GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

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  6. Hi Bruce,
    I follow the discussion about OWS on this site with some interest. I thought you might find this an interesting read, from a small fund investment officer who visited the OWS folks recently. What was most interesting was his sense of wht is going on, and how it relates to American attitudes on the current economic crisis.

    Anarchists for good government sounded silly but it was accurate. Whilst there were people carrying placards that said “fight for socialism” that was not why any of the people I asked said they were there. They were there because the system was broken. They thought that income distribution was screwy in America and whilst they thought the Wall Street bailouts might have been necessary they found big bonuses in bailed out banks deeply offensive. And I can’t say I blame them.

    They almost universally thought that government was owned by “corporations” and uber-rich individuals who have purchased the politicians. A middle aged woman was carrying a placard wanting “no more congressional whores”. Almost universally they thought the system did not work for them but it did work for some shadowy elite.

    But if you asked them what to do about it they did not know. Some had specific ideas (one argued that the Citizens United Judgement should be overturned). Most however had no specific agenda at all – just a general feeling of malaise about the economy.

    And as a summary:

    In other words they had a view that the economy could be more fair and that their definition of fairness actually accords with a lot of other Americans. Plenty of people would agree with them.

    The Tea Party protesters in America are also animated by a feeling that the system could be more fair – as are the people who protested the Federal Reserve bank. For that matter the (very small) minority at this protest wanting “socialism” probably feel that way too. The feeling is unifying. The prescriptions as to what to do about it are not.

    And the puzzling part of this protest was that there was no consistent prescription and nobody arguing for one – so they were unified by their common feeling and not divided by their hostility to each other’s prescriptions.

    I liked the notion that there are different types of “fairness” motivating folks on either side of the ideological divide. The OWS question still remains whether “feelings” can be forged into a coherent “agenda” that can lead to constructive “action.”

  7. Yeah, this is incredibly inaccurate! Everyone knows the Occupy kids never actually stand up. They protest from inside the womb-like confines of their sleeping bag cocoons.