I continue to be fascinated with the Occupy Wall Street protests. I can't help but notice points of comparison with the Tea Party protests, as certain positions have been reversed. Mainly, where patriotism or anger-as-hate was seen in the Tea Party, it has now reversed position on Occupy Wall Street in many quarters.
What a loss! Blind partisanship and tribalism can be so debilitating. I believe there is great common ground to be shared, if Tea Partiers care to unite with Occupiers. How hard is it for both sides to agree that government shouldn't have bailed out financial institutions, especially if the money was going to be spent on executive bonuses and the like? The common ground is injustice.
The common ground for anger is the injustice of crony capitalism, which isn't capitalism at all, but corporatism. The transfer of wealth from the many to the few is unjust. Period. Focus on that, and the movements can merge and become a dazzlingly effective, powerful force. Otherwise, the left and the right will snipe at each other over so many things, many of which are far from substantial, and the energy will be wasted.
2 comments:
"I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half." -- Jay Gould.
Half can be seen in the Tea Party and the other half in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The culture war between the two factions is probably such that they won't ever combine to address the "great vampire squid[s] wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money."
With that quote, you did the kind of well poisoning that leads to distracted factionalism.
Yes, arriving at common ground will require letting go of some absolutes. Some will have to let go of the notion that business can do no wrong. Others will have to let go of the notion that government can do no wrong. The question is, which is more important: self-gratification, or results?
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