Saturday, October 22, 2011
Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie show up; OWS officially co-opted
The quasi-professional protesters are now showing up in droves at OWS. So the protests are now officially kaput. ... Here's the thing: The same quasi-professional crowd has protested for and against a lot of things over the years. Nuclear energy. Climate change. Wars. Racism. Civil rights. Economic justice. Unions. They bring along the same protest uniforms, signs, songs, chants, paper-mache puppets -- and they advocate the same solutions for every problem, roughly centered around strengthening the very same state they so often protest. Then they recently hit upon the idea of protesting against Wall Street. Finally, they hit a chord. Finally, there's a villain most everyone agrees deserves to be villainized. But then they bring along the same protest uniforms, signs, songs, chants, paper-mache puppets -- and they advocate the same solutions for every problem, roughly centered around strengthening the very same state they so often protest.
The quasi-professional protesters are now showing up in droves at OWS. So the protests are now officially kaput. ... Here's the thing: The same quasi-professional crowd has protested for and against a lot of things over the years. Nuclear energy. Climate change. Wars. Racism. Civil rights. Economic justice. Unions. They bring along the same protest uniforms, signs, songs, chants, paper-mache puppets -- and they advocate the same solutions for every problem, roughly centered around strengthening the very same state they so often protest. Then they recently hit upon the idea of protesting against Wall Street. Finally, they hit a chord. Finally, there's a villain most everyone agrees deserves to be villainized. But then they bring along the same protest uniforms, signs, songs, chants, paper-mache puppets -- and they advocate the same solutions for every problem, roughly centered around strengthening the very same state they so often protest.
