I don’t often write about… serious things, and I even more rarely talk about them in a serious way. I prefer to talk about design, or rant about the world. Recent events, however brook no attempts at humor.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a “leftist” (or rather, I would, if you could define it for me). I might be a progressive, and I’m certainly liberal, which appears to be what brings much of Occupy Wall Street together, and for that reason, I’m OK with people not supporting OWS. It’s cool, we disagree.
… but if you’re okay with how those protests are being responded to by the powers that be, you either have brain damage, are an asshole, or have so little empathy you barely qualify as a human being.
http://eldan.co.uk/2011/11/abandoning-the-pretence-of-liberty/
… that should scare you, and if it doesn’t, I’d love to hear why.
Oh, and I promise I’ll go back to my normal subject matter, but this feels important
-yuk
Yeah, it sounds like there’s a lot of overreaction in some countries – the farce around St Paul’s in London, or the recent evictions. There’s been some talk in NZ about encouraging them to move on, but so far only one council has actually sought a court order, and the police haven’t shown much interest in carrying it out. Certainly, the Auckland protesters are harmless enough – a small crowd camped down one end of the town square, not getting in anyone’s way.
That said, I also think those local protesters are just wasting their time. They’re fairly quiet – it’s very much an occupation rather than an active protest – and just about invisible apart from the wall of signs. And the message those signs convey is very much confused – in theory they’re protesting inequality, but the “99%” theme used elsewhere is crowded out by banners for the greens, for the unions, the native rights movements… they’re lacking the identity that the US protests seem to have.