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I go to Zuccotti Park
Sunday was beautiful in NYC. Indian summer. I went to the OWS protest. Some observations and some pictures.
Zuccotti park is where the action is contained. This is a miserable excuse for a park. It’s about the size of a football field. Not a blade of grass to be found. As you will see from the pics, this place is already jammed. The limited space may prove to be an issue for this demonstration. You can’t get more than a few thousand in this cramped area.
The park is sandwiched between Broadway and Church. It’s bounded by Liberty St (and some other street I forgot the name of). On one side is the Brown Brothers Harriman Building (talk about white spats).
On the other is the rapidly rising world trade building.
The cops have the place surrounded. But it was very clear that these policemen were not looking for trouble. Two blocks away, I found where the police had set up a command post. I suspect the guys with the helmets were resting over there.
Congressman Eric Cantor made a foolish remark over the weekend. He referred to the happenings in lower Manhattan as a “Mob Scene”. Cantor’s an ass. He has no clue what is going on. This was just a dumb sound bite. He will regret it.
There was no mob. There were no professional provocateurs. There was festive attitude. There was no anarchy.
The following pictures are the scenes that I saw. Look at the people in the background; you will not see anything threatening at all.
There was some attempt to bring order. A library, medical area, kitchen, a media center, legal aid and even a store for “essentials”:
Some people were painting signs:
Others were just painting people:
Wherever you looked there were signs. Just a few of the many:
There was one sign that caught my eye. I’m willing to bet it has also caught the eye of the FBI.
I left the area thinking that this very small group of people couldn’t possibly make much of a difference. It’s a rag tag demonstration. More a party than a serious effort to change the financial system. But as I walked north I thought of a different time in history. One that I participated in. To me, there was a very similar feeling in Zuccotti Park in 2011 to what existed in San Francisco in 1967.
The 1967 Summer of Love was a period where social/political changes began. The allure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll were very powerful magnets for this 17 year old.
I crossed the country and spent a few memorable months in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury District.
I slept in a crash pad. I went to the Fillmore West and watched Jim Morrison of the Doors sing “Light My Fire” till sun came up. And yes, there were drugs. And yes there was “Free Love” in the park. And yes, it was a hell of a party. And yes, there was not much relevance to the whole thing.
But three years later a million people marched on D.C. and it altered the outcome of a war. It also tore the country inside out. It would be a big mistake to dismiss what is going on in Zuccotti Park. Whatever is happening there, it's not going to go away. It’s going to get bigger.
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There's a qualitative moral difference between the average members of the two parties. One group worships the state and one worships the individual. Neither is the right approach, but one is the gateway to the worst evils ever done, from warfare to genocide to endless inter-generational tax slavery. The thinking that lauds the individual over the state can be a threat to you, but not like the other thinking. The necessary corollary to this history of evil is an almost demonic hubris; they will get it right this time, without all the corpses. The capstone is their utter rejection of any higher morality from a higher source: they will be bound by nothing more than conscience and convention, both of which are willfully ignored.
"...demonic hubris..."
http://www.amazon.com/Fatal-Conceit-Errors-Socialism-Collected/dp/022632...
This isn't about socialism. It's "fuck ideological divides, we all hate the current system. We may have different views on "what to do instead of it", but there are no conflicts about getting rid of cleptocracy."
Since you prefer the cleptocracy, over getting rid of it together with people who may have different visions, i can only say:
Go. Fuck. Yourself.
Regardless of if MY prefered vision is implemented or not, i prefer any noncorrupted system over the current one.
My integer vision > other's integer vision > current crapocracy.
But i guess, for some there is only "my way, or the shitway".
1st, let me just say that I have been here longer than you, Buckaroo. I have no idea where you came from, but you don't seem to have learned much during your time here.
2nd, are there any FACTS you care to discuss, debate, challenge, contribute, etc., or are you just a drive-by fucknut, to borrow your cute little phrase?
I don't waste time debating with socialist/communists. If you're not one of those, then my apologies for getting the wrong impression from your post.
Thanks for affirming my point. No facts, just partisan opinions. That your investment strategy, too?
Yeah.
Unregulated capitalism has served us so very well...
