguement so I think I might take a bit of my own advice.
Thanks, Jack… “My mother never bought anything that wasn’t on sale. “Stop Black Friday” wants to hurt people like her.” That actually made me laugh out loud.
I’ve never bought anything that wasn’t on sale either. In fact, I rarely buy anything new other than technology which is a whole other thing if I want to remain operational. I mend my clothes, sew quilts out of “recycled” material, never replace something that can be fixed and have not used credit for several years and hopefully will not again other than my mortgage. Occupy Black Friday would have no effect on me whatsoever. Anything I need goes on sale somewhere everyday. I just have to, like your mother, watch the flyers and clip the coupons. What does effect me (and I hate it) is the fact that almost nothing is made to last more than 5 years anymore. Almost everything seems made to replace. I don’t get that at all.
And, if I recall, you are against people like your mother. In one of the first conversations we had you pointed out to me the value of going out and spending more of my money. Shop, shop, shop, it helps the economy.
1. My mother kept everything and repaired or fixed it. A lot of stuff lasts if you let it. Still.
2. Consumerism indeed drives the economy. There will be no more jobs until there is a demand for stuff. Mon bought smart; that doesn’t mean that she didn’t buy.
3. Disrupting consumerism in an unemployment crisis is like attacking dams during a draught. It is beyond stupid, ethics aside.
To point 1, my parents had a TV for over 20 years until I moved out and they let me take it. It lasted another 8 years. The last TV I bought lasted 5 years and would have cost $1500.00 to repair. It would be hard for me to abuse a TV. It hangs on the wall and is controlled by a remote that I often exercise my right to turn off. Music is my preference usually – Bob or Ziggy Marley most days, Supertramp if I am cleaning. I was told by Sony, that the life expectancy on a new TV is 5 years and it would cost me the same to replace. They actually refused to repair it. They did give me a credit on a new TV which I am sure was equivalent to or better than repairing it in their mind. To me, it was neither but I took the discount because I am not an idiot. I was given a Keurig coffee machine as a gift on the same day my best friend was given one. Both died within 2 years. The coffee pot it replaced cost $22.00 and lasted 15 years. It was slow when I passed it on but still working. I could give you a lengthy list of companies who’s idea of customer service is that explaining how the problem occured is equivalent to fixing the problem. Unless I am going to work for them and need to understand their internal problems, it is not. Quality today is not the same in product or service in my experience.
To point, 2, I am sorry I misinterpreted. The phrase “saved like fiends” led me to believe she was penny pinching and therefore didn’t shop unnecessarily. My mistake.
To point 3, I didn’t even state an opinion on the validity of Occupy Black Friday, only my opinion on whether it would hurt someone like your mother which could possibly be extrapolated to mean I do not think the movement intends to hurt people like your mother.
To shop, or not… how much, how little…. the definition of necessity, or not…. these are all personal choices. I don’t believe consumerism is the answer or even the right direction to head. I make my personal choices based on that. I believe in keeping track of and working to reduce my carbon footprint. Consumerism is a big drain on carbon footprints. I have my own personal definition of shopping responsibly. I buy as much food as I can from local growers and family farms. I don’t believe in factory farming or puppy mills. All of these are personal choices and I feel as free to make them for myself as I expect everyone else to feel to make them for themselves. My entire clothing budget for the last 26 months amounts to the cost of a single pair of toms, which in Canada is 55$ but I do not feel the need to go and stand in a store to block people from their personal choices or even to preach to them my own. I have little patience for preaching of any kind and do not think it is appropriate for me to push my ideals onto someone else in this regard anymore than I think it is acceptable for someone who mistakenly thinks money makes the world go ’round to call me a moron. When I decide to stand up and fight, it will be over something more important to me than how much my neighbour spends at Christmas. So, I have mixed feelings about Occupy Black Friday. I support the thinking but not the methodology. I still don’t think their intent or even the result of their method would hurt someone like your mother.
Now, I do think the shopper in the California Wal-Mart that sprayed other “stand in line early” shoppers with pepper spray in order that she guarantee herself a deeply discounted Xbox did intend to hurt people like your mother. That one is clear.
Bad metaphor there, my friend. Dams, themselves, have caused droughts. And 68% of what you spend locally gets reinvested back in your own community. Big box stores and the 147 transnational corporations that are at the core of global poverty and pollution are burning our villages to save their villas. Jackboots, propagandists. and the laughable idea that you, too, have a chance to be in the 1% someday are no protection from the facts on the ground. Mindless consumerism for unnecessary goods is hardly an ethical argument to keep people enslaved for the profit of the 1% and it is no basis for a sustainable and healthy economic model. Surely we can agree on that.
