OWS: The Start of Something Big

[marmar]

via truthdig:



OWS: The Start of Something Big
Posted on Nov 18, 2011


The Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t just some lefty rejoinder to the tea party, even though the two political phenomena have been subject to comparison over the last two months, but at least one prominent tea partier joins a host of scholars and analysts in suggesting that OWS is about far more than showdowns over camping rights in various American city centers. In fact, begrudgingly or not, several culture-watchers cited in this New York Times roundup predict that the movement is here to stay, regardless of whether or not the tents stay up. —KA

The New York Times:

But critics and supporters alike suggest that the influence of the movement could last decades, and that it might even evolve into a more potent force. “A lot of people brush off Occupy Wall Street as incoherent and inconsequential,” Michael Prell told me. “I disagree.”

Mr. Prell is a strategist for the Tea Party Patriots, a grass-roots organization that advocates Tea Party goals of fiscal responsibility, free markets and constitutionally limited government. He’s the author of “Underdogma,” a critique of left-wing anti-Americanism, which includes a chapter on the Berkeley Free Speech movement of the 1960s, which may be the closest historical parallel to the Occupy movement.

“They claim to stand up on behalf of the ‘little guy’ (the 99 percent), while raising a fist of protest against the big, rich, greedy and powerful 1 percent,” he said of the Occupy movement. “The parallels between Occupy Wall Street and the Berkeley Free Speech Movement are too clear to ignore — right down to the babbling incoherence of the participants. The lesson from Berkeley in the 1960s and the protest movement they spawned is: it doesn’t matter that they don’t make sense. What matters is they are tapping into a gut-level instinct that is alive, or lying dormant, in almost every human being. And, when they unleash the power of standing up for the powerless against the powerful — David vs. Goliath — the repercussions can ripple throughout our society for decades.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/business/occupy-wall-street-has-plenty-of-potential.html">Read more

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/ows_the_start_of_something_big_20111118/

[MedleyMisty]

1. Dude

None of the blogs I've read, none of the streamers I've listened to, none of the general assemblies I've watched, and none of the tweets I've seen have been anywhere close to incoherent babbling. They've actually all been very intelligent and clear and concise. Also, lolololol forever at "showdowns over camping rights."

Get the fuck out of your bubble, Mr. Prell.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. At least he has sufficient grasp of the situation

to be afraid, very afraid.


Natcherly it's his instinct to trash the movement in any way he can and to hear anything that challenges his twisted little worldview as "incoherent babbling."

[HappyMe]

4. Afraid, very afraid of what?

[Warpy]

3. Actually, they rather miss the point here about why it's so dangerous

It's dangerous to the plutocracy because people are finally developing class consciousness and realizing that not only are they excluded from the exalted world the wealthy inhabit, they will never, ever gain entry to it, no matter what because the wealthy have hired politicians to pull up the ladders and chop off all the climbing ropes.

They have finally awakened to the fact that it's an us vs. them situation, all right, but that the "them" are the wealth hoarders and their hired help, all parasiting off the rest of us and that it has to stop.

Both parties are in total disarray over this, dimly suspecting that something is going on that will change everything but not knowing how to control or even co-opt it.

[snagglepuss]

5. At one time white collars workers were treated better and fared

better than blue collar workers so they closed their eyes to what was happening to blue collars. No more. These people are no longer reading about some else's crappy working conditions, they experience it for themselves.

[Bonhomme Richard]

6. I was of the opinion that they need to change what...

they are doing but I am now coming around to realize that what they are doing is different and can really confuse TPTB. That gives me hope. What is needed is staying power and OWS might just have that.

[femrap]

7. I wonder what the

Occupy Movement will decide to do next. Not having the camps may be freeing.

[AntiFascist]

8. "the babbling incoherence of the participants" is much more applicable...

to the Idiot Class represented by the Tea Bagger movement. Project much Mr. Prell?