On OWS

I've been getting many requests from current and former students about the Occupy Wall St. (OWS) movement.  There seem to be a few things going on with OWS: hypocrisy, planning and cognitive dissonance.

The hypocrisy is almost off the charts.  Much of the protesters seem to be against "big corporations".  However, Apple Computer and Google don't seem to 'count'.  Many of the protesters have iPhones, and use them to record the events at the protests.  The videos get uploaded to YouTube (owned by Google), and are seen by many.  One has to wonder why AAPL and GOOG don't seem to count as "big corporations".  I have a good friend, Mr. Topgun Technologist himself, who works at the Apple Store.  I've asked him many times over the past few weeks if there have been any protests in front of the Apple Store, but there have been none.  If Wall St. is the epicenter of Big Corporate, then why do some corporations get a pass?  And what about the people who make the criminal decisions within the corporation?  Why are they not named?  How about the people who make the horrid decisions getting prosecuted?  Treating the corporation as a monolithic entity rife with evil is childish and ignorant.  The people at the top of these companies don't work on Wall St. anyway - they work remotely or from their homes.  How about we have an "Occupy Greenwich, Connecticut"?

There seems to be a bit of planning here.  There are simply too many coincidences.  The medieval monk style of chanting that the OWS uses in ALL of the protests is simply too much to take.  This type of repetitious babble went out of style in the 1200's.  To have it reincarnated now in 2011 - all over the world is simply too fantastic to take seriously.  They ALL decide to use the same form of chant?  Really?  All of the major Democratic politicians are also endorsing the OWS movement.  The independent journalists (please ignore the MSM) who have followed the money with regard to OWS have all come to the same conclusion.  To think that this is an 'organic' movement, a spontaneous event that 'happened' is the product of a limited intellect.

My main issue with this is the cognitive dissonance inherent in the supporters of OWS.  Many of the supporters and participants are left leaning statists who look to the government for healthcare, education, security, and retirement.  Now that the police have gone into places like Zuccotti Park and forcibly removed the protesters and their paraphernalia, people are accusing the NYPD of police brutality.  What did they expect from The State?  The government does everything by force: taxes, compulsory schooling, speed limits, TSA grope - why would this be different?  We've gotten to the PFC Santiago part of this debate. If you look to the government for all things, why are you surprised when it uses its enforcement arm against you?  You simply cannot have it both ways.

I guess this is the part that is most surprising to me, that the people do not realize what The State is.  They shouldn't be surprised.  Perhaps they are less naive now that their master has put them in their place.  If you take the government's nickel, you also take its noose.