Every year, thousands of boy and girl scouts head out into the wild and set up camp sites. They even do so on a scale of thousands when they have Jamborees. Even more impressively, the vast majority of the people organizing and doing the work are just teenagers. We see the same level of impressive self-organization when natural disasters hit. Strangers instantly come together to pool limited resources and help each other out. Within hours, they can create a physically safe and emotionally supportive ad hoc community while they wait for outside help to arrive.
Given all that, just how pathetic is it that the various “Occupy” mobs can’t even come close to providing the same level of effective self-organization in their little campground cum shantytowns? Even the most trivial decisions take hours of protracted debate that often end without deciding on an action. The “Occupiers” in many cities have rioted, attacking random individuals and destroying businesses large and small. Almost all of the sites nationwide are plagued internally by violence and theft. The New York Occupy campground has even had to establish a women’s only tent to prevent rapes.
Do these pathetic, immature, egocentric twits actually expect the rest of us to allow them to influence any major public policy? When people are losing jobs and homes and entire communities and even states are sliding into bankruptcy, why would we turn to such overt incompetents for leadership? If they can’t manage a campground or honestly manage 500,000 donated dollars, why would we think they can manage a city government or regulate a bank?
It might be one thing if the Occupiers had some original or insightful ideas. People advancing novel ideas have to be given the leeway to fail. But all the ideas the Occupiers put forward are at best ’60s retreads. All these ideas have been tried and they have failed. Like the rest of the world-wide Left which hasn’t had an original idea in 40+ years, the Occupiers are political reactionaries seeking to return to ’60s, the last time they had any influence. Why should we give the Occupiers any leeway for repeating stupidity?
The Occupiers offer nothing new and they can’t even manage themselves. They and their supporters are pathetically delusional if they think they were, are or will ever be significant or influential decision-makers. They are the spoiled children of privilege whose acting out the middle-class tolerates precisely because the middle-class knows they are impotent children. The moment their disruptions grow too large or go on too long, the middle-class adults will show up and send everyone home.
I think playtime’s gone on long enough, don’t you?
When it all started I had sympathy for some of them. But when the chanting and Mic-check bullsh1t started, I was done.
I retain my sympathy for the bulk of them. They have fallen into the hands of hardcore leftists, who have nothing of value to offer.
The movement itself barely qualifies as a “movement”. It has no agenda, no goals, only grievances, and those are a mixed bag, some real, some imaginary.
How it will play out remains to be seen.
Outreach to the people who are salvageable is still possible.
The theory of the Occupy movements is parallel to general Liberal theory.
Motto: “The current policy implementation has many problems, with obvious flaws and even crimes. But, the intention is good and deserves more support. These problems will disappear and great good will emerge with 10 times the funding and the support of us all.”
Fear and Envy from Captain Neptunus Lex.
About 3 weeks ago, I discussed just this situation on another thread; although I was off on the time line. I guessed 2 weeks. But the hardcore Leftists have the advantage in the conversion process. They are consistent and relentless in the world view that they want the group to adopt. And they have the message and information available to that group functionally under their control on their sites. The longer it lasts, the more that they control the ideas and actions of the Occupiers.
We are seeing the race between “Lord of the Flies” syndrome and the outbreaks of guided violence. In the #Occupy sites we have seen increasing thefts, violence [including not only the rapes mentioned, but multiple instances of sexual assaults, pimping, and sexual assaults on children], Child Welfare authorities intervening to protect children living there, and multiple drug violations. At #OccupyVancouver in BC, they have had the first death; presumed but not yet confirmed as by drug overdose, with another confirmed overdose that wasn’t fatal yesterday.
#OccupyOakland’s riot downtown and attack on the Port of Oakland was guided by that Leftist cadre and not a spontaneous outburst. And every day, and every similar act [and the many smaller ones throughout the movement on a daily basis] makes those not of the cadre into supporters and accessories. And I note that these smaller occurrences are getting more frequent, including attempts to mob private conservative gatherings on private property and assaulting individuals. These latter are getting support and are joined by union members. This is not accidental.
