Occupy Discussion

[Ghân-buri-Ghân]

vison, I am certain it was unintentional, but I wonder whether you noticed how unfortunate the juxtaposition of your response is to SirDennis's preceding posting? Black eyes all round, huh?

I didn't notice.

I won't change it, though.

Well...

Doing so would suggest that you were sorry for a juxtaposition that hadn't happened yet. Reminds me of Minority Report.

I like the allusion, but unfortunately, it doesn't quite fit here. vison's comment followed yours, so the juxtaposition had happened. Unless I am engaged in backward reading...

As for aiming for the eye: some claim (in the podcast I linked to for instance) doing so is with intent to kill. The bullets, though rubber, at a certain range can penetrate the orbital bone and enter the victim's brain. Blindness and a black eye are the bare minimum that landing a shot can deliver.

I am not aware of any reports that police in NA deliberately aim for the eyes of protesters. Though that canister shot to the veteran's face, and the canister lob that followed obviously were aimed to inflict injury. (Imagine going off to war, believing you were fighting for Western values and freedoms, and survived your tour of duty. Back home you are then shot in the face by an agent of the state, while exercising those freedoms.)

Although I am forced to admit that I find Naomi Wolf slightly irritating (partially because I once confused her with Naomi Klein, a commentator/activist of pretty impeccable credentials... and Canadian (vison )), I found this article in the Guardian quite persuasive, and most of all, disturbing. For years Alex Jones has been a bit of a guilty pleasure, and I freely admit that watching his productions was almost wholly for the entertainment value. Such hyperbole was obviously ridiculous. The shock is that it doesn't feel quite so ridiculous now. :|

[Primula Baggins]

Hey, I did, too, even though my brother has met Naomi Klein. He had a long conversation with her last month down at Occupy Wall Street and said she's an impressive person.

[SirDennis]

Good find GBG. I would prefer as much finger pointing at the banking industry and the Fed as at corrupt/self interested government officials and politicians. But government is the lynch-pin here, after all.

re: Naomi Klein. Yes before she was somebody she was a member (along with Sarah Pawley) of that social justice group I mentioned (the one lousy with infiltrators and agents provocateurs) on page one. She's made quite a name for herself since then.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

A good article in the SF Chronicle about the split in the Occupy movement, particularly in Oakland. I bet folks can guess which side I come down on:

Occupy Oakland protesters split over violence

[yovargas]

My brother, who lives in Oakland, has apparently gotten very into the Occupy thing. I still don't follow it and neither does almost anyone else, it feels like, but I'd be curious to hear other's opinion on posts like this from him:

Occupy is dead, anarchists ruin everything, protests are stupid, what is the goal, on and on and whatever.

But when you look at the big picture, has there ever been anything like the current global protest movement? From Arabs to Europeans to Americans. The youth are revolting the world over. In the rich countries the suppression apparatus of the state is so powerful and efficient that it doesn't feel like we're in a global revolution. But we really are. And it is not going to stop any time soon.

[vison]

I am sort of not following all this right now.

But in Quebec, a group of polisci students are obejcting to, you know, actually having to pay for their education. A little bit more than they have been This is "tyranny"!!!!!!!!!

If there is one thing Canada does not need it is another French Canadian political science student with idiotic ideas of entitlement. For the luvva pete. I cannot BELIEVE these kids.

No one cares, guys. Out in the real world real people are getting real educations, and there you are in that incestuous little world where you imagine that French-speaking Quebecer political science students matter to anyone anywhere at any time.

[River]

We had a student demonstration over rising tuition on my campus, in no small part because the tuition hike was accompanied by pay raises for our already very comfortable administrators. But there's much less government support for upper education in the US, and that pot is shrinking every year. It's impacting community colleges as well. Kids are getting priced out of a decent public education in the states they reside in (out-of-state tuition has always been high) and, in a society where you can't get much of anywhere without some post-secondary qualification, that's just not right.