Fools on a fool's errand...
Something I said in Flaming Politics on FaceBook™, in response to a posted photo of Wall Street types sitting on a balcony watching the protesters while drinking champagne and laughing their asses off:
I'm quite well aware that there are any number of reactionary right-wingers out there who make stuff up to amuse themselves or vent whatever mindless vitriol they have stored up. Were they quoted or linked here, I would chide whoever did so with the same remark, more or less, that I made about your citing Daily Kos. I don't cite or link to right-wingers any more than I do the left. I prefer the animal instincts of my own shallow intellect to trusting the opinions of others, although I try to keep an open mind and respect their right to babble nonsense. Occasionally one finds a diamond half-buried in horseshit.
As for the champagne drinkers, I'm taking it on faith that it was real—not staged by ACORN temps acting as Democrat dirty-tricksters—and a brilliant piece of street theatre. In my wildest LSD throes, I could not have come up with a better way to mock a gaggle of loons littering the financial center of the world with their bumper-sticker mentality and the detritus of their grungy non-lives. Watching some real news coverage of this non-event, I was struck by one thing: at least when the Tea Party holds a rally, they leave the area cleaner than when they arrived. How much are the taxpayers of NYC—the little people—going to have to pay for the city to clean up those crab-infested mattresses, illiterate cardboard signs, beer bottles and crack vials? Seeing a bunch of drunken transvestites, pale kids emerging from their parents' basements for the first time in months, and lost souls who are wishing the Grateful Dead would mystically appear and channel the [liberal] goddess Iwish convinces me there's something wrong with America, but probably not in the way they intend it.
And, assuming for one moment that these hopeless mopes could contact Iwish and reduce capitalism to rubble, what value system would they offer up to replace it? They can't even pick up their own litter after their be-in; how the hell are they going to gather shattered bricks like the Germans after War II and rebuild their world when it comes crashing down on top of them? They couldn't catch a squirrel in Central Park, much less skin it, gut it, build a fire, and cook it so they'd have something to eat. They're first cousins of those WTO protesters who smash the windows out of Mickey D's, then show up an hour later for a Big Mac and fries because the exercise made them hungry and they have no clue where sustenance comes from.
I'll stick with what Winston Churchill said: “The vice of capitalism is its uneven distribution of benefits; the virtue of socialism is its equal sharing of misery.”
There’s a lot more I want to say about the “occupiers”, but this pretty much sums it up. Instead of straight-up blogging here, I find myself getting too involved with “the social network” these days, and writing cryptic mini-essays in response to stuff other people throw out there. The first comment above was written on 2 October; then, on 4 October I responded to a response:
If sitting on a lice-infested mattress complaining that life hasn't dealt you a fair hand, and begging for a handout, is your idea of what life holds for you, may you have the unadorned pleasure of it being so.
I'll stick by my initial point; these are the idiots who smash out the windows of Mickey D's, then show up an hour later wanting a Big Mac and fries because the exercise made them hungry and they have no idea of where sustenance in any form derives from.
Conservatives define a problem, identify the cause, and reverse-engineer the cause/effect until they arrive at a solution. Liberals identify a problem, define a solution, and go hell-for-leather toward an academic end that disregards humanity and reality.
"WHAT DO WE WANT?" "Er...something." "WHEN DO WE WANT IT?" "Ah...some time before the bars close."
The essence of a revolution is offering up, and fighting for, and possibly dying for, a value system you believe to be a better alternative than the existing autocracy. I agree that money should be out of politics, lobbying should be reformed or banned, and Wall St. needs a good housecleaning, but a bunch of drunken, stoned, anarchistic mooks and brainwashed college grads too proud to flip burgers before occupying a corner office in one of those skyscrapers is not a "movement"; unless you want to liken it to a bowel movement. I can eat alphabet soup and offer up better solutions.
They ought to be in De Cesspool, demonstrating in front of the Federal Reserve palace, or on the front yard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Blocking the Brooklyn Bridge with Michael Moore's fat ass isn't going to change a damn thing. (And please don't try to tell me the cops "tricked" them into boarding the bridge. I'm also a veteran of Nam protests, so I have an inkling of mob mentality. What we have today is simply the mindless class warfare that Jughead is fomenting to bolster his failed policies and imploding re-election chances.)
