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 AmericaPatient 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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