Friday, February 3, 2012

This Mind is Otherwise Occupied.

"The original idealism had been compromised by these homeless people. We lost the narrative."

- Kalle Lasn complaining that the homeless people stepped on the OWS buzz in Vanity Fair article "An Oral History of Occupy Wall Street" by Max Chafkin with additional reporting by Alexandra Beggs, Mark Guiducci, Jaime Lalinde, Elizabeth Nicholas, Rebecca Sacks and Kaitlin Sanders


The seed idea for Occupy Wall Street came from the Vancouver, British Columbia-based anti-consumer, anti-capitalist publication Adbusters, co-founded and edited by a man named Kalle Lasn.

Kalle Lasn is an advertising man, you see. A Pluto in Leo advertising man. He became disenchanted with the consumer capitalist version of advertising and decided to defect, starting a publication that advertised the counter-culture instead.

The glossy, edgy, hipster-cool version of counter-culture his publication advertises makes some good points. It works with certain layers of the situation, but that's just it: it works with layers, not roots, and layers that still put way too much emphasis on money and consumer goods and the existential crisis over whether we should or should not be buying these consumer goods. These are layers that come from the perspective of the materially-privileged classes.

Getting you to buy or getting you to not buy - it's pretty close to the same thing.

And for people without expendable income, it really isn't all that much of a dilemma.

When you get down to it, Adbusters is still a form of advertising-based reality-construction, using the underlying concepts of advertising and its visual panache to promote ideology. It keeps people's minds occupied with advertising and the versions of reality that advertising is promoting, even if those versions are of the stark, edgy, graphically-stimulating, anti-consumer variety.

I fully supported the people speaking out through Occupy Wall Street, but I wasn't able to put my personal energy into the movement, and I wasn't directed to cover it on the site. When I found out the seed idea came from Adbusters, I started to get a clearer understanding of why that might be.

The movement raises some very good, crucially pertinent issues. It got people together to talk about what's really going on in the world, outside the carefully-crafted versions coming from mainstream media. It made people feel that they were doing something about the corruption, and that's important. But it didn't have the depth I needed to see in order to get really excited about it or even all that interested in it. There was an organic element and a grassroots fire that were missing, and I didn't feel it had the roots to address the issues I needed to see being addressed.

It's an interesting movement and one that fully utilizes the organizational power of the internet, but it has to be kept in context. The intense use of media - alternative, mainstream, or both - has a tendency to skew things by hyping up the broader importance of an event.

We've been protesting these issues for decades now. The World Trade Organization protests, including at the Battle in Seattle in 1999. The Free Trade Area of the Americas protests. The IMF. The G-8. The G-20. And on and on. Millions of people have protested worldwide. People know the score.

 

Hundreds of peacefully protesting people were doused with pepper spray and CS gas and were shot with rubber bullets at the Free Trade Area of the Americas protest in Quebec City in 2001, including yours truly. Police stood on one side of The Big Fence and let fly at us on the other side. That was common practise at protests in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Still lightweight considering that the bullets unleashed on protesters are real in other countries around the world - I realized that even as I was choking on the CS gas. But none of that made the news or compelled a Jon Stewart "Are we in Canada right now?" commentary.

They say you should judge a society by how it treats its most vulnerable members, and Kalle Lasn and others complaining about homeless people showing up and stepping on their "excuse me, we're changing the world" buzz was a good indication for me that this movement - at least some of the primary players - didn't really get it.

As I wrote in a previous article, those mentally ill homeless people have the most to be upset about as far as the Occupy Wall Street cause goes, and the "narrative" should have widened to include them, rather than making them pesky irritations that ruined their good time.

For a movement to have real legs, it needs to be about more than a certain segment's idealism and their cleansed version of feel-good community. It has to be about more than the middle and upper-middle classes being pissed off because the good jobs are gone and their pension funds are depleted.

