The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Rootman's picture

    We Are All Naked, Enjoy the Drums

    By Rootman on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 7:37am |

    There is a camp here that believes Occupy Wall Street is not leading and not defining a vision. But we don't live in a totalitarian state that requires a revolutionary vanguard. Our chains are of our own making. So the value of OWS is not to lead, but just to say, "Hey, the emperor is wearing our clothes, and we are all naked -- and he made us believe we weren't!"

    So you can find OWS to be incredibly frustrating in its inclusiveness, its tolerance, and its unwillingness to fine-tune beyond what 99% of people will (or should) accept as obvious: that we have been screwed by the 1%; corporate media; corporate ownership of both the electoral process and our representative government; etc.

    The rest is up to the parties and our own groups that focus on solutions. In the meantime, enjoy the drums.

    It can't be watched enough:

     

     

    Comments

    Wanting a "revolutionary vanguard" isn't about desiring a "totalitarian state". It's about wanting a ship with a rudder. In the past, it just wasn't possible to have a (successful) movement this large without some sort of concentrated leadership. Without concentrated leadership it would result in cacophony. Maybe technology has changed enough now to do away with it, though. I don't know. An interesting analogy is to high-performance planes with negative stability compensated by complex fly-by-wire systems. What used to be impossible can become desirable.


    by Verified Atheist on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 9:41am

    In the meantime, enjoy the drums

    Drums of War?

    Watch as they kick the protesters out of the parks, and maybe onto reservations?

    Help us Great White  Black father?

    These protests are a cry for help, but whose going to help; the judges, the politicians, the banker class, all working for the owners of this country. As they steal everything from us.

    Owners: "You want to call a general strike, go ahead we'll bring in millions of  more immigrants willing to work. You want to make demands on our manufacturing companies, we'll move offshore. Go ahead, beat your Tom Toms, were not the least bit afraid." 


    by Resistance on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 10:34am

    Aw, heck. I couldn't get the vid to work. I've seen other #OWS drumming vids, though. I understand a lot of folks don't like the noise. Mebbe if they'd been conditioned by pow wow drum circles like I have, it wouldn't be so... inconveniently loud.

    Music to my ears!


    by wabby on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 12:05pm

    Marie Antoinette, it turns out, is not dead after all. She's on WSJ and giving interviews.

    One thing worth remembering is that this "what do they want?" stuff is disingenuous. Both these people know what Occupy Wall Street means, and they're very invested in trying to drive a wedge between the protesters and the ordinary people who would never dream of going (or be able to go) to the park. Because it is very much in their interest to keep those numbers low.


    by erica20 on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 6:47pm

    Yes, keep the numbers low.


    by Peter Schwartz on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 10:36pm

    These are early days to be talking about revolutionary vanguards... many people are still trying to understand the "99%" business which is baby talk for the "class struggle". Every journey they say begins with a single step... OWS may be that first step. Wait and see.

    by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 10:21am