I get the whole Occupy movement. I do. I'm on board. Go freedom and equality! I'm not going to get into the [MANY] hypocrisies of the movement, nor will I discuss how incredibly flawed I think it is to live in a country that's BASED on capitalism and then bitch about capitalism...because that would make this a pseudo-political, culture-relevant diatribe-type blog and that's just not me. There are pluses and minuses to any movement and democracies, historically, go through this. Chalk it up to growing pains. But ask me about it when you see me out on the town shitfaced. I'll probably say something I regret then. Good times for all!
Onward:
Occupy Seattle has moved in to my neighborhood. This comes after living in tents on a college campus, vandalizing businesses, and shutting down the port (which cost 35,000 labor jobs almost $2 million dollars in lost wages (I know...fuckin' hypocrites). They now reside in a large house down the street from my own in the Central District of Seattle. They have "remodeled" [read: destroyed] the shit out of it, trespassed on the elementary school's property to recruit children, graffitied locally owned businesses, and are now spray painting private homes designed in post-modernist architectural themes...because, apparently, they are an "ugly, cubist-fascist-brutalistic style." Yeah...because that's a political position that's going to free the common working man from the shackles of corporate gains. Sure. Assholes.
I'm tired of them. Every time they vandalize a locally owned business in my neighborhood that business owner (many of whom are middle/lower class single parents trying to make ends meet) are required by law to correct the vandalism. That means you Occupiers are hurting the very thing you're supposed to be standing for.
You don't make sense anymore...well...you never really did to begin with. Other cities may have their shit together (shout out to Occupy Wallstreet...good job guys!) but you pathetic, upper-middle class, overly privileged quasi-political, community college extremist, asshole cliches here in Seattle need to wrap it up and head back to your parents' house in Clyde Hill...because let's face it. Those of us who ARE the people you're supposed to be standing up for don't appreciate your bullshit.
/rant
Okay fine. I'll list my news source: You're welcome for the link back, Central District News.
Occupy Seattle: in my opinion, it's what happens when the kids of the over privileged read the cliff-notes of 1984 on their Kindles and suddenly decide they want to save the world. That being, a disorganized clusterf*** of various viewpoints that are tenuously linked to opposing "the Man." It reminds me of the WTO protests of 1998, where something very similar happened: a few groups intended on a peaceful protest against globalization, and was in-turn hijacked by the anarchists who wanted to send their message that they were a force to be reckoned with by throwing bricks into the windows of a Starbucks.
ReplyDeleteI generally agree with Occupy Wall Street that banks/investment firms should be regulated and prohibited from legalized gambling of their investments; that their CEOs and their staff on their respective Board of Directors should be indicted and tried. But I also believe that this movement should have some sort of political direction to be effective, either in the form of a political party, or in new candidates. Sitting around for weeks on end holding up signs isn't going to cut it. And Occupy Seattle should take heed of that as well; they need a direction, and they need a plan to implement it, instead of vandalizing neighborhoods and ruining private businesses.
Political protests in States come across to me as half-assed in both their tactics and their deeds. And the biggest reason is that their organizers are just as lazy as their participants; they want the publicity without the hard work involved.
Here's one example: my co-workers were telling me about a group of protestors that held a vigil at the main gate at Beale earlier this year, and were holding various anti-military signs and shouting things at uniformed personnel leaving the base like, "You're going to hell for what you've done!" The whole reason for their little gathering: they were protesting the use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), believing the Air Force was using them to spy domestically on Americans.
I guess I shouldn't expect the average Berkeley/UC Davis student to understand the capabilities of airplanes, but what was most amusing to me was the lack of research they did prior to their little protest. I worked on the RQ-4A/B Global Hawk on and off for about 2 years, and that thing is a money sinkhole that barely flies. Seriously. There's talk about killing the program, because it can't do what it was designed to do effectively. And ironically, the plane it was designed to replace (the U-2) has had it's service life extended.
Factor this in, as well as aviation fuel costs, maintenance up- keep, sensor load-outs, and operational requirements, and the fact of the matter is that even if we were lackeys of the paranoid overfiends that they believe constitutes the entire Federal government, the Air Force still wouldn't waste that funding on "spying domestically." It's a whole lot cheaper to simply pay a human being to play undercover cop and listen in while visiting the local coffee shops than spend upwards of $10,000 on fuel per flight + maintenance.
All it would have taken was a few hours on the Internet to look up the appropriate articles and data on the airframe (and the base for that matter) and determine whether or not it was even worth it to drive hours out of their way and send a confusing message. And that was the end result of their demonstration; it confused us, because it didn't make any sense to us, the very people who work and operate those airframes.
In summary, the Occupy Seattle movement either needs to come up with a solid game plan, or go away entirely. Because confusion and anger is precisely what they sowing with their antics. If anything, they're unwittingly promoting the view that working for the "Man" is better than the living in the anarchy that they idolize. At least the "Man" doesn't spray-paint your house.
Dustin. Seriously. You had me at the very first sentence. "...it's what happens when the kids of the over privileged read the cliff-notes of 1984 on their Kindles and suddenly decide they want to save the world." BAHAHAHAHAHA
ReplyDeleteYour commentary is ALWAYS outstanding.
Thank you for the compliments. But you're no slouch when it comes to putting things into perspective either.
ReplyDelete