Saturday, November 5, 2011

"The Other 99%" From EasyReader: Response

I appreciate Mr. Pinzler's reasoned response to the Occupy Everywhere Movements sprouting, or rather bursting forth across the globe.

I agree that there is a lot of blame that needs to be owned by individuals, not by big banks or corporate raiders.

I am glad to read someone chiding the average Joe in the street. If more people voted, if more people participated in the civil apparatus of government, then more politicians would be responsive to the people.

Yet I do not presume to believe that the 995 can decide anything fairly. Nor is there any merit in attacking "the establishment" as the source of opposition to widespread unrest. The same meandering attacks on people, places, and things will not effect any change for the better for the man in the street trying to do more than just get by.

Nations by virtue of their existence have the right and necessity to maintain order in the face of growing, violent public protest. I am persuaded, though not comforted, by the comparison between the current movements occupying the public square being and the anti-War riots of 1968. Both hordes were composed of young, entitled people who felt justified, called to rebel against authority. Many of the older protesters in the Occupy Everywhere movement are overblown, outgrown flower children who want to make the world one big love fest. Yet the violence that ensues in the absence of respect for authority is crushing this wilted dream once again, just as occurred in the riots of 1968, all the way to the Chicago Democratic Convention.

Rebellion against the status quo is not enough. Protesters have to protest a specific problem and offer a specific solution, or disband with all deliberate speed from the public square, which belongs to all of us, not just the limited number claiming to represent us.

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