A few observations about Occupy Wall Street

By Sumantra Maitra, FreePressers.com

Almost twenty years back, when the Soviet and East European states crumbled, who would have thought that socialism would make such a comeback? Here are a few ground truths about the Occupy Wall Street movement and the various spinoffs it has started.

 

Occupy Wall Street protesters get dressed as executives before taking part in a march in Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in New York Oct. 15. / Reuters / Eduardo Munoz

They are not democratic: No surprise there, really. There can be no movement which professes plebiscitary democracy through means of a revolution which can ever be democratic. Tahrir Square was not democratic, Anti-G20 demonstrations were not democratic, the Madrid and Athens riots were not democratic. Nor will be this Occupy movement. Already as I write this, riots have erupted in Rome and might erupt again in London. There are fears of rioting in Toronto too.

Did I just say revolution? Yes, I did. And no I did not make that up. They themselves call it Global revolution. Their charter of demands are replete with demands directed against “corporate greed”. They personally heckled Murdoch, a man, who for all the good and bad in him, is responsible for the job creations of thousands of people across the globe. Their demands are contradictory, like ending fossil fuel and nuclear power stations.

They want well paying jobs, they want their student loan debts to be forgiven, they want their basic amenities to be guaranteed by the State, they want subsidies, they want to close down and picket corporates and banks, (where will they perform their jobs I wonder!), they want open borders so that anyone can go and work anywhere. But they shy away from competition and blame the corporates for outsourcing and taking away their jobs. They want re-distribution of wealth, and they want the wealth of big banks transferred to them. All this, without any competition and regardless of their qualities and whether they are eligible or qualified.

They are completely out of touch with reality. Completely out of touch. They are without leadership, and their goals are vague. They are closet antisemites, and the “I am 99%” slogan thing, is for lack of better words, pure rubbish.They are bad for business. Remember Tahrir Square? Well…it costEgypt over $55 billion. And they didn’t actually get democracy, not in Egypt, Tunisia, or Libya. Without question, the cost of this occupation movements of public places will cost the taxpayers massively across the globe, not just the establishment and cleaning cost, but obstruction of daily business too. But then since when were populist economies productive anyway?This looks like the 60s all over again. They are inevitably bad dressers, are terribly unhygienic, wear hand-printed multi-coloured psychedelic shoes, hilariously bad and crudely worded slogans, guitars, red flags, flowers at wrong places, nudity and indecent public exposure, marijuana and drugs…you name it, it is there.One difference though. The leaders of the free democratic world in those days had the spine to deal with hooligans the way they should be treated.

Today, unfortunately, we have dithering, politically correct, and narrow minded cowards who are afraid to take tough actions for the fear of losing the votebanks. This is sad, and self destructive in the long run.

In 2011, apparently, the people who actually pay taxes are afraid of the people who want to take everything by force.

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