If you replaced all the "good jobs" and the pension funds and the security of the hamster wheel, those people would be happy to rejoin the Pluto in Capricorn structures, but the structures would still be inherently corrupt and unjust. Most people on the planet would still be suffering, would still be poor, would still be put upon and enslaved by power structures that refuse them a dignified life.

We have an all-out war on the poor and working classes going on, and it's been going on for a long, long while. The middle and upper-middle classes are just finally being touched by it. And really, all most of them want is to get back into the fold. They just want back in the safe, secure 8 to 5 with dental and pension or whatever variation there might be. People want back on that treadmill, damn it. They don't want to be one of those people, one of the ones on the outside looking in. They're horrified to think of it.

But that version of things would still leave the billions of people for whom the treadmill is not even an option out in the cold. The destructiveness and toxicity of that treadmill would remain unaddressed, steamrolling ahead. And that's not good enough. The entire idea of "success" is faulty at this point, sickening really, and I hope Pluto makes sure people get their noses right down into the rot and holds them there until there can be absolutely no denying it.

"There's been a lot of stupid behavior. The protesters need to respect Mayor Bloomberg. You don't get to shout, "Fuck you, Mayor Bloomberg." It shows you don't have respect for human life."

Pluto in Leo Joan Baez as quoted in Vanity Fair article "An Oral History of Occupy Wall Street" by Max Chafkin with additional reporting by Alexandra Beggs, Mark Guiducci, Jaime Lalinde, Elizabeth Nicholas, Rebecca Sacks and Kaitlin Sanders

When I read this quote, I thought, "Is this chick for real? Am I being Punked? Is that show still even on?"

Folkie Joan Baez, supposed voice of the people, one of the voices of the 1960s revolutionary movements, is telling people they need to show more respect for their illegitimate authority figures?

Michael Bloomberg is the current mayor of New York City, of the elitist set. Of the 1%, if you will. His policies and leadership have facilitated the Pluto in Capricorn development steamroller over small, independent businesses that have been in New York City for decades, apartment buildings that have housed people from lower- and middle-income brackets, and character buildings with such deep and rich history that the demolition of them should bring people to their knees. A climate has been created whereby developers and speculators have been given free rein, driving people out of their homes and businesses, and setting rents at obscene levels. This man has ruined lives from his position of power.

The direction Bloomberg has taken in New York City and the doors he has opened to development and gentrification are inherently inhumane and destructive to life. Respect for people? Respect for any life lived below $250,000 per year? He doesn't have it. Bloomberg and his cronies have worked to develop a New York City that is a playground for the ultra rich, catering to their every infantile whim, while making life next to impossible for the groups of working people who made New York City what it was.

There are hundreds of thousands, probably millions of people who would love a chance to say "Fuck you" to Michael Bloomberg in the flesh, and I couldn't be happier that the protesters took their opportunity.

But yes, all hail Bloomberg. Respect your Pluto in Capricorn authority figures like good little citizens. So says Joan Baez.

If Kalle Lasn and Joan Baez are representative of what's left of the Pluto in Leo counter-culture, calling it out-of-touch would be charitable.

In reality, though they've been given a certain public role and may have the articulation to sway the crowd, they aren't the real heart and soul of the Pluto in Leo counter-culture. They're just people who have been held up to keep everyone else in line.

That said, pie-in-the-sky Pluto in Leo nostalgia for a 1960s reality that never even existed will continue to hinder the efforts of the Pluto in Virgos - the generation now responsible for practically and realistically applying the energy of the 1960s revolutionary movements.

We need to speak truth to power, but we also need to speak truth to power within the supposed counter-culture constructs. Things have gotten far too crystallized there. People are looking for leadership in areas that have grown fat, pampered, and a little too cozy with the good life offered by the systems they once critiqued.

We need to examine the personality politics and determine if the people held up as "voices of the times" really know what the hell they're talking about, really have any legitimacy at all under the current conditions.

And the people who do know what they're talking about: Please speak. Often. And loudly.

30 comments:

Matt Savinar said...

