Overwhelmingly but with some exceptions, participants in the Occupy movement have adopted, often explicitly, nonviolence as a method of action. However, in some places there are those who argue for "a diversity of tactics," which basically seems to consist of throwing things at cops.
Presumably such people believe that this is the best way to win over the hearts and minds of the 99 percent they claim to represent.
Sorry, but the most charitable thing I can say about that approach is that it is, in one of the Spousal Unit's favorite phrases, "dumber than dog ****." I say that not only as someone who works for a Quaker organization that promotes nonviolence, but also as a gun owning Gandhi-allergic Scotch Irish hillbilly with a black belt.
This has nothing to do with any belief on my part regarding the moral arc of the universe, the evidence for which is underwhelming to me most days. It comes down to this: as much as some seem to like throwing stuff as a method of change, the rulers generally have way more stuff to throw. And they can throw it harder. Second, most people are not all that turned on by the sight of people throwing stuff.
It seems to me but simple prudence to avoid giving one's opponent the excuse and/or ability to crush and/or totally discredit and isolate you unless there is a compelling reason to do so and I don't imagine that happens very often.
As a friend of mine once said about ultra "left" groups that engage in provocative action, "If they're not getting paid by the other side, they're getting ripped off."
IT'S MONDAY so it's gotta be Krugman bashing austerity.
HISTORY IS MESSY, so the Tennessee Tea Party wants to clean it up--by keeping slavery and such unsavory matters of American history out of the textbooks.
WHAT IS 24 MILLION GENERATIONS? If we were playing Jeopardy, that would be the number required for mouse sized mammals to evolve to elephant proportions assuming natural selection was favorable.
GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED
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1 comment:
I wouldn't rule out them being paid or just freelancers.
However it has been my experience that in any organization that has a great degree of tolerance and grace at it's core - as well as a sort of communitarian bent that there is a certain element that joins itself to it that aims to exploit the support and freedom it offers.
Just like where the white part of the Yin Yang has the little dot of black reminding us there are not absolutes in a relative universe even mostly good movements have to deal with a certain dark element that can threaten the majority.
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