The Man can’t hear you

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.