MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Well reasoned and well written, a Libertarian perspective on OWS.
"Almost everything about the execution of yesterday’s eviction of protesters from Zuccotti Park was an outrage, from the interference with reporters seeking to cover the event, to the needless destruction of protesters’ property, to Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s stunningly lawless disregard for a court order restraining the city. But on the underlying question of whether the city must allow any group to set up a tent city in public space indefinitely, I think Doug Mataconis gets it right: There’s no First Amendment right to camp out in a park, and no reason to think that there’s anything constitutionally offensive about a content-neutral rule designed to ensure that public parks can continue to be used as, well, parks. People, of course, have every right to speak their mind in public (or, in this instance, quasi-public) space. But laying down dozens of tents and announcing that you and your friends intend to live there indefinitely always sounded suspiciously like an attempt to, in effect, privatize that public space."
Comments
Sanchez says:
I feel strongly that I have often seen this same argument in many self-selected "communities" of the liberal blogosphere (except that of course they blame "the conservative media" instead of "the liberal media.") Actually, one of the things I find intriguing about OWS is a stubborn insistence on the part of a lot of the die-hards to get actual real consensus first before defining what they think "the 99%" agrees upon. Yes, reality is that they do have the problem of most average working--or otherwise busy--joes and jills not being able to attend and vote at "general assembly." But at least they're trying, rather than opining in a bubble in the blogosphere, where few disagree, that the majority of "the American people" would go along with one's own ideology if not for the stranglehold of the propaganda those others supposedly have over them.
by artappraiser on Thu, 11/17/2011 - 11:37am
Yes, I like how OWS seeks a very high-level of consensus.
Also, their unwillingness to initially define themselves probably elevated and extended media coverage. That not only piqued curiosity but made it difficult for the media and other powers that be to demiss them with a familiar label. Unfortunately, the problem with that is if it takes too long to self-identify, other people may end up defining OWS.
by EmmaZahn on Thu, 11/17/2011 - 6:49pm