Occupy What? Why?
OK, so my curiosity finally got the best of me and I had to head over to the Occupy Wall Street site. Now this is a movement of intellectual giants.
(From the official web site, front page link to the “call to action.”)
First, their principles:
1. If you agree that freedom is the right to communicate, to live, to be, to go, to love, to do what you will without the impositions of others, then you might be one of us.
Um, yeah. Anarchy has a very successful history. Besides, these freedoms exist with reasonable limitations or society simply couldn‘t function. Corporations have done nothing to limit them.
2. If you agree that a person is entitled to the sweat of their brows, that being talented at management should not entitle others to act like overseers and overlords, that all workers should have the right to engage in decisions, democratically, then you might be one of us.
Every individual in the U.S. is already “entitled to the sweat of their brows” as it is. If you don’t like working for a corporation, then don’t. Start your own business. Nobody’s stopping you. But business isn’t and shouldn’t be democratic. Twenty unskilled, uneducated workers very rarely have the business experience or knowledge to make good decisions that a single manager often has. That doesn’t mean managers always call it right—not by a long shot. But the people who have skin in the game, i.e., stockholders, have the legal and moral right to choose the folks who make decisions—it’s their money at risk.
3. If you agree that freedom for some is not the same as freedom for all, and that freedom for all is the only true freedom, then you might be one of us.
And this has what, exactly, to do with Wall St & corporations?
4. If you agree that power is not right, that life trumps property, then you might be one of us.
Yeah, so…?
5. If you agree that state and corporation are merely two sides of the same oppressive power structure, if you realize how media distorts things to preserve it, how it pits the people against the people to remain in power, then you might be one of us.
Let’s see. Wall Street gave significantly more to Obama in the last election. His admin has been full of Goldman employees, etc. The media have slanted leftward for decades. Oh, and conservatives would like to significantly decrease the size and power of the state. So all these protestors are going to vote R instead of D next time around?
And the call for action:
1. We call for protests to remain active in the cities. Those already there, to grow, to organize, to raise consciousnesses, for those cities where there are no protests, for protests to organize and disrupt the system.
Yes, let’s disrupt the system. Gas and food prices are rising. Real income is falling. Let’s turn a bad situation into a full-on disaster.
2. We call for workers to not only strike, but seize their workplaces collectively, and to organize them democratically. We call for students and teachers to act together, to teach democracy, not merely the teachers to the students, but the students to the teachers. To seize the classrooms and free minds together.
Frightening and moronic. Organize workplaces democratically? Right. What, exactly, do the hourly workers at my company know about the physics, chemistry, etc., required to manufacture LEDs and semiconductors? For the most part, nothing. And when they do apply themselves and gain the knowledge and experience required to make good decisions…they get promoted and paid more.
And democracy in the classroom? Please. Our students don’t need more democracy, they need to learn calculus and physics, and how to communicate in coherent English—and they need teachers who actually know those subjects instead of drones who’ve been inculcated with child psychology but couldn’t solve a simple math problem or parse a sentence to save their lives.
3. We call for the unemployed to volunteer, to learn, to teach, to use what skills they have to support themselves as part of the revolting people as a community.
Almost a good idea. Why not focus all that energy and effort into producing goods or services your community wants and needs—and making a profit at it so you’re not only supporting yourself but capable of supporting others instead of leeching off those of us who do productive work?
4. We call for the organization of people’s assemblies in every city, every public square, every township.
Funny. The Tea Party’s been doing just that for a couple years without crapping on police cars or destroying public and private property. The main difference is that Tea Party assemblies naturally disperse after a couple days because they’re comprised of responsible people who have jobs. I guess the next group they’ll direct their misplaced anger at will be the employed.
5. We call for the seizure and use of abandoned buildings, of abandoned land, of every property seized and abandoned by speculators, for the people, for every group that will organize them.
Hold on a second. I thought it was, “power is not right.” Mob mentality. Lovely. And then what? “Organize them” to what end?
Meaningless pablum straight from the pen of Saul Alinsky.