Michael Lewis is a bigtime financial writer. He's good, albeit a kool-aid drinker at his heart. Seems to blame the Icelandic crisis on greedy monks not the banks but he throws a few punches once in a while.

He made a good point in a Bloomberg article that the kids at Yale protesting the Big Banks aren't protesting because of a change of character as compared to their previous generations. They're pissed because those plush i-banker jobs aren't there for them like they were for Yale grads of the past. He said if Goldman wants to disarm the Yale protests, just offer the ringleaders in the protests plush jobs or even the hint of plush jobs and you'll see them fade away real fast.

He's got Mercury Venus conjunction in Scorpio, btw.

Anonymous said...

"They are just people that are being held up to keep everyone else in line". Same old trick and the sad thing is that it works every time..the sheeple will follow.

Anonymous said...

Joan Baez should know better. Could she possibly have been misquoted? She comes from a 99% family and did jail time. I know how cushy life can get as we get older, but I just don't want to believe it I guess. Yes--I was on the streets in
Chicago in the late 60's-- early 70's. She did jail time for God's sake.
Thanks for your eye opening article. It answers some questions I had about #OWS. I believe that many who did join were very pure hearted and did not know about the "roots" or lack-thereof of the organization.
Thanks always, Willow
Lea

Anon From Before said...

I am sickened by those two examples. I am especially galled by the suggestion that these "mentally ill homeless people are messing up" Occupy.

Got compassion- much? LoL

Did this jerk ever get called out?

Joan Baez is smoking crack. Seriously.

I am afraid of some Boomers and Pluto in Leo types. They definitely have the ability to eat their young. I know I have been thrown off the cliff and had my bones crunched by a number of them.

The really scary part is that they can be easily swayed to go against their own self interests. They don't see how everything is connected. That yeah, you can roll over the folks behind you, but that is going to come back and bite you in the butt.

You can't cut off your arm and leg and expect to function normally. That the vast majority of them are not the 1% or even the 5%, 10% or 20% and the chances of them getting there at 50+ years old while also not being born into that world - are slim to none.

It would be laughable if it weren't so serious.

Morag Eyrie said...

Very well said Willow. One manifestation of the inherent dysfunction in the global Occupy movement, alongside the treatment of homeless and other vulnerable joiners, is the issue of the treatment of women, which more or less mirrors women's position in the wider world. Glasgow, where I live, was the site of one of the rapes that have happened on Occupy sites. The dreadful way that rape was handled sparked the birth of the Glasgow Women's Activist Forum, which I'm part of (I'm a Pluto in Virgo, there are a few others like me but the rest of us are younger generation, mostly 20s, it's very heartening to work with them!). We are a cross-party, cross-movement resource aiming to support feminists on the left with making their groups, parties, movements and actions more accountable and safer for women to participate in, with the aim of achieving broader participation in activism and, well, fewer rapes and less harassment and exclusion. We are very much in solidarity with what you express here; our take on it is that we have not much truck with Occupy but it's not going away and it may be drawing in potential new activists because of it's visibility, so we need to consider women in Occupy as part of who we work with. We're also aware that similar 'Occupy Occupy' and 'Occupy Patriarchy' and similar movements-within-a-movement have been springing up around the world. Anyway, just wanted to let you know about some specific work that's going on and say thanks for writing such a cogent critique!

Jason said...

Yea i knew the movement was too good too be true, not everyone there was on the same page. Screaming jobs jobs jobs. Instead of new system....

Also a "crying" Cop caught planting crack on the poor minorites and innocent got 300 hours of community service and a measly 5 years probation.. Courtesy of bloomturd and Kelly. 7 more that got caught to go, guess u can plant crack and be a cop- while smoking personal stashes of weed while black gets more jail time than this guy...

Im just here for the gays, but this town is crazy.

Joie de Vivre said...