How about all the things that are not made in the U.S.? How about all the people that are buying foreign made goods? How about the quality of the foreign made goods? How about the Olympic boycott in ’80? We sure did show the Soviets. The grain embargo? What did the farmer gain? And did it effect the Soviet’s government directly? Kind of like the economic sanctions on other countries. Are those in power living without? What have we gained in the last wars? I am still trying to figure out what the difference between the Tea Party and Occupy is? The Tea Party showed major signs of Islamophobia as the Occupy has been accused of anti-Semetism. I heard people calling Mr. Obama a racist during the Tea Party activities. All I have seen on the Tea Party is as much inaction as the OWS has been accused of. If the Tea Party did have a platform how have they improved our democracy? I don’t agree with either OWS or the Tea Party. Corporations have shown that they have bankrolled the Tea Party as the unions have bankrolled OWS and other anti government activists. What side would our founding fathers take?
Propaganda? Heck, the colonist used it. The U.S. uses it all the time. What’s is difference besides how it is distributed? Flyers and tracts vs. emails and youtube videos?
I guess I’m trying to ask what is the difference between the boycott of corporations that have shipped jobs overseas, made products using ethically questionable labor practices, then shipping less than quality products back to the U.S. and the boycotts and sactions the U.S. places on dictorial governments that barely suffer at the expense of the citizens who lose?
“All I have seen on the Tea Party is as much inaction as the OWS has been accused of.”
Wrong.
The Tea Party organized a get-out-the-vote effort nationwide that had the effect of shifting the House of Representatives from Democrat to Republican by 64 seats–a political realignment that hasn’t been seen in over 100 years, and breaking up the single-party control of the Executive and Legislative branches. At the same time, modest gains (though not enough for a majority) were made in the Senate (it’s impossible to overhaul the Senate in a single election because only 1/3 of the Senators are up for re-election at any given time), AND there was a consistent Republican shift in State elections–the importance of which has yet to be felt, as 2010 was also a census year, so redistricting will be done mostly by Republicans.
–Dwayne
Getting the vote out and electing people that have done next to nothing this past year? They promised jobs. They promised tax cuts for the rich. What have they done for democracy? They are as much to blame as the president for NOT compromising on any issue. The government is in even a bigger quagmire than it was before 2010. And I blame the inaction of the Tea Party whose only goal seems to make Mr. Obama a one term president than work on the issues.
The Republicans control one of two houses of the Legislative Branch and do not control the Executive Branch. Even then, the Tea Party is not the whole of the Republican Party.
And you’re seriously criticizing the Tea Party for doing “next to nothing”?
Does this mean you’d applaud if the Tea Party had implemented the whole of their agenda in the past year? Oh yeah, you called it “tax cuts for the rich.”
I didn’t think so.
–Dwayne
Come on, Michael. Had it not been for those tea party budget hawks, we’d be even farther down the road to Athens than we already are. They’ve passed a lot of what (they think) are job-creating bills that have been tabled by the Democratic Senate. They have neither accomplished nothing nor done nothing. You don’t have to like them; you do have to be fair.
Gandhi said: First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. Then you win.
I would like to thank Jack, who wrote his thoughts down and everyone, especially Elizabeth, who responded… I thank you for letting us Occupy your minds. The Occupy Movement deeply appreciates your contribution to the growth of voices joining in from all around the world.
You are playing your role in making our planet heal from the criminal assaults on our economic systems, the heinous abuses ravaging our environments, and the depraved indifference that the 1% continues to heap on the living wreckage left behind in their crippling, psychotic, and reptilian grasp for that one more nickel of profit. I thank you.
We have come this far together. Thank you for moving us so quickly into the third phase Jack and Elizabeth. We cannot win without you.
Please note that I do not speak for The Occupy Movement and my gratitude to all who speak out against the 99% is my own and is sincere.
To all who DO support Occupy; you have my love, my solidarity, my heartfelt admiration, and my awakening conviction that we are, in fact, the ones that we have been waiting for… With 99% of us in Da House, it’s gonna be SOME SHOW! Stay strong. This is only the beginning.
“Gandhi said: First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” Well, thanks to a juvenile and biased press, they didn’t ignore you; some things are ridiculed because they are in fact ridiculous; nobodies going to fight OWS, just make sure they don’t hurt anyone and obey the law like everyone else, and you can’t win until you define what victory is. Can’t lose either…that’s the real point.
“You are playing your role in making our planet heal from the criminal assaults on our economic systems, the heinous abuses ravaging our environments, and the depraved indifference that the 1% continues to heap on the living wreckage left behind in their crippling, psychotic, and reptilian grasp for that one more nickel of profit.”
Ah, the Sixties! The smell of tear gas in the air, the prose of Abie Hoffman and Timothy Leary everywhere! I love this stuff! It’s an art form, like rap, or limericks! “The Eve of Destruction” was a hoot then, and it’s even funnier now.
Trust me, I’m only in the SECOND stage.
Jack-Would you mind stating why my reply was rejected? Be careful, your ethics might be showing. 🙂
I haven’t rejected any replies. I need to OK new responders, and often replies that include links. Sometimes a legit comment gets picked off as spam, and I’ll catch it a little late (I get about a hundred spammed comments a day.) I’m sorry if you had a reply that hasn’t surfaced…I’m looking for it!
