Let's face facts: #OccupyWallStreet isn't going to accomplish anything unless somehow the movement starts costing our lizard people overlords money. LOTS of money. Because money is all that our lizard people overlords from planet Sociopath care about. Not ethics. Not morality. Not fairness. Not human decency (remember, they're LIZARD people, they view humanity as PREY, not as fellow travelers through the brief flash of time we call "life"). Money. That's it.
This is what has bothered me about protest chic for quite some time. Protests are flashy and reporters love them. But let’s not forget that what took down segregation was not morality, was not protests, but, rather, that it was bad for business (same reason the Vietnam War ended). Mega-corporations only care about one color — green — that’s it, and being told they had to leave 20%+ of their profit on the floor in the South because of legally or socially enforced segregation forcing them to turn away black patrons had always chapped their ass in the post-WW2 period. The purpose of the Civil Rights marches and such was primarily to give them cover to do the right thing (for their profits).
And yes, MLK Jr. understood this. Economics was something he used both as a carrot and a stick when he was talking with elites. Remember that the whole point of getting Rosa Parks thrown in jail was to give the black community a rallying point for a strike against the bus companies that enforced segregation, it was never about being arrested as an end in and of itself, the way it is with today’s protest chic street theater.
Similarly, Mubarak got kicked out by the military not because the military agreed with the protesters, but because of a general strike — the entire economy was basically shut down for weeks, costing the military (which owns a lot of the Egyptian economy) a lot of money. The protests were important in rallying support for the general strike, but in and of themselves were just theater.
So anyhow, do Americans have the balls to shut down their economy to get rid of these cold-blooded lizard people from planet Sociopath who are in charge right now? I’m not seeing it. Things just aren’t bad enough for that yet. You’d have to see 1933 levels of misery that forced FDR to do his “New Deal” or be overthrown in a Communist revolution.Though if the Austerians continue their nonsense, that might well happen, and quick, either peacefully or by violent revolution… unfortunately, revolutions are won by the organized. And what’s organized in America is the religious right. You’d think that the lizard people would realize that the religious right with all their “thou shalt not”‘s is bad for profits too, but our modern-day lizard people seem to be a bit stupider than their 1950′s/1960′s counterparts. Too much inbreeding, I guess, since over 50% of them inherited their wealth and are thus the offspring of other lizard people…
- Badtux the Practical Penguin
Even though those sociopaths won't give up easily, that doesn't mean that the protests are useless. If they do nothing but encourage people to believe that they can make a difference (say by voting), there can be meaningful changes.
ReplyDeleteIs the government going to be overthrown? No. Are the super rich going to be rounded up and shot or even lose much power? No.
But even if people just vote for politicians who spend less on the military and more on things like education and infrastructure and social safety nets and fund it by taxing the mega rich just a wee bit more than they are taxed currently, that will make a huge difference. We probably don't need huge changes. Small changes can make a huge difference.
The question is, how do we turn a protest movement into something that convinces the sociopathic lizard people that it’s in their best interests to be nice to what is, to them, prey (since that’s what they view us as — not as fellow human beings)? But maybe that’s not something we can answer right now. Maybe the only path we can take right now is to keep making noise, keep protesting, and keep looking for that instant where we can make life harder for the lizard people and convince them that their prey needs to be treated better. Hey, the horse could learn to talk, right?
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Pragmatic Penguin
I don't think we have to convince those people of anything. We have to take their power away. Totally different things.
ReplyDeleteAnd by "taking their power away" I am not even talking about some kind of radical change. I'll consider these protests successful if all they do is get people to vote better or get certain presidents who will remain nameless to change their direction.
Have you read Paul Krugman today
Confronting the Malefactors: http://t.co/WKQWr2NH
If it's all about the Benjamins then we're doomed. The feds keep giving them free money almost on demand so they don't care whether the proletariat is spending or not (which we haven't been for some time: Q. E. D.). And with the 1% holding 40% of the wealth and another 9% holding another 40%, they don't even need our economic participation. The only thing that'll interfere with their making money (and thus their sociopathy) is global economic collapse, which would make everything moot anyway.
ReplyDeleteLynne, Krugman is still operating under the "if only the Tsar knew ... " delusion that our elites want to do the right thing but just need an excuse to do so. I'm not so sure.
ReplyDeleteBubbles -- yeah. Exactly.
I sure hope all you pessimistic types turn out to be wrong :) Honestly, I think there is some merit that nice people are not usually as ambitious for power as sociopaths so the powers that be probably does include more sociopaths per capita than the general population. But there are good people who are rich who are already doing the right thing. I might put you in that category ;)
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