I'm quite well aware that there are any number of reactionary right-wingers out there who make stuff up to amuse themselves or vent whatever mindless vitriol they have stored up. Were they quoted or linked here, I would chide whoever did so with the same remark, more or less, that I made about your citing Daily Kos. I don't cite or link to right-wingers any more than I do the left. I prefer the animal instincts of my own shallow intellect to trusting the opinions of others, although I try to keep an open mind and respect their right to babble nonsense. Occasionally one finds a diamond half-buried in horseshit.
As for the champagne drinkers, I'm taking it on faith that it was real—not staged by ACORN temps acting as Democrat dirty-tricksters—and a brilliant piece of street theatre. In my wildest LSD throes, I could not have come up with a better way to mock a gaggle of loons littering the financial center of the world with their bumper-sticker mentality and the detritus of their grungy non-lives. Watching some real news coverage of this non-event, I was struck by one thing: at least when the Tea Party holds a rally, they leave the area cleaner than when they arrived. How much are the taxpayers of NYC—the little people—going to have to pay for the city to clean up those crab-infested mattresses, illiterate cardboard signs, beer bottles and crack vials? Seeing a bunch of drunken transvestites, pale kids emerging from their parents' basements for the first time in months, and lost souls who are wishing the Grateful Dead would mystically appear and channel the [liberal] goddess Iwish convinces me there's something wrong with America, but probably not in the way they intend it.
And, assuming for one moment that these hopeless mopes could contact Iwish and reduce capitalism to rubble, what value system would they offer up to replace it? They can't even pick up their own litter after their be-in; how the hell are they going to gather shattered bricks like the Germans after War II and rebuild their world when it comes crashing down on top of them? They couldn't catch a squirrel in Central Park, much less skin it, gut it, build a fire, and cook it so they'd have something to eat. They're first cousins of those WTO protesters who smash the windows out of Mickey D's, then show up an hour later for a Big Mac and fries because the exercise made them hungry and they have no clue where sustenance comes from.
I'll stick with what Winston Churchill said: “The vice of capitalism is its uneven distribution of benefits; the virtue of socialism is its equal sharing of misery.”
There’s a lot more I want to say about the “occupiers”, but this pretty much sums it up. Instead of straight-up blogging here, I find myself getting too involved with “the social network” these days, and writing cryptic mini-essays in response to stuff other people throw out there. The first comment above was written on 2 October; then, on 4 October I responded to a response:
If sitting on a lice-infested mattress complaining that life hasn't dealt you a fair hand, and begging for a handout, is your idea of what life holds for you, may you have the unadorned pleasure of it being so.
I'll stick by my initial point; these are the idiots who smash out the windows of Mickey D's, then show up an hour later wanting a Big Mac and fries because the exercise made them hungry and they have no idea of where sustenance in any form derives from.
Conservatives define a problem, identify the cause, and reverse-engineer the cause/effect until they arrive at a solution. Liberals identify a problem, define a solution, and go hell-for-leather toward an academic end that disregards humanity and reality.
"WHAT DO WE WANT?" "Er...something." "WHEN DO WE WANT IT?" "Ah...some time before the bars close."
The essence of a revolution is offering up, and fighting for, and possibly dying for, a value system you believe to be a better alternative than the existing autocracy. I agree that money should be out of politics, lobbying should be reformed or banned, and Wall St. needs a good housecleaning, but a bunch of drunken, stoned, anarchistic mooks and brainwashed college grads too proud to flip burgers before occupying a corner office in one of those skyscrapers is not a "movement"; unless you want to liken it to a bowel movement. I can eat alphabet soup and offer up better solutions.
They ought to be in De Cesspool, demonstrating in front of the Federal Reserve palace, or on the front yard of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Blocking the Brooklyn Bridge with Michael Moore's fat ass isn't going to change a damn thing. (And please don't try to tell me the cops "tricked" them into boarding the bridge. I'm also a veteran of Nam protests, so I have an inkling of mob mentality. What we have today is simply the mindless class warfare that Jughead is fomenting to bolster his failed policies and imploding re-election chances.)
posted by Robert at 5:28 PM
7 comments
