Just heard from someone there that NYC police thugs destroyed Occupy Wall Street’s library, which includes a number of my books.
I suppose I should be honored. They care!
Now NYPD is Burning Books
Ted Rall
http://rall.comTed Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Ted,
The morning commute from Brooklyn into Manhattan was delayed today because of signal problems. For a moment, I thought that OWS was retaliating for the police action. Nope. Just a signal problem.
Wait… I think I can hear a strongly–no, a VERY STRONGLY–worded petition being circulated somewhere in a three-mile vicinity.
That’ll show those book-burnin’ cops.
AP reported that as OWS protesters were being carted away by NYC cops some were chanting “Hey Hwy Ho Ho, our billionaire mayor has got to go!” When I read that I actually did LOL! I mean, really LOL!
Yeah, that ought to do it OWS. A good “hey hey ho ho” chant will bring change. LOL! What’s next? A campfire and singing cumbaya?
The coordinated assault on OWS across multiple cities and law enforcement agencies shows just how clumsy, uncoordinated and (ultimately) not serious OWS is. Ted says it will be back, I say it will not. This is the end. A few stragglers will re-unite, but it’s over. Too bad. We could be standing upon a new reality right now but OWS never had it in them. If you don’t have a root understanding of who you are and the system within which you exist, any attempt at revolution is useless.
Unfortunately in this case I’m with ex, this just shows how unserious OWS was. There is possibility there, but they need leaders, to lead and more important to educate. From everything I have seen, almost no one there has a clue about the real situation. I’m sure some of the real lefties were there trying to move them in the right direction, but that takes serious time. Ah well, with luck enough of the more serious types will hang around in some fashion, get educated, and then the real fun begins.
I still don’t see what the problem is and why everyone is declaring this over. The initial occupation has provoked dozens of others all over the world which are still going strong. I am in Norwich UK right now (where?) and there is a fairly sizable occupy encampment raging “downtown” even here. Where the hell is Norwich UK and how do they have such a sizable occupy encampment given that Norwich counting all its satellite towns in a 20+ mile radius has only 200k people? Apparently Occupy Norwich formed almost a month ago and they are not only going strong but still growing.
The temporary loss of the original occupation doesn’t really mean much of anything. Hell even DC is still occupied, and many of the former OWS people are actually on a march from NYC to DC right now to join up with their brethren there instead of just going home with their tails slung between their legs as they would if their resolve had actually been broken or they weren’t serious. As far as making the protestors more serious, what better way then this to achieve that? I don’t think OWS is over by a long shot. Its first, wimpiest, and least effective incarnation may be, but to paraphrase a classic quote, this isn’t the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning (actually it probably is not even that). It may take a few months for them to regroup, and possibly they will even wait until spring, but assuredly they will be back, and more importantly they will be more effective their second time around. Even in the off-chance that OWS does not reform in the next six or so months (and I am sure it will) it is irrelevant as the occupy movement has already grown by spreading to many cities across the western world. As a result, the fate of its original and perhaps most symbolic franchise is ultimately unimportant no matter what that fate may be. After its successful expansion to other cities, the one and only failure for OWS would have been if the OWSers got bored, packed up, and left of their own free will. This did not happen, not even close, the police had to arrest people who jumped the barrier and fought their way back into the park after the fact.
The implications of finding that their is a healthy occupy Norwich UK gives me far more hope and inspiration then the loss of the actual OWS gives me despair, whether or not OWS loss is permanent (and believe me, it is not).
A judge has just ruled against Zuccotti protesters saying they cannot erect tents, table, use generators, etc …
It’s over. As noted. Done.
ex, alex, it seems you both do nothing but blog about the ineffectualness of others… ironic. It’s like you both want to see it fail because it wasn’t your idea.
@exkiodexian: First my point was the Occupation movement is much bigger then just OWS itself now. While they are symbolic and important their existence or lack there of no longer effects the general occupy movement. The resistance is now much more then just one band in one country in one city in one very little park. This was my primary point and you never addressed this.
