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The Man can’t hear you

October 7, 2011 by Dave Knadler

All fired up and no place to go.

It’s hard not to sympathize with the Occupy Wall Street movement, even if , like them, I have no idea what they’re trying to accomplish. As far as I can tell, it’s generally about sticking it to The Man. I’m perfectly fine with that. But who’s The Man? More importantly, where is The Man? The protesters have some harshly-worded statements they’d like to share, but he never seems to be around.

Unfortunately, The Man is in a meeting. He has pressing appointments. He has offices on the upper floors, and arrives at work behind tinted glass. You can leave a message with his secretary, but he won’t get back to you. Nor will any of the signs and chants will have the slightest effect on him. The protestors could set themselves on fire en masse, and The Man would remain unaware of it because he has to take this important call. If the protesters had a lot of money, and could buy lobbyists the way they buy lattes, then he might be worried. But only enough to buy more and better lobbyists to neutralize them. And that wouldn’t take much, because so far Occupy Wall Street hasn’t articulated any coherent strategy to oppose.

The problem is, vague idealism has no power to erode the plutocracy. Money talks, and all the money concentrated at the top has reached critical mass: now it’s the only thing that talks.  The rest is just jerky video and clever slogans. Can’t somebody at least write a song?

The uber-wealthy fear just two things: Threats to their wealth and threats to their personal safety.  Being a peaceful man, I’d go with Plan A.  We already know that a fairer tax structure has no chance of getting through the current Congress, but maybe that can be the lens that focuses all this hippy-dippy fervor into something politically useful. Passion is pointless without a leader and a goal.

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Filed Under: Other Stuff, politics

Comments

  1. John H. says

    October 7, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    “Can’t somebody at least write a song?”

    All I can say about this is: be careful what you wish for.

    “Passion is pointless without a leader and a goal.”

    Sort of off-topic, but this is why I’ve never liked the band Nirvana. They always sounded very depressed and pissed off about… other people? Life in general? Hard to tell, and annoying to listen to. Give me The Clash any day. At least you know why they’re angry and what they want to do about it. Plus, they had a sense of humor. Come to think of it, maybe some Clash songs would work for the Occupy folks.

  2. Joan says

    October 17, 2011 at 12:11 am

    It may be futile, but it seems to be developing a life of its own. If it annoys Eric Cantor, it can’t be all bad . . .

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