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Art Cashin Exposes The Fracture Within The #OWS Movement
One can always rely on Art Cashin and the Friends Of The Fermentation (FoF) to provide a novel perspective on pretty much everything.
From Art Cashin of UBS
It May Be That Way In 99% Of All Places - The office of one of the regulars in the Friends of Fermentation is in a building that faces Zuccotti Park, the campground for the Occupy Wall Street crew. Being a sociable type (he’s in sales); he sometimes stops to ask someone where they are from and why they are here.
Last Wednesday, he began to chat with a young man with a tambourine who was seeking donations for the group. After a brief chat, my FoF pal told the young man - “I’m not gonna give you any money.” When asked why not, my friend replied - “‘Cause you guys screwed up the drum thing.”
The allusion was to an incident in which an anti-protester had snuck in one night and slashed the leather heads of several drums with a razor knife. The drum owners had asked the protest leaders for a portion of the donations to repair the drums. The leaders, rather publicly denied the request.
The tambourine guy tried one more time. “No”, maintained my friend, “The drum thing was stupid.”
The tambourine guy looked to his left, then to his right as if to see if anyone was near. Then he leaned in toward my pal and whispered - “I gotta admit, management here is pretty dumb. They don’t have a clue.”
Welcome to Wall Street friend, that’s a phrase you’ll hear a lot around here.
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What do you value, personally? Do you see those values manifested by the culture at large? Unless your answer to the first question was "Money and Power," then chances are your answer to the second was "no."
That's the problem. I value life. I grow things. I raise animals. I want this planet to be livable in one hundred years, in one thousands years, for humans and non humans alike.
Between two and three hundred species will go extinct today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Deserts will grow today and tomorrow, while forests are slashed and burned at a rate of acres per second. Children will be forced to labor today. By hand, African boys will dig for diamonds, or maybe just coltan for use in cell phones. They will have an AK-47 pointed at them so they do not run away.
All of this is in service of an economic paradigm that decrees more must be bought and sold this year than last year. And then more must be bought and sold next year. Infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible. The demands that industrial capitalism are placing on the ecology of the planet are insane. The demands that industrial capitalism are placing on human bodies and souls are insane.
It's time to evolve or die. It's time to resist the thoughtless sociopathy of the past, to stop worshipping at the alter of anachronisms, and to sit down with one and other, break bread, and figure out how to create a sane and sustainable future.
Got it then. This is basically a protest of humans' failures to devise a system of stasis. I'll posit that such a system is humanly impossible, given our fundamental nature of self interest. It's like telling all your cats they should evolve... doesn't work like that.
The issue has been theorized since the dawn of man... yet all the great minds before us have failed.
In the end, there will be an ak-47 pointed at the diamond mine worker under capitalism or communism. This is reality. The only difference being how many are doing the mining.
If there is one thing that the human experiment should have taught us by now, it's that central planning does not work. Despite the most noble of intentions, some planner is wrong, so other people die. But, of course, the planners always live...
In the end, until we're willing to have a centralized world government and bomb all others into submission of our environmental laws, we're... wasting our time. And, if that sort of thing is any possibility for you, then I suggest not speaking it in debate.
You can pack your bags and go home... OWS isn't going to find the fountain of youth.
I couldn't tell with all of your rhetoric... Is that a vote FOR or AGAINST a centralized world government...?
Your normalcy bias is showing thru. Any assumption of the future that posits the laws of man reign over the laws of nature is highly flawed, IMHO. Purposefully complex systems tend toward entropy. At this point, working within the make-believe mazes of men's creation is counter-productive to any sort of natural equilibrium.
I made no value statement on the matter, because that was beside the point, but I do not advocate a single world government... I think it's likely an inevitability given we have global risks and threats and communications and travel ensure we know more about one another... but not for now...
I'm not advocating that man can trump nature or defy the laws of physics... I'm simply saying we have refused to acknowledge our limitations... my response was to someone who was advocating thinking our way out of it... which necessarily presumes it's even possible... even if man is capable, we would be, as you say, at the mercy of our environment and... the laws of the universe. Even if stasis for humankind was found, it would be temporary at best given an ever changing environment... especially with dwindling energy supplies/ability to efficiently harness them. To live is to conflict.
And humans aren't unique snowflakes... if normalcy bias is making a historical account of our efforts, then fine, we can call it whatever... but them's the facts.
So...do you read posts before you respond to them? When did I advocate central planning? When did I advocate communism? And your assumptions about human nature are severely flawed, in that they ignore hundreds of thousands of years of human nature. Indigenous peoples worldwide have been able to live for thousands of years in a particular area without over consuming their land base.
At the core, this is not about human nature, but about human ego and understanding of their place. Are we here to dominate and consume until we have destroyed everything? Are we the center of all creation, just in our devouring of everything around us? Or are we just one more animal living on a planet full of animals -- and plants, and fungi, protozoa, and bacteria.
