This originally appeared under an old blog, Compassionate Asshole, that I had running for a short while.
Original Posting – 10/26/11.
Quite frankly I would be more compassionate if the Occupy (insert city here) demonstrators had a more concise message and delivery method. Being upset with corporate identities is an automatic banner filler but protesting corporate greed while blogging on ipads and smartphones while sipping on a Cafe Latte from the corner Starbucks seems a little counter-intuitive.
One of the beauties of America is that you can publicly voice your displeasure on just about any injustice, real or perceived. The only caveat is that if you overstate your message and thereby overstay your welcome then your presence on public property degrades from an event to a curious but irritating sideshow. I think that in Atlanta, Kasim Reed tactfully respected the art of demonstration but recognized it was time to remind everyone of that old Benjamin Franklin idiom, ‘Company, like fish, stinks after three days’. He also recognized the other aspect of crowd gathering, it is a magnet for tagalongs and others that have a more dire intent. He strategically established a limit to how much money and patience would be spent the next time around and to the fact that having a message does not entitle you to dip your hand into the public coffers. This is America and everything is based on costs, even public demonstrations.
The message that the ‘Occupiers’ tried to convey in Atlanta and is continuing in other parts of the country still remains fuzzy but the core seems to be social and economic inequality, corporate greed, corporate power and influence over government, and of lobbyists. Sources indicate that these demonstrations were inspired by the group Adbuster in Canada (we have now outsourced our own protests) who has fronted similar protests and with similar empty results. All of these subjects have been debated ever since money was invented and will continue to be. I would have had more respect for these demonstrations if they had protested the Democratic and Republican money mongers residing in Washington and their curious habit of exalting the pains of America while being privileged with wealth themselves.
As far as social inequality, the protesters in Atlanta were given equal treatment. If you break the law, you are equally arrested.
Time for a latte.