Second you completely fail to grasp the human ingenuity and “necessity is the mother of all invention” aspects to this. People are still allowed to protest 24 hours a day at Zucatti park. Hypothetically speaking what if a near by hostel or the like puts up the protesters while those awake maintain a 24 hour a day presence protesting in Zucatti park? This is only one purely hypothetical solution among an infinitude of others (probably including a number of really good ones that I would have never thought of let alone pulled off of the top of my head like this.)
More importantly Zucatti park is not the only place protesters could camp out in New York city, nor does it need to have any more OWS presence at all. The only significance to Zucatti was that it once was a place where OWS was held. Something big once started and was temporarily stationed there. If that is its only contribution to the occupy movement, well that may be sad for nostalgic and symbolic purposes but nothing more is actually needed of that specific park.
Third an interesting question is where is your information coming from? You posted “These are the last three OWS protesters as of today. The cops have swept up the rest across the country. Frank Miller blasted the DFHs. OWS is over.” basically a full day (November 14, 2011 at 12:31 PM) before the police raid on OWS actually occurred. OWS itself had no inklings of even the first hints police organization movement until about 5:36 am on Novermber 15th as reported in their official twitter feed:
OccupyWallStNYC #OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Hearing reports of large police presence near #LibertySquare/#LibertyPlaza from @questlove. Anybody confirm? cc: @mcduh #ows
Moreover the eventual raid was only on OWS and not all the other occupies in the nation which for the most part have not been touched and are doing fine.
If you check the OWS twitter feed, you will find that it is already rebuilding and reoccupying. Here is the latest news from their feed. People are already reoccupying liberty square. The police action was against a court order which is being perused legally now, and the police are currently enforcing rules not stated in the new legal rule set which OWS is cataloging to embarrass the powers that be by emailing each offense for documenting here: protest@nyclu.org. Last night was there largest general assembly they have had to date. They gained 5000 new followers since the raid and a slew of retired police captains came down from upstate New York to join the protest (see: http://twitpic.com/7ervoc ). This doesn’t exactly sound like “the end” to me.
@Russell: I was starting to notice that too.
@Russell and @someone: “It’s like you both want to see it fail because it wasn’t your idea.”
That’s one of the silliest comments I’ve ever read. If that’s the mindset of OWS then no wonder it’s a failure.
Look, you can talk all you want about occupying and demonstrating and camping out and revolution and blah, blah, blah. It’s meaningless. This is not a movement that’s “just getting started”, and it’s not a movement that’s going to change thing one. Nothing. Why? Because the people that make up this group do not have an understanding of themselves nor the system within which they exist. If you don’t have such an understanding you have no basis for revolution. At best what they’re out there for is to get some debt relief and the right to become more obedient consumers. That’s no basis for revolution.
The fact is, any real revolution would cause most Americans to recoil in horror. They want their cable tv, their SUVs, their NASCAR, their NFL, their beer-bellies, their Gucci, and on and on. In short, they want to be obedient consumers. When that is your mindset there is not a single iota for a single meaningful change. The most they would ever achieve is a re-shuffling of the deck chairs, which is – as noted – meaningless.
It’s “Revolution, the Movie!”. Or, “Revolution, Inc.”. Hell, they have even talked about how to brand OWS. Get it? They’re talking about branding their revolution. This whole thing is a joke.
@exkiodexian: See those are valid standpoints, but they weren’t what you were talking about earlier. Saying “OWS is stupid and misguided and won’t accomplish anything” is very different from saying “it is over” which is what you were doing until this point. Well you were saying that and “they aren’t serious” which isn’t true either.
Either way, useless or not, the fact is that it is not over yet and they are serious, which they have demonstrated, even if they are also seriously misguided and seriously confused. Furthermore it is my belief, and I could certainly be very wrong, that before it actually does end one way or another, much of what currently makes OWS “stupid and useless” will have disappeared from it. Right now it is still infantile, but it is serious. It needs time to grow and mature such that its objectives and methods match the high level commitment its participants already have.
