It Is Only New To Occupy

I usually get a few comments from people about whatever it is that I’ve written on a particular day. Some agree with me, some disagree and a few think I’m an idiot. All comments are welcome because I tend to think of this blog as a forum for the exploration of ideas by discussion and debate, if not just for ranting.

Sometimes, I am pleasantly surprised by some message even when I don’t agree with it because the opinion being put forward is reasoned and respectful. Sometimes I am amazed by just how ill informed and insecure some people are about their cause or their beliefs.

Nothing I’ve written, however, riled up the natives more than the two photo essays I posted yesterday on the vandalism and violence associated with the Occupy protest.  I have received countless messages both directly here and on Twitter, as well as, by email and it is clear that on these two posts created some serious angst with more than a few Occupy supporters.

I’ve had people some Occupy supporters try to rationalize the violence or to justify the crime because corporations are criminals. I don’t mind admitting that I haven’t got a clue how anyone draws a conclusion like that. Others try to deflect it to other issues while a few flat out deny it and call me a liar. It’s ok though because I have broad shoulders and those comments say more about them than they do about me.

What does get under my skin though is the lack of any attempt to dig a little deeper to see what I am really saying. They read one post, decide they know everything that needs knowing and start their rant and some of these people are academics. If that’s what passes for true analysis and the open discussion of different ideas and opinions in our universities, students are in big trouble.

The fact is that I am not, as one yahoo put it, an apologist for corporations, banks or the 1%. I have written about banks and their constant nickel and diming of our society. I’ve criticized governments of all stripes and levels for their cynicism and their failed policies and I have spoken out publicly against the pepper spraying of students at the University of California, Berkley Campus, which I thought was a travesty. As for being a dupe of Fox News (yes, some idiot accused me of that too), I don’t even watch Fox TV. I consider them to be as extreme as some Occupy protesters and it is extremism and an unwillingness to listen to any point of view beyond our own that is killing our freedom.

It polarizes us into camps and all that does is impedes our ability as a society to address real issues and move forward.

I supported, for example, the Bank Transfer Day. I thought it was a smart way to protest banks that treat their customers like nothing more than conduits for greater profit while reducing services. Occupy likes to take credit for Bank Transfer Day but in fact, it had already started two months earlier but I do credit Occupy for promoting it and encouraging it. That was effective and useful protest.

When I contrast that with the violence in Oakland, Portland, San Francisco where a woman jumped out of protest march to slash a police officer with a razor knife or the violence in New York on The National Day of Action where even school children were harassed, I scratch my head.

Every act of vandalism, every crime and the violence of some in this protest has turned the public away from Occupy and its message.  Every action like Bank Transfer Day has drawn support from that same broader public. The reason is simple and it is a wonder more in Occupy don’t get it. One is constructive in achieving real objectives; one is mindless destruction that achieves nothing and in the end only serves to distract from the real issues and undermine the credibility of the movement.

We’ve seen this before. Flash mobs are just the new term for Goon Squads  and are nothing more than an attempt to intimidate others. It was a preferred tactic of extremists dating back before the SA Brownshirts in pre-war Germany. The constant blaring of unproven allegations against any group that anyone within the movement may have has always worn thin eventually and caused that movement to collapse under the weight of its own rhetoric and lost credibility.

Occupy wonders why people like me are so opposed to them and the answer is simple. I remember the violence of too many of these movements from the past.

I remember Watts. I remember Detroit and Chicago in the 60’s I remember the deaths of four college students at Kent State. I remember the violence across England earlier this year over student tuition fees and the violence in Vancouver over a hockey game. I remember the G8/G20 in Seattle in 1999 and again in Toronto two years ago. I remember how many were hurt, how much damage was done and how little was accomplished.

While some in Occupy prefer to make this personal and attack me for my criticism, the simple fact is that I am not blinded by ideology nor am I against the right to protest. I even agree with some of the underlying issues but I cannot and will not support the mindless violence and stupidities of the past that are being replayed today. All of this may be new to some in Occupy but it isn’t to most of us.

We’ve seen it all before and we’ve seen what it accomplished. It divided us. It hurt too many and damaged too much and in the end, it accomplished nothing.

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