Willow, I believe that Joan Baez in the 1960's was married to a Draft Dodger who served time in a Federal Penitentury so to do her part, she often was an organizer/speaker at Sit-Ins. Her history speaks of Human Rights...In a documentary about the Kent State Shootings of 1970, a student who was part of the more global view of stopping the Viet Nam said after the murders of the students by soldiers that the students quietly went to their dorm rooms, packed up and took the Movement internally, feeling that they couldn't beat the bullets...Abby Hoffman of the YIPPIES commented that once Levi-Strauss began advertising to the Counter Culture, the Movement was mainstream and had lost its meaning.

Everything seems to have a price threshold... a time when most people cash in and live a life that isn't threatened by the cold reality of society.

My question is; where is Ralph Nader? Why hasn't there been an evolved person to take his fecunity to the next level? It's a rare spirit that can stand before the world, take the heat and excel.

Willow said...

Go Glasgow Women's Activist Forum, and Go Morag! Thank-you.

I think a lot of people are still looking for their next leader when they have to take charge themselves. Instilling power (Pluto) in the figurehead (Leo) is something that has gone to extremes with the Pluto in Leo generation, but we go beyond figureheads at this point.

The thing is, and this isn't meant to insult anyone, I don't care all that much about what someone did 40 years ago. I care about right now, and their relevance with the issues of the day. Their ability to get to the roots of the situations and to tell it like it absolutely is. And right now, Joan Baez and a lot of the other people who have been held up as "voices of the people" are way out of touch with reality. In my mind, they probably never really did get it completely.

You could protest the Vietnam war and still not have all that much of an understanding of the whole picture, especially the class structures. I think class was something that was whitewashed in most of the 1960s movements.

Baez basically just told people they need to show more respect for Nixon. She can't handle the eff bomb being leveled at a member of the elites, a group that has gained power through destroying people's lives. That's pretty messed.

Anon From Before said...

"I think a lot of people are still looking for their next leader when they have to take charge themselves. Instilling power (Pluto) in the figurehead (Leo) is something that has gone to extremes with the Pluto in Leo generation, but we go beyond figureheads at this point. ...The thing is, and this isn't meant to insult anyone, I don't care all that much about what someone did 40 years ago. I care about right now, and their relevance with the issues of the day. Their ability to get to the roots of the situations and to tell it like it absolutely is."


THIS.

I and others are seeing this also in other social movements such as the Black Civil Rights Movement in the US from the 60s.

anonymous fuckin' commenter said...

Oh sweet sufferin' christ. Fuck fucking Joan Baez. As a US citizen, I believe it is still *technically* my right, at least for now, to tell any public official to go fuck themselves as I feel it necessary. She doesn't have to like it, and really, who cares if she does? And anyway, Bloomberg's governor of freekin' New York City, you know? I'm sure he's heard much worse.

And fuck Kalle Lasn too. That guy's ego's been in the way of him actually doing something worthwhile for ages now. Have you seen that call to occupy the G8 summit in Chicago this summer that he wrote? He starts out adressing "you rebels, radicals and redeemers", and, well, I stopped reading after that because, seriously - I act on my conscience, not a need to feel self important.

Thanks for what you do here, Willow. You are an astrological necessity.

(Also, big ups to Morag. I've heard there were so many rapes in Zuccoti park that women pretty much stopped sleeping there. But of course, if they try to speak up about it, they'll be called traitors to the movement, right? The more things change...)

Patricia said...

Wow! Thanks for the education. Great post, from a really interesting perspective. Thank God I was never on the Hamster Wheel!But you are right, everyone wants the status quo back.

Joie de Vivre said...

Willow, it's surprising that Baez would expect people to w/hold emotion or fold, spindle or mutilate it. Draft dodging was a direct fuck you to the Selective Services. She should realize 1% v. 99% is today's War of No-Choice.

I thought Spirit is something that no one can destroy...Selective Memory is another protest song, I guess.

Lilith in Scorpio said...

