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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Few Contrarian Proposals About the Occupiers

I think Occupy Wall Street emerged out of Wisconsin more than it did from Cairo, and I think this context is an indispensable part of the reason why OWS might not just change the focus of a few newscycles but facilitate progressive change in the legislative agenda for 2011-2012 (which is the best outcome OWS can hope for politically). I think it is a good thing that Oaklanders and so many other Americans have been inspired by the example of Occupy Wall Street to bring its strategies of occupation and resistance here, but I don't think it is a good thing that Londoners and apparently so many other Europeans have been, too. The last thing the European left ever needs to do is follow America's lead of all things when it comes to resistance, just as the last thing US Occupiers need is to lose themselves in a narcissistic fantasy that they are leading the world only to be lead by the nose by incumbent-elites to domesticate a real possibility for organized resistance into another Burning Man.

1 comment:

jimf said...

> I think Occupy Wall Street. . . might not just change the
> focus of a few new[s]cycles but facilitate progressive
> change in the legislative agenda. . .

Speaking of news cycles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Post
----------------
"The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in
the United States and is generally acknowledged. . .
as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily. . .
Since 1993, it has been owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's
News Corporation, which had owned it previously from 1976
to 1988. It is the seventh-largest newspaper in the U.S.
by circulation. . . The Post is known for its sensationalist
headlines. . .

The Post has been criticized since the beginning of Murdoch's
ownership for sensationalism, blatant advocacy and conservative
bias. In 1980, the Columbia Journalism Review opined that
'the New York Post is no longer merely a journalistic problem.
It is a social problem – a force for evil.'"
----------------

Gee, it's been a force for evil for half my life now.

Anyway, today's sensationalist headline is

"Protesters eat like kings
WHINE AND DINE"
http://eater.com/archives/2011/10/19/whine-and-dine.php

"[W]hile your family of four may have been forced to
resort to Hamburger Helper... hordes of Occupy Wall Street
protesters instead feasted on organic chicken, spaghetti
Bolognese, roasted beet and sheep's milk-cheese salad
and wild heirloom potatoes."