Once again, I posit that the deliberate appeasement on the government level has done nothing but embolden the cadre. There is now a sense of entitlement in reference to violence against outsiders, and it will make bringing it to a non-violent conclusion all but impossible.
This is not something that I look forward to. But it is what I see coming.
Subotai Bahadur
Just cut off their food and water
Lexington Green Says:
I retain my sympathy for the bulk of them.
I have some sympathy, What I don’t have is respect for their judgment. These aren’t people who can be trusted with any responsibility. They are not the people who will shape the world in the 21st century.
“They are not the people who will shape the world in the 21st century.”
Too early to say in the case of people who are 21 or 22 years old. Many of them are capable of learning. Growing ip being fed a bunch of platitudes, doing what their parents and teachers said and finding it does not work, starting in life facing a crisis of unemployability, then participating in a futile and counterproductive protest movement, in most cases with good intentions, though ignorantly, a failure they are seeing and living through up close and personal, all this may help get the smarter ones pointed in a better direction, and help the best of them develop better judgment.
These people are just getting started. It is way too early to say where they will end up.
They all want to be in charge, but none of them will accept responsibility.
Pathetic.
We have come to this.
Shannon,
It never occurred to me to compare the skills I learned in Scouting to the behavior of the Occupiers, but your observation is spot on.
I would estimate that I had better skills for living outdoors in a self-managing community by the time I was in seventh grade than these college graduate “adults”.
I’d sure like to see how they would handle themselves if they had to protect their food from bears at night like we did.
And not withstanding Lex’s experience in Chicago, it’s pretty clear from this clip that at least a plurality of the New York protester are delusional, doctrinaire, infantile morons. Colbert is master of the cheap shot and non sequiter, but all he had to do with this pair was play along.
It’s like listening to kindergarteners from some 60’s experimental progressive school. the natural response of any sane adult is, “What the hell have they been teaching these kids?” Realize that these two were the best that this movement could come up with to represent itself on national TV. Either they really are the brightest of the group, or the decision making process (if you can call it that) is broken beyond all recognition. Either way, I wouldn’t trust them with sharp objects, much less control of banking regulations.
I also have a sort of sympathy for them, though. I challenge anybody to become that stupid at that age without an awful lot of help.
“He can’t even run his own life,
I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine”
— Sunshine by Jonathan Edwards
I was reminded somehow.
If we had simply machine-gunned the hippies and rioters of the 1960s, we’d have saved ourselves forty-plus years of grief. Dare we risk a repeat of history?
“Nip it, nip it, nip it!”
Franco knew how to handle this kind of trash.
Setbit makes a pretty good point. It very well could be that these are lost souls.
One other point, rather than standing around and accomplishing nothing but a few good beats on plastic buckets, these kids could be actually flipping burgers, or making resumes, and hustling (figuratively, not literally) like I had to do when I was that age. But wtf do I know.
As an organizer and chairman of our local scout pancake breakfast in the late 80’s I know organizing for a GOOD cause. Being the custodian of what was a thirty-year Boy Scout tradition was an awesome responsibility for me.
We had six gas fired flat iron grills where dads made pancakes as the boys stirred batter with boat oars in 50 gallon caldrons in the back room of the Homewood IL town auditorium.
Was I was a community organizer, since we sold over 5,000 tickets and served pancakes and sausage links to at least 3,000 hungry folks during my three year tenure? We even had major politicians show up.
I specifically recall Dick Phelan, when running for US Senate (or governor, I can’t recall) from Illinois, arrived with Chicago media cameras in tow creating one of his photo ops. We made the Chicago nightly news. Dick wanted to be photographed cooking some pancakes but I said no.
Dick Phelean? Or was it Dick Failin’? He failed to win but became a top partner at Foley & Lardner in Chicago. Fuggin’ lawyers.