Oh for christssake we don't have "unregulated capitalism", we have corporatism/statism/crony-capitalism -- whatever you want to call it but it sure as hell isn't a free market. I suppose your solution is to give the corrupt degenerates in DC even more power over everything? Yeah that'll work out well.
Free Market. Um-huh.
Fair Trade I could get behind... not free trade as it works now.
Business, business, business. Is this what life is for? Is accumulation of money the be-all and end-all? Has our busines activity generally improved or promoted the ability for life to thrive on earth? Has the short-sighted bottom line mentality of profit enobled the human race at all? Has the introduction of artificially produced chemical and radiological compounds into the ecosystem improved the ecosystem?
To regulate business with a view to its impact on the ecosystem and society over many, many years into the future is regulation sorely needed.
To remove the ability of business to negatively impact land, air and water and to forbid frankenscience-like manipulation of the genetic codes of plants and animals seems prudent - no?
Forbid corporate personhood.
No lobbyists - ever again.
No executive orders.
No secrecy in government which is not absolutely necessary.
Citizen control of the military.
Forbid any military action other than for the defense of our own lands and vessels or for disaster relief.
Paper votes counted at each polling place.
Release from prison all non violent "criminals and replace them with poloitical and business persons who have caused harm to the people and planet.
Whatever activity subjects one person to have a lower quality life experience to enrich another person should be forbidden. Every working person should be able to provide for his/herself food, shelter, health care and some time for spiritual/recreational pursuits. All workers should have an interest in the company they work in. Business decisions made solely for the enrichment of owners, management and shareholders should be forbidden. If a business does not improve the quality of life for the beings on earth and the society, it should not exist.
Consumption of energy and resources by all persons should be limited (voluntarily I would hope) to reasonable and sustainable levels projected far into the future for generations to come.
Religious institutions should be considered highly suspicious and divisive and taxed.
Lies by persons in positions of influence in politics, business, media and military should be prosecuted vigorously.
How's that?
Nostra -- There's likely nothing I can say that will change your mind. But much of what you say comes from a moral failure of people, particularly the leaders of all our major institutions (public and private), not a failure of capitalism, per se. Our leaders have become grotesquely corrupt. But these same people would also be the ones running a socialist government. What makes you think they would act any better? They'd have even more power over us than they already do. You can't bribe an honest man, and if they truly cared about the country we wouldn't be here.
When you give a government the power to do all those good things you want, they can also use that power for terrible things as well -- they become totalitarian. Today, they are corporatist/statist/crony-capitalist. In my view we should be working to limit their power, take a wrecking ball to it.
ActiveIngredient,
"In my view we should be working to limit their power, take a wrecking ball to it. "
I am absolutely in agreement with this statement.
In no way was I suggesting that more government is better (though it may have come off that way), although some sort of oversight of human impact on the environment and each other seems obviously necessary because of the inherent nature of a significant number of modern human beings' greed, avarice and self-interest. The planet has become too small for us to behave as before.
Between the dog-eat-dog capitalist system and a DEMOCRATIC socialism, I'll take the latter as in the best interest for people and planet.
In any case, this current system is broken and corrupt and needs no fix. It needs to be gone.
vse vokrug kolhoznoe – vse vokrug myoe
Translation: Everything belongs to the collective (farm) - so everything belongs to me.
Meaning: The tools and supplies that one person owns; he takes care of and is a good steward - the tools and supplies that are owned by everyone are stolen and wasted.
Fair Trade!? Fair, according to whom? The UN, WTO, IMF, or some other socialist global governance organization. LOL.
Nostra-dumbass, if you want to live your life according to your flat-earth philosophies, go right ahead, but don't drag the rest of us into your hell. I suggest you start by doing away with your computer. Don't you realize all the synthetic materials and toxic chemicals that go into the production of electronic chips?
Please, go to your cave and wipe your ass with dried leaves; but one last bit of advice, leaves of three -- let it be.
Very good start.
And let's not forget about the other demonstrations.....the demand for equal rights took to the streets first and showed the way to the anti-war movement.
Both forced radical change.
Once an honorable concept reaches critical mass, change happens.
Every flood starts with but one drop of water.