@Joie de Vivre - not to be rude or contentious, but really? C'mon, think about it. Joan Baez was very, very young when she protested the Vietnam (Don't-Call-It-A)War. Four decades have passed since then. It's not exactly unheard of for people to change, sometimes dramatically, in that amount of time (or even less). Surely not everyone you know is the same as they were when they were in their teens and twenties - or at least, I hope not. ;) So, disappointing maybe. But surprising? Not so much.

Joie de Vivre said...

Lillith in Scorpio, not to amplify my stupidity(which I'm about to do), who is the real Joan Baez? Does she deserve to be understood then or now? Forgiven for her behavior then or now?

From what I'm gathering here and through experience, I know that Pluto is the transformative energy we were time-stamped w/ in our respective generations and we tap into that uncosciously, if not aware and malacioulsy if we don't care about anything but ourselves. That is pure conjecture, on my part.

So Lillith and Willow, I remain confused because I wish to use my new-found awareness to modify(I know I can't undo what's done)old patterns but if Pluto is such a seal of disapproval, what's the point? I still have to live here on Earth for a while and am tired of my misery and it's impact on everyone, including the people reading my posts.

If I believe in truckin' on, plodding or stretching my karma, then I should at least take off the beer goggles and make something of that time.

As a kid growing up in the '60's, anything did sound possible but I could see the BS once I swirched off the t.v.

Neptune was slipped into my morning coffee and I'm the one who did it!

Willow said...

Joie de Vivre, I'm not sure what you're meaning exactly. Pluto is not a seal of disapproval. But the use of Pluto to reinforce detrimental and illegitimate power dynamics (unconsciously or willfully) is definitely something that needs to be outted.

All generations are manipulated via the themes of their Plutos. Across the board. And in order to move out of those manipulations, we have to get to the roots of them.

In this article, what I'm saying is that the people who have certain "1960s personality cred" or certain "revolutionary cred" period need to be examined thoroughly before they're automatically given the platform and the credibility to influence people. Celebrity has a way of assigning people certain leadership attributes that they have not necessarily earned...or maybe earned 40 or 50 years ago with something fairly segmented or obvious. (Yeah, you think napalming people is wrong. How revolutionary.) What these people are saying now needs to be examined to see if they still hold legitimacy...or ever really had any outside media creation.

Part of the removal of the Pluto in Leo beer goggles is breaking down idols, celebrity, and the idea that anyone needs a pedestal-sitting leader in order to know what's what on this planet.

Amanda said...

I love your blog! Very few writers see so clearly past the surface of things.
You have to be "middle class" before you matter in America. Poor people don't deserve things like food and shelter. They have committed the terrible crime of economic failure. If the penalties imposed are anything to go by, it must be the worst crime imaginable. Poor people (and their children) deserve to be hungry, cold and sick. They have to be stigmatised and humiliated at every possible opportunity. It's something to do with sticks and carrots.
There is an economic line, and if you are on the wrong side of it, you are a sub-human. You don't deserve any rights.
Ironically, this is exactly what the "1%" claim. They just draw the line in a different place.
A true revolution would declare that the line is no more.
OWS can't seem to do that, so OWS is a joke. If they were honest, they'd change their motto to, "We are the 60%" (or whatever figure excludes the poor percentage).

Anonymous said...

Willow,
points well taken we #OWS. I have though, participated in Occupy Oakland (OO- here in California) and you know, the encampment was nothing like what you mentioned. Homeless people were part of the encampment, received food, housing, medical care, friendship and solidarty as far as I know. In fact, OO raised these issues with th City of Oakland, the fact that having a Tent City in downtown had actually had a positive effect on the area (feeding hundreds daily, and even having nurses volunteer from the union as well as EMT's provide medical care). The City ended up opening up one of it's winter shelter earlier, as a result of OO. I think any real and true Occupy movement, has to put the struggle of the homeless front and center. We are afterall, fighting for the 99%. Many say that OO is the most radical, anti-capitalist of all of the Occupy's. They even passed a motion last night to endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement against Israel.... Anyway, thanks for your critiques. Kellan should be ashamed of himself.

