Who would of thought... (1 Viewer)

Erik

If u don't know the poetry u don't know Bukowski
Founding member
Who would have thought something like this would happen under Obama...
 
You can't blame this on Obama. I'm from California, and our friend Ronald Reagan ("You've seen one redwood tree you've seen them all") started this general approach to student rebellion way back in the Sixties when the helicopters flew over Berkeley shooting tear gas. There's an article in today's NY Times by Robert Hass and he describes his wife being pushed to the ground and himself being beaten by police with billy clubs at a protest at the Berkeley campus recently.
 
I'm not a friend of police and University police are worse than the rest of them as those with a little power can often have larger egos. You see this problem in supervisors who quickly get drunk with their little power.

What people need to start doing is getting good photos of all these cops and identifying them. Put their names and home addresses on the internet. Make them afraid to do the wrong thing for fear of physical retribution against them and those that they love. Imagine the news story once the first cop had a brick thrown through the window of his house. You would find far fewer cops willing to do things that would garner outrage. People need to shame them and scare them into doing the right thing. Clearly they do not get it otherwise.

Bill
 
Yeah. Guess the next step will be forbidding people filming the police....
j3ae5_0_620x414.jpg

Why This Is The Most Iconic Image Of Occupy Movement ... So Far
 
oakland police recently used a rifle to shoot a guy in the leg with a rubber bullet just for filming the police. nevermind that the right to film police has been upheld as legal by the supreme court numerous times, they still shot him just to do it. OPD is conducting an "internal review" - like they always do, they'll slide him 100K for his troubles and go on being violent, corrupt bastards.
 
I sure hope that I'm wrong, but I have this feeling of de ja vu...and Kent State keeps coming to my mind. Lets hope history dosen"t repeat itself.
 
This is what happens when anyone refuses to see those they disagree with as both equal and human. It's the logical extension/conclusion of our inability to rationally discuss the things we don't agree on. Because if the cops think that they are part of the wealthiest 1%, or that a bunch of seated children are a threat to them somehow...well, they're so misguided that I don't see a way back.
 
"Occupy" will fail because they have no leader, no message (for more than two months they've been camped out around city hall here in Los Angeles and I still have no idea what they want) and no guns. Or at least not enough guns. You might think the guns part is a joke, but I've checked the history books and can't find one instance of a revolution being won with drum circles.

The youth in this country have no political power, so they will always be considered politically insignificant. And political insignificance means they are not equal in the eyes of established power. By the time one generation gains power (see: hippies) they have become the establishment, and all their ideals go out the window when the American Express card shows up in the mail.

So revolution, while sorely needed, seems unlikely.
 
Things are going to get worse, and people will get an agenda rather than just protest against what they don't like, and then things will change. That's as optimistic as I get.
 
Things are going to get worse, and people will get an agenda rather than just protest against what they don't like, and then things will change. That's as optimistic as I get.

I agree. An agenda will emerge. It's mixed in there somewhere already. They need to lose the "right to camp in city parks" issue and focus on the real problem: capitalist bastards sucking the life out of everything. Rich pricks owning congress. It will get more violent. Some protesters will get killed, and the movement will radicalize. They'll get guns, and it will erupt into all out civil war. If it comes down to cops and military vs pissed off Americans with guns, the cops and military are greatly outnumbered, although they have the better hardware. Guerrilla warfare in American cities?
 
the tea party has provided a blueprint for how this is going to go - a bunch of people get together with some vague ideas (less taxes! less spending! small government!) and if they get loud enough, a bunch of politicians try to capitalize on that emotion and get elected to office, at which point they get swept up in the system and become as ineffectual as any other politician. it would be great if a bunch of politicians associated with the occupy movement got elected to congress, if only because they would also probably stem the tide of socially conservative legislation, but in the bigger picture, it's not like they would change anything.

also keep in mind how far this country has shifted to the right since the last time mass protests had any effect (like during the civil rights movement). for any real change to happen, it required an extremely activist supreme court, since elected officials weren't going to do dick about it on their own. in today's politicized court, everyone is so terrified of appearing to be an activist that the same decisions would never happen. not to mention the fact that this court is presided over by an arch conservative who will probably be on the bench for another 30-40 years at least.
 
the tea party has provided a blueprint for how this is going to go...
The "tea party" is primarily older people who politicians fear because they actually vote. No politician fears "occupy" because it's made up of a traditionally non-voting demographic. Occupy will fail for the same reason the Vietnam protests failed, because the politicians don't give a damn what younger people are angry about. They fear 10,000 tea baggers much more than they fear 10 million raggedy campers in their 20s. The people in their 20s do not run the big companies that pay the politician's bills. That is where the politician's loyalties have always, and will always, lie.

What occupy needs are a few dozen martyrs. Until blood is shed they won't get anyone to care. But who wants to die in protest of a corrupt financial system? It isn't very sexy. Not like dying for freedom or equality or over a war. A dozen trustafarians getting a faceful of pepper spray is hardly Kent State. The people who draw parallels between the two incidents have rocks in their heads. Dumb rocks. (Not to mention the fact that Kent State did not end the Vietnam war - it took revolution in the ranks of the front line soldiers to put an end to it.)

This occupy shit is a blip, and like a blip it will soon be long gone. I hope they prove me wrong, but history and cold reality are firmly on the side of failure here.
 
Didn't Obama pull in a lot of "young" votes in his last presidential campaign via the social media?
I thought the under-30 vote was substantial for him last time...
I doubt the next candidates can afford to ignore them.
 
Everyone can feel free to ignore the under 30 vote next time. They voted form Obama in good numbers, but many of them lost interest as soon as Obama did not rip his shirt off exposing the large S on his chest.

Even if they vote for them again, they would never do anything dramatic or risky like overthrowing the government.

Bill
 
I don't see Occupy finding (or trying to find) a solution through the vote. More likely, a bunch of people (not just young), getting really pissed off, and believing they are fighting for their survival, and tearing down the system basically. I guess I see it evolving into civil war, and not a political movement. The masses realizing the bankers have them by the balls, and being hungry and homeless, and saying "fuck this shit" and going after the causes of their misery. It could become dangerous to be rich and powerful, if millions want you dead and are actively going after your ass. The big question is, what does it take to make that many people that angry, and for them to stay angry? Pepper spray won't do it.
 
That sounds a bit nuts. What was I thinking? To clarify: I'm not saying I want it to happen like that, or that I actually think it will happen that way, just that it seems like a possibility that things will get ugly. In all likelihood, the Occupy movement will peter out, or get co-oped by the usual suspects. The system has been rigged since day one, and will stay rigged, short an all out revolution.
 
Someone will start selling trademarked OCCUPY t-shirts, hats, etc and will make millions off it. They'll ruin it the way that Volkswagen ruined Punk.

Bill
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top