OWS in Crisis

[Geee]

National Review:


Occupy Wall Street is wandering in the desert. This much was made clear on New Year’s Day. Sitting at the airport in London waiting for my flight back to America, I watched a stream of hysterical tweets from OWS’s Twitter account. They described the attempted “reoccupation” of New York City in terms usually reserved for genuine crises. It was 4 a.m. on the East Coast, and the occupiers were in the midst of an attempt to grab the first headlines of 2012 — ostensibly by encouraging their members to get themselves arrested, which is apparently the new metric of revolutionary success.

When I landed at JFK, I expected to find all sorts of stories filling the Web and to head straight down to Zuccotti Park to see what had happened. After all, the disproportionate media coverage that OWS received — which was more in line with the protesters’ deluded sense of self-importance than commensurate with the public’s interest or the coherence of their aims — was its greatest achievement of 2011. But there was nothing, and nor was there much sign of OWS in New York. In the seven hours I had been out of touch with those on the ground, America’s media had gone wild with apathy and OWS had gone home. Evidently, occupying is so last year.


Having been cleared out of most of its major encampments — New York, Oakland, Portland, Los Angeles — the occupation is now homeless. This presents it with something of a problem. The sine qua nonof an occupation is that its practitioners have to stay put (the clue is rather in the title), but the occupiers have now been rendered nomads. They have not quite reverted to diffusion — prior to congregating on September 17 last year, its members were living variously and waiting for the next G8 — but are now a wandering rump, in search of a new tactic. They seem to have settled upon flashmob-esque descents on major public spaces, which are keenly filmed in the craven hope that something bad happens. In New York so far this year, their sets have been Grand Central Terminal and Broadway. (The latter being a suitable home for many involved, perhaps.) They may be coming soon to a sidewalk near you.

Once they’ve assembled, we have heard the same old misunderstanding of the First Amendment that characterized last year’s hijinks: that it legitimizes all behavior, providing that such behavior is in support of political protest. “OWS blocked Broadway! Being moved away by police. WTF!?” read one New Year’s Day tweet. WTF? It seems rather self-explanatory to me.

[Casino67]

I wonder if OWS'ers realize that they have accomplished absolutely nothing? Well, maybe they have embarrassed the Dems, but little else. Ruined a few businesses that happened to be near where they were camping out.

[RandyM]

I wonder if OWS'ers realize that they have accomplished absolutely nothing? Well, maybe they have embarrassed the Dems, but little else. Ruined a few businesses that happened to be near where they were camping out.

 

 

But they did accomplish something: they captured the slobbering adulation of the media. And I am convinced that was one of their primary objectives.

[Valin]

I wonder if OWS'ers realize that they have accomplished absolutely nothing? Well, maybe they have embarrassed the Dems, but little else. Ruined a few businesses that happened to be near where they were camping out.

 

 

Given the amount of things they don't know. there's a better than average chance that they don't.

 

Everyone repeat after me OWS is just like the Tea Party

[Valin]

 

 

 

But they did accomplish something: they captured the slobbering adulation of the media.

 

Could we set the bar a bit higher?