Willow said...

Yeah, in places where there's real class consciousness, I'm sure it was different. IE. Oakland

I'm still not sure it's quite the right machine for the long-term, but it was an important step toward people mobilizing. As I say, I support the people who are speaking out about real issues and getting to the roots.

Anonymous said...

Bravo! The hippies began something and opened the door, then they became yuppies and cashed in. I fully agree the system is what needs to change but most people are so wrapped up in it they can't even imagine anything different. Nor recognize the charade the presidential election has become - turning it into a season of Jerry Springer.And yet people take it seriously. "fuck you" needs to be said often and loudly. Check out "fuck you" by Osho on youtube

Joie de Vivre said...

W/ Uranus conjunct my Sun, I possess a trace of rebellion in my veins but while I've heard a lot about overturning the Status Quo w/ lighters illuminating the darkest evenng skies, THEY have flame throwers.

The outcome will have to be Revolution. Ponder the implications; every person for themselves...not rhetoric but reducing ourselves to levels unknown to civilization since the Dark Ages?

The thought is almost incomprehensible but if that's the way it's going, people better be prepared to employ that 2nd Amendment because that will be the one and only "law". Daunting and soul-shattering.

Willow said...

Erm, violent revolution and a regression into the Dark Ages is certainly not the only outcome possible for humanity at this point. It's not the way I see things going down. But that's one of the Bogey Men people are being frightened with should they "step out of line" - especially people with a trace of rebellion that has not been a compelling force in their lives up to this point.

You can't look back in history to find the answers for the current situation. We've been building on history and on revolutionary momentum.

You understand that the majority of the planet already lives under "daunting and soul-shattering" conditions, right? That it's actually a minority of people who benefit from the way things are?

I'd be careful of those "lighters illuminating," myself...

Joie de Vivre said...

Willow, you know muuuuch more than I. But taking anything from those who have everything is grounds for whatever they deem necessary.

You're right; they won't do anything overt...microwaves? Genetic tailoring?

I'll stop the Doomsday machine but when it comes to Maintenance, they are 20 steps ahead...it's what they live for, Willow!

Willow said...

Oh, I'm well aware that we're under multi-layered attacks, becoming more vicious by the day. I've never said there wouldn't be overt attacks. I've said the opposite, actually, so I'm not sure where you got that. I'm just not sure what that has to do with humanity going back to the Dark Ages.

Anonymous said...

Great commentary.

That the younger generations are looking to older, sold out "celebrity" for quotes speaks volumes.

Adbusters has always bothered me, for some of the reasons that you cite. That dog won't hunt.

I have to admit I like the leaderless idea behind OWS, no one person to kill off or corrupt.

No one has yet pointed out that NYC is fine with the homeless being out of sight and out of mind, but move them into sight, and suddenly they are a threat to national security, as well as to the coolness of the hipsters.

Keep it up willow.

Anon from Before said...

February 7, 2012 10:58 AM
Blogger Willow said...

" Erm, violent revolution and a regression into the Dark Ages is certainly not the only outcome possible for humanity at this point."


Thank you. I am starting to see that too. I do support the 2nd amendment as a U.S. citizen, but that is not the only way.

If the president can sign an executive order to allow drones to fly within the U.S. or an executive order to allow him to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens or to kill heads of state then he can sign an executive order to gut and replace the failing systems in this country.

He and congress can outline plans to make the transition from the old to the new system smoother so that people don't panic and they know what to expect and how to participate and facilitate the transition.


" You understand that the majority of the planet already lives under "daunting and soul-shattering" conditions, right? That it's actually a minority of people who benefit from the way things are?"


Amen. This is what I don't get. Those who go against their own interest in support of these people in power who care nothing for them. They have more in common with those homeless and mentally ill who have been horribly regarded at occupy more than they know. Because they are a little comfortable now - a little bit of savings, they may still have a job in this economy, but they are one major illness, foreclosure, company shutdown/outsourcing away from joining the very vulnerable.