Found it. Remember, I’m not on the blog 24-7. Sorry for the delay.
“…lack of belief in human intelligence, autonomy, free will and respect for personal responsibility.” Makes the Occupiers sound like the Federal government.I’d have to say most Americans aren’t intelligent or responsible about their spending habits. Most are harmed by them and are in debt up to their earlobes but you can’t really blame corps for that other than their enticing advertizing.
Many corps outsource their jobs leaving Americans in the lurch. Where have all our blue collars gone?
Wallstreet is nothing more than a casino and worse. Speculators have done incredible harm to the economy. Shouldn’t it be unethical to make money off of other people’s or the nation’s woes?
“Shouldn’t it be unethical to make money off of other people’s or the nation’s woes?”
So long as the method involved doesn’t cause or contribute to the cause of the woes, I’d have to say no. Selling drugs to people to get them addicted? Unethical. Short-selling stock? Ethical. (Heck, just selling stock that you think is going to lose value rather than holding it isn’t much different.) Buying products at reduced prices during a going-out-of-business sale? Ethical. Stealing from the same store? Unethical.
–Dwayne
Without debating any of your presumptions (“speculators” have been boogie men for about 1000 years), none of this has anything to do with Black Friday,which was my point. And while playing the stock market is indeed like a casino, investing in it is not. It is going into business, and yes, if the business you own park of fails, you lose money. There is nothing evil about that.
” as with segments of the “Occupy” groups that have advocated or engaged in violence, used anti-Semitic rhetoric, broken laws and made ridiculous statements, defenders of the movement will dismiss this as an aberration, not representative of the principles of the “Occupiers” as a whole. ”
That’s not really the case. The core of the movement embraces non-violence and rejects artificial divisions (such as race color creed gender sexual orientation political affiliation nation of origin etc etc etc). As far as laws, it depends on the law. “Trespassing” on public land and “Disorderly Conduct” for speaking your mind… these are not aberrations. Vandalism is a form of violence, yes they are aberrations. But when they’re figuring out ways to strike back at these nebulous paperwork entities that want to influence every aspect of our lives, just because it doesn’t enjoy unanimous support doesn’t mean it’s out of line with the movement. We are rejecting this mindless, empty, disconnected, consumerist culture, and no day of the year is more symbolic of that than Black Friday. Expect to see #Occupiers singing the Grinch’s “Welcome Christmas” next month.
“Christmas day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp…”
Uh-uh. Your comment embodies exactly what I wrote–when it’s convenient to be accountable, you’re accountable. I expect the Occupiers to do almost any silly think they can think of to stay in the news with nothing to say. Emulating cartoon characters is one of the best options.
I don’t hold the whole Tea Party accountable for a handful of people holding up signs like “Obama is Hitler” or “Obama uses federal funds to kill the elderly and unborn”. I hold the individual accountable. #Occupiers are a diverse bunch, and sure, there are troublemakers, but focusing on them ignores the mass of the movement completely. Dynamic direct democracy is amazing. Horizontal learning is amazing. Collaborating as true equals is amazing. Horizontal authority is the future.
I honestly wish the mainstream news media would cover what we’re talking about, but they seem obsessed with the arrests and the protesters themselves. Growing income inequality. Rampant monetary corruption in our government. Huge corporate mergers that approach monopoly power. Revolving door regulators and lobbyists. Major corporations being charged criminally but getting their case settled for song – and without any admission of wrongdoing. Obstruction of worker’s rights to form unions (Wal-mart is especially guilty of this one). You can’t throw a stone without hitting corruption, but all the major news outlets want to talk about is our relationship with the local police and how stinky or funny-looking we are. We have SO MUCH to say, and clearly we’re going to have to take the message to the streets ourselves, person by person.
Who says that’s what “you” are talking about, and tell me exactly what you are adding to the discussion? These are all recognized and much debated problems; nobody is ignoring or forgetting them. They are also complex problems, though it is certainly easier to pretend they are not.
Ignore the demonstrators and pay attention only to the demonstration? Messengers matter. Always.
“Black Friday is the one day where the mega-corporations blatantly dictate our actions, they say “shop” and we shop! Pushing their ledgers from red to black.”
This, for me, is the stupidest part of all, a cart-before-the-horse argument.
Black Friday as a competitive contact sport is a relatively new phenomenon. Black Friday began on the Friday after Thanksgiving because most Americans were off from work and used the day off to get started on Christmas (“holiday”) shopping or simply went out shopping as a way of passing the time. It became an “event” for the retailers because they were (one could argue, ethically, if you can imagine that!) waiting until after Thanksgiving to start the major Christmas ad campaigns. Plus the whole “ledgers from red to black” is a myth/urban legend.
People went shopping on their day off, and the retailers responded–not the other way around. Again, there are a lot of thing to be upset about in the way BF has become a competitive contact sport, but its very existence is not one of them.
–Dwayne