I was over at #OWS yesterday and I know the LI readership will be pleased to hear that the movement is still going strong. This is despite Mayor Bloomberg’s crackdown on their primitive heating system.What will be the next challenge for the organizers? After, you know, taking down the man, a worthy goal might be to lower the claims of sexual harassment in the camps. (Hey, it looks like they get “free love” the same way they get “free healthcare”… through force!)
In all seriousness, though, #OWS has become much more comical than when I first encountered it on a morning walk with my boyfriend six weeks ago. Back then, it was just a bunch of snotty looking kids with macbooks and Che t-shirts. (It was almost too easy to troll: “You know that Che was a mass murderer, right?” “Yo’ man, it’s about the message, not the means.”) Now it isn’t even ironic or silly anymore; it’s just like the scene between Brick Tamland and Ron Burgundy in Anchorman:
Brick Tamland: I love… carpet.
[pause]
Brick Tamland: I love… desk.
Ron Burgundy: Brick, are you just looking at things in the office and saying that you love them?
Brick Tamland: I love lamp.
Ron Burgundy: Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying it because you saw it?
Brick Tamland: I love lamp. I love lamp.
Except at OWS it goes like this:
Occupier: I hate… Thailand
[Pause]
Occupier: I hate… Bank of America
Patient Tourist: Are you just saying that because you ate bad Thai food and owe Bank of America a lot of money?
Occupier: I hate Wall Street.
Patient Tourist: Do you really hate Wall Street or are you just bummed that the people who work there had a government bail out and you didn’t?
Occupier: I hate Wall Street. I hate Wall Street.
It’s that nuanced. I saw signs that were: anti-vacations in Thailand, anti-BoA (fair point), anti-capitalism, Kevin Bacon, anti-Ron Paul, anti-Fed, and – of course – anti-fracking.
In sum, here is the unofficial #OWS mantra: people are bad so we need a government made out of… people.
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Comments
Thanks, Kathleen 🙂
While reading your post a light bulb went on … I’ll be an OWS protester for Halloween.
I love … Snickers. I love … chocolate peanut butter cup.
No, No, … I loathe PayDay and $100,000 bar.
LukeHandCool (whose wife is always a witch. And who always tells her … “You don’t need the costume … it’s overkill.”)
“You know that Che was a mass murderer, right?”
Che didn’t just order slaughter, he also personally killed dozens of bound prisoners with a pistol to show how tough he was, as his troops (correctly) thought he was incompetent.
When I got to the phrase “…morning walk with my boyfriend six weeks ago.” I had to scroll up to assure myself the Professor was not the author of this blog post, lol.
For the record, I think they really want to “Occupy Ganja Street.”