Occupy Chicago is going on near my office.
I could hear them chanting this afternoon.
It sounded like standard issue chanting, which we have all the time in Chicago in decent weather.
These activities sound interesting:
7:00pm General Assembly (Congress/Michigan in front of Horse Statue)
9:00pm Occupation/Police Legal Training (Congress/Michigan Horse Statue)
I plan to walk over to check it out.
Who knows?
If it turns into something big I can say in the decades to come that I was at one of the earliest Occupy events.
Well, I think I can predict the main chant: “Hey hey! Ho Ho! (XXXXXX) has got to go!
Someone from the 60s should be getting royalties…..
Let’s hope they do Phase IV planning.
I am going with a totally open mind. I will try to be fair to these people. I am assuming good intentions on the part of most of them.
Looking at the website I had to chuckle at 9-12 “civil disobedience training”. Apparently there’s a curriculum for learning to be disobedient.
I think you’re going there with the right mindset Lex. There’s validity to some of their gripes, most notably the evils of crony capitalism and socializing losses. I also think the Republican candidates need to be quite cautious on how they handle this. They run the risk of turning off some Independents.
Regards
Jason, from what I have read and seen, the concerns about crony capitalism are pretty naive. On the student loan issue, I could see a proposal to force universities to accept some of the losses from bankruptcy discharges. Frankly I see no purpose in student loans other than for degrees in science and math. These originated as “National Defense Student Loans,” and when I first applied for one in 1960, I was turned down as pre-med was not considered a valuable (and eligible) major. I then walked around the block and came into the student aid office by another door. When asked my major, I replied “English Literature” and was accepted. True story.
Anon – the biggest chant at the “protests” here in Madison was “hey hey, ho ho Scott Walker has got to go”, as well as “tell me what democracy looks like – this is what democracy looks like” repeat 10000000000000000000 times. So stupid and boring.
Lex – open minded or not I think you will be dissapointed as I was here in Madison. I think a lot of the guys go to this stuff to get laid and most of the people there don’t have real jobs or they would have been at work being productive. I know I would have gone to something like this for the chicks, were I a young kid in college, but that is how I rolled.
I teach high school in Virginia, 150 miles from D.C. One of my students was in D.C. over the weekend and passed the protest. She told her mom she thought they were really interesting and she’d like to join the demo. (She’s only 16, which is a pretty good excuse.) All her mom said was “roll down your window”. Result, as reported by the girl in class today: “OH MY GOD! THEY STANK SOOOO BAD!! IT WAS HORRIBLE!!!”. I resisted the urge to say “Good move, X’s mom”, at least out loud.
Does anyone else find the OWS demonstrations vaguely reminiscent of the Two Minute Hate in Orwell’s 1984? Channeling of emotional response to the frustrations of the people away from the regime and onto another more politically advantageous target? Eerie…
I hope you weren’t like that guy defecating on a police car at the Wall St event ;-) Making friends and winning the public over…
I will have to say, in all seriousness (nowe that I have my hope PC running again with a new power supply – but typical Windows BS – no sound yet – ) – your going to the event (was that you I read this afternoon) should be commended.
Reminds me years ago when I used to carpool to work with a Belgian woman – typical European “Greenie” – thought NATO was bad – Reagan was awful – well, we talked over the miles and she had to conceded some of my points and I could see some of hers.
Not enough of that going on today…
Bill, I did no public defecating. That is not my style of protesting.
I am glad I went, too.
Freedom is messy.
Fingers crossed something good comes of it.