@Russell and @someone: “It’s like you both want to see it fail because it wasn’t your idea.”
Okay, let me get this done with before I burst a blood vessel.
I am n years old. I was laid off from my last job and remained unemployed for over two year. I lost just about everything I had. I ended up on a friend’s couch for a year and a half. I now have a temp assignment which will be wrapping up in a couple more weeks, so I’ll be right back to the unemployed status of old, which means no one will even look at my resume because almost no one hires an unemployed person. I have a retirement fund of zero. I have no health insurance. If I got three wishes off the genie’s lamp, the first one would be that every Wall Street goon perpetually suffer from severe stomach cramps, eczema, and migraines. I’d wish that they all were in continuous agony for the rest of their lives. With the second wish, I’d wish that they’d all live forever. (The third wish? Every guy knows what I’d use the third wish for. That’s right. A big-screen TV. Oh, you thought … oh, man, that’s just wrong. Well, maybe it isn’t. It would be more fun than the TV. And it would be measured in inches. Alright. New carpeting it is!)
Anyway, I would take pretty much ANY job that paid enough to live on and gave me medical benefits. Have you got that Russell and Someone? If someone would pay me $40,000 a year to shovel kittens into an oven, I would probably jump at the opportunity because I am that desperate, and I have been for almost five years now. I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes wondering what my employment status will be like when I’m 50, or 55, or 60.
I am sick to death of you asshats — that’s you, Russell, and you, Someone — making the fallacious argument that people who are criticizing the OWS movement want it to fail. I don’t want it to fail. I want it to finish taking so goddamned long TO fail. Because failure is the only way it can end. The 1% have all the power, all the money, all the apparatus. They can bring the lawyers and the investigators into court, and they can buy and sell the politicians. The whole thing’s wrapped up in a bow. This is what they’ve been working toward ESR (Ever Since Reagan) and you think some cardboard signs are going to win the day? You think discussions and teach-ins and donations of food are going to do jacksquat?
The news had stories about an 84-year-old woman being maced by the cops. Do you get it? The cops are NOT your friends. The cops are your enemy, just as much as the Good German who was only following orders was the enemy. The cops are NOT on your side. They never will be. Passive resistance DOES NOT WORK. Standing there and submitting e-petitions DOES NOT WORK. Whining about how a degree in art history left you $100,000 in debt DOES NOT WORK. Occupy Portland “demanded” an apology the other day for how some of their members were treated. Are you people all on crack? Have you all been huffing paint? You sound like morans, and no one respects morans, even if they spell correctly.
I, for one, like the system. I like seeing movies. I like central heating, flush toilets, chocolate bars, 60 different cheeses at the Whole Foods, and so on. I don’t want the system to collapse because I know that means death and suffering that will put the Black Plague to shame. I want the system to change. I shouldn’t be staggering into my fifth decade of life terrified that when I’m finally too worn out to earn my keep that I’m going to starve to death in a freezing, filthy apartment somewhere.
I want what the fools freezing their asses off in Z Park want. I WANT THE CORRUPT PUT IN JAIL FOR DECADES. I WANT A FAIR CHANCE TO LIVE A LIVE WORTH HAVING.
I don’t support OWS for the same reason I wouldn’t support the return of the Apollo project if they built the rockets nosecone to the earth. “Well, what we’re gonna do is blast off through the Earth’s core and come out the other side!” A leaderless movement is just as headless-chickenlike as that.
Tomorrow, the movement’s nonleadership says they’re going to retaliate. Know what? That’s it. Tomorrow’s the last chance they have. After that, the cops will simply go in, invest reasons to arrest, and those people will systematically be removed as a source of annoyance. I only hope they know how to engage in resistance appropriately. Because after this fiasco that the past eight weeks have been, the 1% are just going to get bolder because they know they can get away with it.
