Real pain for some lies beneath the anger, angst and media love.
- By Dan Gainor
- Monday, October 03, 2011
It would be easy to dismiss the Occupy Wall Street protests as another disorganized and pungent liberal whinefest … because that’s basically true. The demonstrations, taking place in New York and now other cities and other nations, have a classic lefty feel and scent. But there’s more to this, if you dig deep enough. These protests do reflect the genuine economic fears that many Americans feel.
The few thousand that have turned out to occupy Wall Street 24-7 are mostly young, rarely bathe and chant a lot. (Even lefty comedian Jon Stewart compared it to concert festival “Bonnaroo.”) Several were seen wearing face masks reminiscent of the movie “V for Vendetta,” a common practice with the hacker group Anonymous which is backing the efforts. It adds a touch of street theater to the proceedings.
The protest has been going on for more than two weeks, but is drawing headlines as participants opt to ignore police warnings and get arrested. Seven hundred protesters were reportedly locked up in New York on Saturday because they didn’t bother to get a parade permit and preferred to seize the Brooklyn Bridge while it was being used by traffic. While a police video clearly shows the protesters were told they would be arrested if they moved onto the bridge, their supporters are complaining long and loud about the mean old police officers. “Our bridge,” they chanted. It’s our bridge, too, they discovered.
The protest began with no stated goals, no public spokespeople and many of the most ridiculous attendees you could imagine – socialists, Code Pinkers, anarchists and more. (Anarchists are notoriously poor organizers.) Their slogans (they have many) include: “We are the 99 percent” and “This is what democracy looks like.”
First off, no they are not the 99 percent. They are a very tiny piece of it, many of whom hate capitalism and want to see it overturned. You know, that system that helped make this country great and provided the wealth they now loathe. That’s why a bunch of the protesters repeatedly interrupted an art auction at Sotheby’s. It’s even easier to mock the other slogan as “This is what democracy smells like,” or as one person on Twitter said, “This is what hypocrisy looks like.”
That’s the kind of criticism they bring on themselves. The group’s live video feed, which is often not live, is headlined “Global Revolution.” They can’t use megaphones (illegal), so they embrace “the people’s microphone” where the crowd repeats each line a speaker says. It brings to mind laughable socialism such as actor John Candy in “Volunteers” discussing “the people’s truck” filled with “the people’s gas.” Annie Day, one of the arrested protesters, told The New York Times her profession: “I’m a revolutionary.” The headline of their protest paper, The Occupied Wall Street Journal, is “THE REVOLUTION BEGINS AT HOME.”
Not exactly how to sell a movement to ordinary, taxpaying Americans, but demonstrators don’t really care. Remember, this is a global effort. Many protesters aren’t even American or despise American exceptionalism. But they have the force of propaganda on their side to push a typical liberal agenda and the media are throwing support behind them as well.
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