If we place ourselves at the center of all creation, with all roads leading into our bellies, we will go extinct in fairly short order. The amount of ecological damage we have done in under 200 years is beyond disturbing. All if it has been done because we believe it's OK to convert a forest into a stack of paper and cardboard, or because we think it's OK to drag nets the size of football fields across the ocean floor. All for a profit. We've put a price on the head of every living thing, including human beings, and it is repulsive.
We can stop, talk it out, think it out, and go forth humbly, re-entering cyclic living patterns of giving and taking within balance, or we can sit in our easy chairs stuffing pizza rolls and lite beer into our gullets until the soil no longer grows food and the toxicity of the water makes it completely undrinkable.
To advocate the limited use of resources and allocate them is de jure central planning...
So when I own a coal mine and you come to my door and want to tell me nicely that I should stop, what do you propose my response would be? You're necessarily advocating central control because i'll necessarily tell you to go fuck yourself...
There isn't a magic wand... all of this issues have been debated ad nauseum for centuries... if you want to return to loin cloths and spears, then that's fine... but I don't think it's gonna help us get off this mud ball before the sun burns out... nor root out inequality... nor resource depletion (easter island much?)
I'm telling you that your viewpoint is from a complete and total fantasy land... that in order for your approach to work, you're going to be calling for the deaths of billions of earth's inhabitants... and that will only buy a little time... What you're hoping for is something that collectively has NEVER happened.
At this juncture (and probably never), no one is worthy of the amount of control required for your project. You might say there's a bit of a credibility crisis at the moment.
OWS (wtf is that # sign there?) is just another lobbyist strategy to exploit the gullible.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2790976/posts
It's a Twitter hashtag.
I think that OWS needs to focus on becoming a little more mainstream, so that more people will join in. Where I live, Occupy Atlanta seems to have devolved into a rodeo where cowboy cops herd up the truely homeless. Most people don't want to get involved in that.
I too havent taken a science class since college. But my Poli-sci Minor is useful in the real world...
Every movement needs an idea to coallece around. #OWS lacks that. Just because one website in Austin lists some ideas doesnt mean it represents a mutual front.
Tea Party was pretty clear.
1) Follow Constitution
2) Smaller government
3) End runaway spending
If you can list the 3 things top down that #OWS stands for on an united front I'll shave my ass.
If your ass is so hairy that it merits shaving, then you've got bigger problems than not knowing what the protests are about.
Yep, agree. OWS lost me when the commies rolled in and took the mssage away from the FED, goldman sachs/JPM, crony capitalism, and statism. Now they're using the banks as a proxy to condemn (real) free market capitalism in general as a distraction from the FED and the massive progressive agenda failures. Not their fault things are bad, no sireee!, it's the fault of "capitalism."
Now, they're branching out and "occupying" Burger Kings, McDonald's, embassies, Port of Oakland, convention halls, burning buildings, and literally knocking 78 year-old ladies down stairs (D.C.) shouting, "this is what democracy looks like!". Unfortunately these are just practice runs and warmups for more of same. As I've seen in Latin America, this is the Latin street thug model employed by Chavez, Ortega, et al. It is now being franchised across the USA by our "community organizers".
But I have seen some very intelligent and cogent discussions by some OWS people describing the FED/GS/US Government axis and their hegemony over the electorate and correctly pointing out the structural problems of said arrangement -- but those guys are ostracized and totally marginalized by the same MSM that is cheerleading the OWS dark side emergence.
You know it can't be good thing when the MSM is pushing it hard. The MSM needs/wants $60 billion/yr taxpayers subsidies to survive and continue the propaganda. They should have to scroll that across the bottom of their screens as a disclaimer. They only get that money under a big Statist form of government.
Hopefully, you are smart enough to realize that MSM desperately wants to squash this movement. Hence, they seek out the craziest, wierdest, most off-putting individuals they can find to interview, while carefully avoiding the ones who do have a focused, reality based message.
First, the MSM tried to ignore it...then they tried to ridicule it. Now, they try to both sully the image and co-opt it at the same time.
The OWS goals are being accomplished. The average person is starting to get it. The polls reflect the turning and the realization that the super wealthy have become too powerful and must be reigned in. The greed and corruption are being called out, and there aren't many good alibi's. Identifying the problem is the first step toward fixing it. I hope OWS keeps shining the light.
the drum thing
well, at least they're greedy bastards
and maybe not communists
thxz, art! and those who party in the fermament, too!
One look at the protesters, and you realize that they don't represent the 99% at all, they represent the BOTTOM 1%....
"You are not entitled to the money that I earn!"
Occupiers are in tents and sleeping bags for protection from the weather. Lots of us have jobs and homes, but we can't bring them to the park. Please try to think.
Lucifer loves #OWS...
Lucifer loves Wall St and #OWS scares him to death.
Fixed it for you....you are welcome.