I agree with @alex_the_tired, except the part about not wanting the system to fail. Personally, I think we need to go Travis Bickle on the whole thing. Like the scene in Taxi Driver where Bickle tells the Senator that we need to flush the whole fucking thing right down the toilet. Right down the fucking toilet and start over.
You can’t reform the system. If you like having 40 different kinds of cheese’s at Whole Foods, well then welcome to the world of international finance. Welcome to the world that’s dominated by banks. You can’t have one without the other. If you like that system (which most OWS folks do like), then you play by its rules. What are its rules? The elite executives are the “Masters of the Universe”, and THEY run the world – not you.
@Alex: I am terribly sorry about what you have experienced. However you have missed my point entirely. I welcome criticism of OWS, goodness knows it needs it. As I said further down in this thread, if you would care to read it, claims that OWS are misguided, ineffective, and useless I consider to be perfectly valid stand points especially when evidence is marshaled to these claims. But claims insisting OWS is over or unserious when neither of these things are true and with no evidence to back such claims, I quartile with and wonder what motivates people to make such untrue statements that they demand them as truth as if they wish it were.
@exkiodexian: I get your point and generally agree with it, but I do think it is possible to have 40 different types of cheese at something equivalent to whole foods without having the international world of finance. The two are not necessarily mutually entangled even though they are currently. I would agree though that to change the system we should not hold fast to our 40 different kinds of cheese, because if we hold onto such frivolous things much effort will be lost for no good reason in disentangling them from those things which must be cast out of society and worse, people might loose site of the real important goals and that which is necessary for change in society. Perhaps worse still, some may compromise to save their beloved cheese. All that I can agree to (even when applied to things beyond cheese selection) but I think you would be surprised how much could be kept of current society (for better or worse, I am making no statement here of what should or shouldn’t go besides mega transnational finance) even if we were rid of our society’s major problematic parts.
@Alex: I have never argued against anything that appears in your latest post in this thread. But how are you going to get the changes you want? Again I welcome Criticism of OWS, because as I have said, goodness knows it needs it.
While not yet effectual in any meaningful way it has already garnered attention, and is actually starting to sway policy, though admittedly in ways that are not yet close to important. It is growing and maturing and is very slow acting, but I personally think it is on track. It needs to learn and be criticized (constructively) but more then anything it needs time. I know you need relief now, I understand that, but OWS is currently the only game in town. Thus your options are:
1) Work to educate them to be more effective.
2) Find ways to reform them such as radicalizing them to violence or other methods of accelerating and increasing the ways the effect policy (help make them more politically active).
3) Start your own revolution.
4) Accept your fate.
Anything else is even more useless then anything OWS has achieved.
@someone: Yes, perhaps you are correct – I certainly reserve the right to be wrong. But, the main point I’m making is that the excessive luxuries of capitalism are made possible by the massive infrastructure of the international banking system. Personally I think people’s lives would be better if they had more control over their own fate. How do you gain that control? By living “locally”, more or less. But that means making sacrifices, it means not being an obedient consumer. In short, it means giving things up.
I hate to use this as an example, but I’m going to: Quakers. The Quakers basically reject a lot of modern systems. Insurance for one. They don’t believe in it, yet they get health care when they need it by negotiating with hospitals and doctors. They live long lives, and there’s no evidence that their shunning of insurance causes them more suffering than average Americans.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting we all become Quakers – but they have the right idea. You strip the powerful of their control of you simply by not being part of their system. You don’t be an obedient consumer.
@exkiodexian: If, by selling fraudulent instruments to the gullible, the investment bankers are making all our non-handspun goods possible, how could any rational person object? But what does loaning some gullible person enough money for an SUV with payments he cannot possibly afford (so you get his house in exchange for an SUV), then selling his payments (which he cannot possibly make) to another gullible investor somehow generate those 40 cheeses??? I can’t follow your logic.
