Rationalizing Chaos

"Warning: do not confuse the complexity of this movement for chaos" -Occupy Toronto.

Most of us can’t get through the day without one rationalization or more. It’s how we sometimes deal with unpleasant truths in our lives. For Occupy, rationalization is how they justify everything that contradicts their self-image. Occupy would rather rationalize the contradiction than objectively analyze it and then do something to correct it. Any admission of a need for change is seen as an admission that they may not always be right.

Their concept of democracy is a case in point.

In Occupy, democracy is a word that is bandied about daily. Freedom of speech for all is their creed and the right to peacefully assemble to protest their catechism. In their general assemblies all are permitted to speak and all are permitted to use their various social networking accounts, regardless of how confusing the messaging becomes.

On the surface, that seems very noble and idealistic but it not only doesn’t work, it isn’t true. In Occupy general assemblies, any one person can block another from continuing to speak with a simple hand signal. Occupy does not see this as an infringement on the freedom of speech of the person blocked. It rationalizes this by supporting the other person’s right to freedom of not hearing (although I don’t actually recall seeing that enshrined in any constitutions or charters of rights).

This has allowed Occupy to rationalize away anti-Semitic statements issued through its social media network, permitted individuals to voice opinions supporting violence, criminality, anarchy and issues not originally part of the Occupy agenda. By attempting to respect everyone's right to free speech, it has traded away something  more important; it has traded away a consistent set of values. It has traded defence of a value system for rationalizing contradiction.

Many Occupy groups have flash mobbed the meetings and events of others including a Board of Education meeting New York and a breakfast meeting in Chicago where they shouted down speakers, denying them their right to freedom of speech. Occupy rationalizes this as exercising their right to protest which apparently supersedes the right to free speech when it pleases Occupy.

Democracy is a complex, sometimes messy business which requires patience and more than just a little bit of respect to make it work. Occupy has come to the conclusion that respect is a one-way street and that it is only their rights which must be respected.The rights of the 1% have become almost as meaningless as the rights of the 99% Occupy claims to represent.

The same rationalization principle has been brought to justify Occupy’s ongoing encampments in cities across North America. They are not unaware of the growing resentment by most of the citizens in those cities nor are the unaware of the escalating cost they are to those cities. In fact they take some delight in the sense of empowerment it gives them but they always rationalize it as being peaceful assembly on behalf of the people. The fact that the majority of the 99% look on the tactics employed by Occupy camps as an infringement of their rights is completely irrelevant to the Occupy agenda. They are too busy rationalizing their protest to concern themselves with the broader community to whom they look for free food and supplies.

Occupy has successfully rationalized away incredible things like shootings, rapes, illegal drug use, theft and physical assaults in its camps. It has rationalized away begging as a legitimate way to live one’s life and it has rationalized the theft of municipal services like electricity and water in many cities as a human right or at least somehow connected to their right to assemble. It has rationalized away its violation of city ordinances. It has even found ways to rationalize the vandalism and violence its protest has caused in some cities, including injuries to others by its members, simply by blaming it on outside agitators who infiltrated their ranks.

But until now, Occupy has had some difficulty addressing the simple reality that they were a protest without leadership or without defined objectives.

It appears, however, they have found a solution to rationalize that away as they have with everything else and we are warned not confuse complexity with chaos. I would suggest most of us have not.

There is a difference between rationalization and rational thought. While Occupy is rationalizing its chaotic approach to its movement, most of us have applied some rational thought and see Occupy for what it is; a rag tag mob of self-indulgent and ill-informed people playing revolution. They are a motley collection of vagrants, anarchists, agitators, union supporters, radicals, common street criminals and idealists without enough knowledge or experience to understand the issues or their true cause.

It is a pointless exercise that has wasted millions of dollars across North America in garbage collection, police services, stolen city services, and damage to public and private property. Occupy has accomplished nothing other than to demonstrate clearly that most city mayors lack the courage to enforce their own by laws and municipal ordinances.

I support the right to legitimate protest and am angry about some the issues that Occupy originally raised but this mob of self-absorbed thugs isn’t the solution, it isn’t even a solution. It is a protest without purpose, it is a movement without objectives, and it is a community without leadership. It is self-aggrandizing chaos and no matter how much those in Occupy might wish to rationalize that away, the simple truth is that chaos is chaos. 

Life is complex, Occupy is not. It is just chaos pretending to be something it lacks the ability and the integrity to accomplish.

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