OWS: The angry mob

However, our society’s institutions operate from the opposite principle, which is pity for those who are not succeeding. In an effort to take away the sting of failure, they have for the past 200 years embarked on a program of convincing us that we are all equal and thus, if we aren’t rich, we are victims of the rich.

Rational thought and conversation is an impossible idea today, we have people who know what they want but never consider how to get it. All they care about is getting the results that seem most just for them, forget about the way it was done. If that man became a millionaire because of years of 16 hour work days, a good education, and a dedication to his career that means nothing, why is he so rich and I am so poor?

In fact, when you think about it, the entire message of the Occupy Wall Street crowd is a social message, not a practical one. They don’t talk about cause and effect. They gather together a big group of unhappy people and validate that unhappiness by scapegoating Wall Street.

A social message is always the easiest ones to feed the masses because it requires no critical thought just an emotional response like people screaming; “Democracy!” “Equality!” “Social Justice!” “Freedom!” None of them can tell you though what exactly democracy is, how equality can function in the world when it never has before, why social justice is better than liberty of the individual, and what restrictions must be placed upon freedom to actually allow it to function. Ask them to elaborate on their positions and they will not know how to respond.

You will not see any voices in our mass media or politics mention this because, since 1789, politicians have learned to fear the resentful crowd and its guillotining/lynching tendencies. But don’t be fooled. What you see out there are not the architects of our future. It’s an angry, thoughtless mob.

My thoughts exactly.

Source

Change takes time,

First step: get people to care, the easiest way to do this is through emotion

Second step: create a clear reason and a set of demands of what is wanted

Third step: fight until your desired reality comes to pass

We are still in between step one and two, give it time

reply to post by Misoir


Mobs are easy. They require no articulation, no planning, no logistical support, no clean up.
Maobs are quick to put together. They are fueled by base emotions.
A mob is like fishing with hand grenades. It has no tact, and while it may appear to get the job done, it (in reality) just leaves a huge mess.

However, haven't the rich profited greatly at the expense of the poor? In fact, during the crash of 2008, weren't there people who made a crapload of money off of the failure of the financial system? In fact, didn't those same rich people who in their greed and avarice that initially caused our current financial climate receive what amounts to welfare for their failure?

It would be nice if we got to the even playing field that conservatives dream of. The idea that win or lose it's up to you, and if you fail, you fail alone. However, when the deck is stacked against the poor continuously by the wealthy, doesn't it seem that the inequities of that system come in sharp contrast?

I fail, I lose my job, I have few options, I eek by on what I can, and beg for work among those that now are apparently to timid to do what is now a strange and foreign concept of business. The rich fail, they receive a mass bailout so that they don't fail, and they reward themselves and those of their own ilk with millions in bonuses of taxpayer money.

The rich have the means to educate themselves and their children far beyond the means of the peasantry of this country, all the while, they whine about how much they are taxed, complain about how the poor receive "entitlements", and strive to strip those same poor of their basic right to jus soli citizenship.

If it were truly a just and even playing field, maybe it wouldn't cost a person of the middle class 3 times the value of a modest home when they get a mortgage, while a rich person can buy an estate at cost or below paying just the value.

It is true that the poorer you are, the more you have to spend for the same goods and services. That's not equality among the classes, that is a disproportionate amount of money being spent by one class over another.

There's a lot of inequality in this country and those that caused this economic recession haven't had to be held accountable for the mess they created.

reply to post by Misoir


Let me guess, you love to see a tea party protest just not this?

The original Boston Tea Party... The first famous American angry mob...

Don't underestimate the power and influence of an angry mob...

Personally, I got no problem with wealthy individuals. It's the ever-growing Mega-Corporations and their control of our Government that I take issue with...

reply to post by HauntWok


Man was born with natural rights which are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Nowhere in there does it say anything about a “level playing field” or “equal opportunities” it says you are born free and make of it as you will. Equality is the rallying cry of the jealous, revenge seeking mob because they were not successful as someone else was/is. There can be no happiness until everyone is as equally miserable as you are. This way the successful can be demonized for your shortcomings.