The great salespersons managed to separate the gullible from their own money, and also from the money of those who foolishly trusted gullible money managers to manage their money. But how did that put cheese on my cheeseboard???
If those investment bankers are really the only way I can get any cheese except the cheese I make myself from the milk of my own cows and goats, and the only way I can get a shirt without growing the cotton or wool, spinning it, weaving it, and sewing it, I’d say, ‘Give them all their bonuses.’
But I have a hard time believing that.
@michaelwme: As I’ve already noted, if you want the excessive comforts that capitalism has brought you, then you accept the methods that brought them to you.
@michaelwme: Also, if this whole OWS thing is about derivatives for you, then it proves what I’ve been saying. Namely, OWS doesn’t understand themselves nor the system they live in – which is no basis for a revolution. Derivatives are not the problem. Bailouts are not the problem.
@exkiodexian: No certainly I can agree to all that. In fact a major and important criticism of the various occupy encampments is that while they work communally to feed everyone, they do so by going to megafood chains one or two steps down from Wall Mart. They really should be buying from the starving local businesses who now more then ever desperately need customers as America continues to rot and collapse. Furthermore their local support would help grow support for their own movement.
Another sadly ironic thing is that each of those Guy Fawkes masks that the Anonymous army in the various occupy encampments are sporting are bought from Time Warner and its subsidiaries thus giving money strait to their opponents. The list of such ironic, clueless, and bumbling actions and strategies goes on and on.
As such there is no denying that most Occupiers are currently too ingrained in the system to even be able to see the forest for the trees. But while this is disappointing and a major setback in terms of necessary revolution this does not make the Occupy Movement useless, unserious, or over. Campaigns for change, even the successful ones, are far from perfect.
For instance, don’t get me started on environmentalists. For most of those who would claim such a moniker their grasp of how life, the economy, and the universe works and what environmentalism truly means and would require is so far removed from reality it makes the Occupy movement look flawless. Just look at books like “No Impact Man” and analyze the details like: wait he is burning a ton of candles which not only DO have a carbon foot print (which he doesn’t count) but actually have a noticeably larger carbon footprint (and less luminosity) then a well designed Low Watt LED light bulb. He is not maximizing his saving of the environment so much as he is just living in the past and equating the two. Yet in spite of all these gross misconceptions and incompetence, the serious devotion and good intentions of these types of environmentalists does change things and does so for the better.
That was one of the biggest revelations in my life. I realized that large groups of people, however clueless misinformed, and disorganized, invariably do begin to reshape the world into their desired image so long as they have a serious resolve, relentless persistence, and the right intentions. This brings us back to the Occupy movement which is a perfect example of exactly this.
Look at the oft cited Gahndi quote “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.” If true the Occupy Movement has already graduated to the “then they fight you” stage. This will likely be a longer stage then the first two by many many times, but that is still healthy progress in the grand scheme of things. More importantly, at some point in the prolonged “then they fight you” stage I have a feeling the Occupiers will start to see things for how they are through a continuing series of unfortunately very painful lessons.
In conclusion, however it ends, I have a feeling this early incarnation of the occupy movement will look very different from the one that it will mature into as long as they can maintain their resolve and persistence. From where we are now we cannot even imagine what things will look like when it comes to fruition. Personally I think things are right on track, but to help lubricate this arduous process along the Occupy Movement will need a lot of support, both monetary and emotional, along with the constructive criticism it should be open to taking and adapting to. Discouraging people by saying Occupy is “unserious” or is “over”, however, doesn’t help anyone though.
Maybe Occupy won’t ever see the big picture enough to get rid of capitalism, but if they can even reach a point where major reforms can be enacted they can still prop up society to buy us enough time and generate enough social solidarity and progress as to allow us all to move on to bigger and better things that are not as easily achieved from where we are now. “The longest journey begins with a single step.”