[ExI] The twists & turns of politics & idealism (was: The End of the Future)

[Amon Zero]

2011/10/5 spike <spike66 at att.net>

> *
> *
>
> Good idea.  Note the difference between a tea party rally and Occupy Wall
> Street.  I read the signs for Occupy and I am completely flummoxed.  I don’t
> know what they want.  Do you?  It is easy to tell how the tea party feels,
> but Occupy seems like a huge collection of incompatible elements.  OK, so
> now you have occupied Wall Street.  Now what?  The business that goes on
> there doesn’t necessarily require physical presence.
>


Hey Spike -

Yeah, I agree entirely. I do sympathise greatly with the Occupy protestors,
but I don't believe that their protests will change anything significant.
There just isn't any mechanism in place for such a change. The best they
could hope for would be to spark something else more effective, or to sap
the establishment's political will to push through particular initiatives
(but the protests are too vague - and the situation too late - for even
that, I think). This is of course nothing new, and is common to most large
"left-wing" flavoured protests which involve disparate factions coming
together over one issue: there isn't a clear goal or positive message, just
a rejection of some state of affairs. A movement that could offer viable
alternatives to flawed models or clear, effective goals at the very least
would be a vast improvement.

The other thing I should point out is that I'm not anti-Capitalist, per se.
As it said in the leaflet, I 'merely' advocate a society in which capitalism
has a healthy role and level of influence within society, but is not allowed
disproportionate control. Capitalism (or the banking system, more
specifically) should not be the be-all and end-all of society, in my
opinion.

- A
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