I accept that there is foul play going on in Washington and on Wall Street and elsewhere but that does not mean we need to call for ‘equality’, we need to call for transparency and accountability. When you violate the law whether it is civil or moral, you should be held accountable either through the courts or through social pressure. It is freedom; nothing is more beneficial to human evolution and civil society than the idea of ‘sink-or-swim’.

reply to post by ShogunAssassins


I do not believe the Tea Party protests to be a mob, per se, but even with that said I still never liked the TPM, never attended a protest, or supported their movement overall in any way. Both protests are stupid in my opinion.

reply to post by Misoir
If I may. . .
We are born with equal oppourtunities.
NOT equal outcomes.

reply to post by Misoir


Which protests are not stupid, in your opinion?

All protests are good. We need to keep protesting what we feel is right.

reply to post by beezzer


You are wrong in that all forms of equality require force. We are entitled to freedom, period. It is something which cannot be given to you only taken away. By that there can be no equality in anything whether it is opportunity or outcome because someone born to a wealthy family is born naturally with an advantage over someone who is born poor but through freedom each is free to sink or swim, there is nothing equal about liberty.

reply to post by UnaChispa


There is not any single protest that I can point to which has been good. Many have been good in intention but horrible in action. The Civil Rights protests, when they were peaceful, perhaps demonstrate the best form of productive protesting because it had a clear and conscious goal with the proper steps already established to enact its end desire.

reply to post by Misoir
Rich or poor, we are all born with the ability to achieve. Are wealthy folks given an advantage? Sure. But any of us are born with the inate freedom to control our own destinies. Outcomes should not be predetermined. By doing that, you deprive a population of the risks involved with success.

I firmly believe that we are all born to be the captains of our own destinies.

Back home, I like to fish. I have a beat-up zebco rod n' reel. A small tacklebox with some sluggos, crickets, weights, needle nose pliers.
One day I was fishing with someone who spent time telling me how much his reel cost. How much his graphite rod cost. The size of his tacklebox wouldn't fit in the trunk of a car!
He caught nothing.
I caught my limit.

As I was leaving (he was complaining) I turned to him and said, "Fish don't care how much you spent."

It was the work, MY WORK, that caught the fish.

Not the price tag.

reply to post by Misoir

I accept that there is foul play going on in Washington and on Wall Street and elsewhere but that does not mean we need to call for ‘equality’, we need to call for transparency and accountability.

Precisely the inequity I am talking about. They aren't and weren't held accountable for their actions, but instead were rewarded for their failure. A reward you or I would never see.

When you violate the law whether it is civil or moral, you should be held accountable either through the courts or through social pressure. It is freedom; nothing is more beneficial to human evolution and civil society than the idea of ‘sink-or-swim’.

However this doesn't happen.

And furthermore, the inequities of this social structure go further, with the rich preying on the poor through lobby groups and special interests and media propaganda convincing people that the problem is that the poor are for some reason lazy or inept and unworthy of any opportunities to better themselves.

They further justify separating the rich and the poor through such ideas as the repeal of the 14th Amendment. A fight ostensibly to rid the US of illegal aliens and their children, but each and every single one of these proposals fail to explain how exactly a person would become a natural born citizen. Most likely this will result in an exorbitant fee to be paid by the parents of children in order to purchase for them the right to be called a citizen of the United States. Eliminating the poor from opportunity to better themselves.

Further exacerbating this move by the well to do, to separate themselves from the poor is the idea of eliminating public education. This is of course explained as it would be up to the states themselves to provide or not a public education system. When in reality, what they really want is to make sure that the poor are forced to eek by on a sub standard education removing them any opportunity to better themselves compared to the rich. While the rich would be able to afford private education for their offspring, the poor would be forced to educate their children themselves.

These two ideas proposed and popularized by the Conservative "Messiah" Ron Paul only will end in creating a slave caste in our society. Opportunities will be limited and for the most part non existent. Especially if the poor can't even be called citizens of the country of their birth.

This certainly doesn't live up to the promise that each man is born equal.