Anon from Before said...

Joie - I can't speak for Willow, but I don't feel that she knows much more than you - you are refusing to see. It is there in plain sight for all to see.

All it takes is empathy/compassion and a willingness to truly stand for social justice.

Joie de Vivre said...

Hey Anon from Before, a reeeeeally big part of the problem is that the Prez and Congress are being trumped by unseen forces.

Examle; Obama(a person I was very stoked to see in '08, especially after Teddy Kennedy handed the torch to him)mentioned more than a few times about allowing the American people to go on-line and partake in the Budget process where he would dissect it, line-by-line...still waiting on that one.

Solyndra...not one gov't figure indicted? This is the counterpart to Enron and the Bush Admin. and yet...

These examples are over policy.

What happens when gas is $8 a gallon? When bread is $10? HYPER-INFLATION...

We have much more in common with Greece and Italy than is being divulged. The gov't spent 120B 10 days ago...and we have a 15T deficit?

Cutting spending and we put out, as in the tax payers, 120B...see that in the media? Nope.

It won't be the 14th Century but Matha Stewart is going to have to sell guns along with the butter.

I'm concerned. I hate guns or any violence; that's why we have sports and work-outs. Physical encroachment of any kind is abhorrent...I'm dying to be wrong about this.

Willow will keep it real...my concerns have some foundation due to power and greed...it's insatiable...

As for Willow, her instincts as well as her knowledge is razor-sharp and I look forward to anything she has to say about anything.

Joie de Vivre

Willaru said...

Thank you once again, Willow, for your clearsighted analysis!

OWS and it's progeny are filled with deeply sincere activists, there's no doubt about that. Yet it also seems many are being duped into focusing on side issues instead of truly core ones (e.g., retaking our ability to cast votes in elections and have them truly counted as cast, instead of digitized into wholesale election frauds, over and over and over etc.)

Apparently, Adbusters gets a not insignificant source of its own funding from George Soros via The Tides Foundation. Soros is infamous for funding the controlled opposition 'colored revolutions' over the past 12 years. These have set up sincere populations of other countries (Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia, etc.) into a crash of disillusionment when the old dictator bows out due to the 'revolution' and a new 'proWestern' technocrat (who's willing to bow and scrape before the neocon/neoliberal elite) is 'elected' in his stead (using them newfangled voting machines... hmmm...).

For much more info on these controlled opposition movements, including too much of OWS, see:

www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=26914

If one joins the 'revolution,' it's better that one goes in with one's eyes WIDE OPEN to what's ACTUALLY HAPPENING, even if it is a disillusioning downer to do so.

You probably already know about this site, but for those who don't, Global Research (based in Canada) is a first-rate evidence-based follow-the-truth-wherever-it-leads organization. Thousands of articles that pull no punches.

www.globalresearch.ca

Willow said...

I just want to say how much I appreciate all the comments here, and I really love this one from 13 Muluc:

"You have to be "middle class" before you matter in America. Poor people don't deserve things like food and shelter. They have committed the terrible crime of economic failure. If the penalties imposed are anything to go by, it must be the worst crime imaginable. Poor people (and their children) deserve to be hungry, cold and sick. They have to be stigmatised and humiliated at every possible opportunity. It's something to do with sticks and carrots.

There is an economic line, and if you are on the wrong side of it, you are a sub-human. You don't deserve any rights.

Ironically, this is exactly what the "1%" claim. They just draw the line in a different place.

A true revolution would declare that the line is no more.

OWS can't seem to do that, so OWS is a joke. If they were honest, they'd change their motto to, "We are the 60%" (or whatever figure excludes the poor percentage)."

That's EXACTLY what it is.

Willow said...

And thank-you, Willaru, for the connection between Adbusters and Soros funding! Huge element to be aware of.