An Occupy Wall Street (Boston) person whines that his movement has become “fascist”.
I’d be more impressed with this supposed epiphany if people like that didn’t define “fascist” as, “someone who told me no.”
The Occupiers are not naive, idealistic, children. They do not act out of a desire for the greater good. They act out of megalomania. They see themselves as some kind of Nietzschean supermen whose superhuman political insight and moral superiority mean they don’t have to follow the same rules as anyone else.
They’re special and get to occupy public property for their sole use. They’re special and get to violate the property and movement rights of others. They’re special and get to cost other people their jobs and livelihood without consequence. They’re special and nobody else has the moral right to restrain them in any way or refuse their dictates. It follows that no one has the moral authority to tell them “no”. Anyone who does tell them “no” is axiomatically evil and the worst kind of evil at that, i.e., fascist.
That includes their fellow ideologues.
Communists and fascists were driven by a similar self-righteous arrogance but both philosophies held that in the grand scheme of things, individuals were unimportant.
The great majority of communists and fascists were perversely proud that they would voluntarily submerge their individuality into an anonymous mass and blindly follow leaders that impersonal “historical forces” had put in charge. The willingness of front-line communists and fascists to suppress their egos and follow commands gave communist and fascist movements their deadly power.
The rest of us should be grateful that these OWS jerks are so individually arrogant and egocentric that they immediately turn fratricidal in groups of six or more. Any group that has a “committee” of 60+ people taking four hours to discuss where to put a single Porta-Potty isn’t much of a threat to the rest of us.
The Tea Party by contrast represents the type of decentralized, bottom-up organization that the OWS types fantasize they have. The Tea Party is grounded in the great American tradition of ad hoc teamwork in which people from a wide variety of backgrounds and beliefs spontaneously join together to perform a specific task. Nobody is too good to follow or too good to lead. Each individual leads at some times and follows at others as the task at hand requires. At no time does an individual have to submerge his or her individuality into some anonymous mass.
Unlike OWS, the people in the Tea Party do not hubristically see themselves as the template for a future utopia. As such, they have no fear that any temporary hierarchy established to organize a specific task will become the rigid class structure of all future society. In the Tea Party, everybody doesn’t have to be on top and involved in absolutely every decision.
The OWS will never have the level of individual, voluntary self-sacrifice and ego humility needed to turn it into an effective movement. If they did, then we would definitely be seeing the rise of a new fascism.
Until then, let’s encourage them to whine about the “fascists” who won’t buy them lollipops.
glenn beck pointed this out, again, monday night on the chalk board.
I suspect the purpose of thid initial round of demonstrations is to identify and test potential cadre. Each cadre-candidate has his/her own set of talents, connections and commitment. Now the movement has several thousands of new, tested and battle hardened cadre.
Also this initial round provoked conflicts and has identified response doctrine, levels ad implementation in every major city across the nation.
When the time comes, the vanguard will be ready with testted cadre to provide leadership and testted tactics to overwhelm all resistance.
They are ready for the coming elections. Hope and change is coming to a city near you.
Occupy has made an enormous blunder closing the ports on the West Coast. Soon enough, Longshoremen who are missing out on paychecks will be showing these kids with baseball bats “what democracy looks like”.
Truckers who are sitting outside (part of the 99%, no?) who are also missing out on paychecks will also not be merrily humming along.
I understand that Occupy wants to make a point, but their repeated poor planning is telling me that they really need to start employing some adults to help them with strategy. They have totally jumped the shark (actually I think they did a month or two ago).
Thank god for winter. Have fun South and West! See you in the Spring, Occupiers!
“The Occupiers are not naive, idealistic, children. They do not act out of a desire for the greater good. They act out of megalomania. They see themselves as some kind of Nietzschean supermen whose superhuman political insight and moral superiority mean they don’t have to follow the same rules as anyone else.”
Have you talked to any?
Well they sure pissed off a lot of truckers here on the Left coast – shutting down the Port of Oakland yesterday.
As a trucker said “We are the 99%.
There you go again: name calling vitriol…same tired targets….face it: Your nation is sinking fast as middle class goes bye bye .Health? Education? see stats on non-stop sinking among industrialized nations…and you want to blame this on students and their debts? homeless?defaulted home owners. Teachers? veterans?
Try another tune, dear heart. This one you use non-stop is become stale and cliche
Sol sees the outlines of things to come. This season’s occupier camps were basic training, complete with field trials, for the next year’s real goal of protest during the election campaign.
The group is a wholly owned subsidiary of the progressive wing of the dem party, and will be wheeled out whenever possible to disrupt opposing campaign events, and most certainly to skirmish with any tea party gatherings.
The media will, as always, slander the tea party and cover up for the occupiers, when any violent clashes occur, which is almost certain to be a common feature of the protests.
As for dear, little carl, well, adopt the name of a foolish, misguided man and then write a foolish, misguided comment. What a surprise.
I agree with the analysis that this is the Left [of which the Democrats are not the farthest Left] preparing the battlefield for 2012 and beyond. We are fortunate that the majority of them are not exactly prime combat-ready material; mentally, psychologically, or physically.
However, so far a primary success of the Left and the #Occupy movement has not been noted. It is now precedent, operationally and psychologically, that no crimes committed by the #Occupy movement and their allies will be dealt with by the normal legal process; at least not in urban areas, and especially in urban areas controlled by the Democrats. One of the unspoken goals of the #Occupy movement [not that they were ever very coherent about specific goals] has been the breakdown of the rule of law. They have achieved it. The Left now knows that any of their people committing “street actions” in the coming year can have a presumption of legal immunity, the active support of the MSM, and the overt and covert protection of Democrat local governments. And the average civilian knows that he and his business are outside the protection of the law.
Those “street actions” are going to increase in violence as November approaches. And actions in self-defense will face the full force of the law and the media.
Dan, your faith in the Longshoreman’s Union and the Teamsters, et. al. acting in their own interests is, I fear, misplaced. These unions, and most others, are quite willing to subordinate their own economic interests and that of their memberships to the Left’s agenda. There will be no baseball bats, nor anything akin to the construction workers in the 1960’s.
I note that the #Occupy people in Oakland said they were demonstrating in solidarity with the Longshoremen engaged in a labor dispute in Longview, Washington who are protesting the existence of modern grain loading equipment. The Longshoremen at Oakland joined them.
The only question is how long before they have their own Horst Wessel or Rosa Luxemburg?
Subotai Bahadur
LOL. Tea Party good … OWS bad. Tea Party is just good ol Americans trying to take their country back from … well I never actually figured that part out. OWS is a leftist fascist plot. Jonah Golberg wins!
Wonderful, I will enjoy your election. A small clue. What happens is, because the universe is one thing, every one gets what they deserve. A truly nasty viewpoint, I know.
What happens is, because the universe is one thing, every one gets what they deserve.
Bullshit. A string of facile assertions. One does not follow from the other.
I think a good barometer on which groups are “good” vs “bad” is anecdotal.
But the amount of trash they leave behind – is indicative of their mindset.
If you wonder who leaves the most trash – I will explain it to you ;-)
Second barometer – how much the police are needed to maintain order.
The 2 issues are related and complimentary.
Occupy never achieved coherence. The people I met were decent and had some reasonable concerns and critiques. Coopting the movement, or part of, could have been achieved if the Tea Party had figured our how to approach these people.
I have been top tea party get togethers and usually after 1000s of people there is little to no trash left on the ground. Never hear about cops breaking up any fights, rapes…
They might have been decent in your area but from what I heard about Oakland and NY….