The tree of liberty is thirsty.
Put Brawndo on it. It's got what plants crave! It's got electrolytes...
Hope springs eternal. I am currently re-reading 1984 and it is even more prophetic than I remember.
I'm currently reading David Mamet's The Secret Knowledge - On the Dismantling of American Culture. A great read from a Purlitzer Prize winning author and playwright. He is also known for this article:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-03-11/news/why-i-am-no-longer-a-brain-d...
I'm pretty sure David Mamet would question Bruce's view of the the summer of love. I think he would ask Bruce: "What good came out of the summer of love?" Please name one universal good thing that was manifested by the 1967 protest rallies?
Chicks realized that hairy armpits were a turnoff.
Bam! There's one.
Haha. Same here. Planning on (re)reading several of the dystopian classics.
Seems they all got filed "under educational"
the crowd has been grossly misreported.
http://expose2.wordpress.com
Is this the right link? When I followed it all I found was some tinfoil hat anti-Muslim conspiracy theory mumbo-jumbo. Boring.
Yeah, I'm reading it for the first time, I'm just at the beginning and it makes me feel really awful...
Confirming that awful feeling ... an alternate view of OWS ... with serious documentation that the New York City Zuccotti Park OWS demonstration Bruce Krasting just visited, and is showing photos of here on ZeroHedge, is a CIA-led operation:
'Occupy Wall Street is COINTELPRO (Phony Opposition)' by Richard Evans
It seems even the same people, who worked for Nato and the CIA in the 1990s, on the streets in New York now ... Makow links to a YT vid of the Serbian Ivan Marovic of 'Otpor' leading a chant in NYC, Marovic seems to be a CIA contractor for the long haul ...
Article says the US CIA-manipulated street thing is designed to distract media from the real revolution against bankster oligarchs we have in Europe, centred in Greece.
Quote from the article:
« ... this is yet another orchestrated international 'controlled opposition' mouse trap. the 'Tea Party' is the controlled opposition trap for the convervative, this is the controlled opposition trap for the naive lefties. »
http://www.henrymakow.com/occupy_wall_street_is_cointelp.html
Wait till you get to the "contents of the Black Book" section....it's like a playbook for the globalist elite, being played out in full time. The one thing that really stood out during my re-read was the early indoctrination and propaganda program employed by Big Brother.
meant "real time" not "full time"!
You can edit your own posts until someone answers you. ;-)
Wait till you get to the part about Emanuel Goldstein's book regarding oligarchies (esp. ch 3). Book within a book, reminds me of Vonnegut.
Metafiction has a long history including the Canterbury Tales, Frankenstein, Moby Dick and Huckleberry Finn.
None older than Tristram Shandy, which will blow your mind if you read it and consider that it was one of the first two novels written in English.
Canterbury Tales predates Tristam Shandy which I never got around to reading. However, I did read Tom Jones. It's not unusual.
"Tom Jones" is one of not-very-many novels I've ever read which made me put the book down to laugh out loud. The 250-year-old English is a little challenging until you get into the swing of it, but there isn't a raunchier, funner novel out there, which parodies an entire cultural mythology.
Yeah, Tom Jones is a good one. But the guy that really cracks me up is Twain. Back in highschool a bunch of us were hanging out and this extremely sarcastic friend of mine was reading from Twain's "Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper." I've never laughed so much in my life. Here's a sample:
There still remained in the roost five Indians. The boat has passed under and is now out of their reach. Let me explain what the five did -- you would not be able to reason it out for yourself. No. 1 jumped for the boat, but fell in the water astern of it. Then No. 2 jumped for the boat, but fell in the water still further astern of it. Then No. 3 jumped for the boat, and fell a good way astern of it. Then No. 4 jumped for the boat, and fell in the water away astern. Then even No. 5 made a jump for the boat -- for he was Cooper Indian. In that matter of intellect, the difference between a Cooper Indian and the Indian that stands in front of the cigar-shop is not spacious. The scow episode is really a sublime burst of invention; but it does not thrill, because the inaccuracy of details throw a sort of air of fictitiousness and general improbability over it. This comes of Cooper's inadequacy as observer.
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html
sc: put steel into your heart.