Deciding to see what all the hubbub was about, I looked into their grievances. This was no mean feet as it was promptly obvious that the Occupy movement was a chaotic mob of rabble lacking a unified voice. What they wanted was childishly simple, and amounted at first to little more than "Gimme free stuff!"
To their credit the 20 something crowd managed to attract enough 30 & 40 somethings to create a halfway articulate list of demands for them, but even this is only the demands of a select few. In all their months of being a public nuisance, the only unity they seem to share is blaming others for their shortcomings.
Past the across the board scapegoating, Occupiers seem to have little in the way of unifying goals and objectives. While some have refined their rhetoric from the initial "Gimme free stuff!" whining, there appears to be no universal cause within the movement. What little collective grievances they present revolve around their "We are the 99%" meme which alludes to one percent of the American population holding ninety nine percent of the wealth. Ignored is the fact that the same one percent pays roughly thirty eight percent of all federal taxes, and the top ten percent pays over seventy percent of all federal taxes. These chronic failures to thrive devote their time creating conspiracies in which Big Business, the wealthy,and perhaps the government is responsible for their individual financial woes. Much like certain movements in recent history, the Occupiers couldn't possibly accept any of the blame for their predicament.
Now the bells are starting to ring in my head. I knew that I had seen this sort of blame displacement before, in Socialism. Nothing is our fault. We can't be to blame for mishandling our own money. Our cultural, social, educational, and financial problems are not of our own making. No need to engage in the painful process of looking inward to find the problem. It has nothing to do with our being booted out of college because we partied instead of studying. Unemployment couldn't have anything at all to do with the influx of women into the workforce or because new technologies have allowed mass production with less human work. Everything that is wrong with the country, the economy, and our lives is the fault of the
 |
| German Propaganda Poster Implying that Rich Jews Stabbed Germany in the Back |
Blame displacement and scapegoating is a time honored Socialist tradition. When a problem, be it real or imagined, is brought up, Socialists do not hesitate in casting the blame on some group while bidding for power. After Germany lost the first World war, the Socialists pointed their finger at the Jewish population. The Jew, not Germany, was to blame for their defeat, for the breaking of the German collective spirit, and even for the economic devastation the country underwent. Never mind that losing a war tends to break ones spirit. Ignore the undeniable fact that the war reparations imposed upon Germany were the actual cause of their deflated economy. Forget that a highly effective British navel blockade and the sinking of the Lusitania causing neutral powers to rally against Germany were the major causes of Germany's defeat. Just pick a scapegoat and offer Socialism as the cure. So to did Socialist Russia (USSR meant Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) blame the Jews and Capitalism for all their problems.
 |
| Trans: "Two worlds, Two plans: We Propagate Life. They sow death!" |
Likewise, when Socialism fails, and it always does, Socialists are never willing to admit that the failure is the inherent unworkability of Socialism. It is always the
This is the underlying theme of the Occupy movement. Zero personal accountability and an appeal to a Socialist gravy train to provide them a free ride, this despite there being no such thing as a free ride. Among their more ridiculous demands are universal debt forgiveness (Gimme the stuff I agreed to pay for for free!), free higher education (Gimme college for free!),and a guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment (Gimme money for free!!)
Other demands seem to make sense, at least at first. Expanding the power of the EPA in order to cap greenhouse gas really seems like a worthy cause, at least until you realize that this will drive energy costs through the roof, meaning that only the 1% will be able to afford it. It also flies in the face of more juvenile demands to both increase research into fossil fuel energy alternatives and dismantle nuclear power plants. Excuse me for asking, but isn't nuclear power an alternative to fossil fuels?
It is hard for one not to notice that most of the Occupy demands require a lot of money to fulfill. And where do you think that this money is going to come from? Well grab your tights, don your green feathered caps, and hoist your yew longbows, because our would-be Robin Hoods propose that we eat the rich in order to finance their free ride. They seem utterly convinced that the majority of the 1% inherited their wealth instead of working for it. Equal is their conviction that the monetary gravy train from the 1% is a bottomless well. This does give one pause to wonder why then they began their protest at Wall Street, since most of the 1% inherited their money. And even then, why the anger at Wall Street investors? They are actually angry that some people chose to engage in an activity which can land them buckets of money, and actually managed to land buckets of money? OMG, how horrible!
.jpg) |
| The Socialist Solution |
And yet Occupy is strangely silent on Ashton Kutcher's earning $700,000 per episode for Two and a Half Men, somewhat less than former star Charlie Sheen who pulled in $1,250,000 an episode during his run. I guess there is nothing wrong with the top 50 atheletes earning a combined $1.4 billion in a single year either. After all, actors & atheletes don't figure into the Socialist finger pointing. The goal is to dismantle free enterprise and hand absolute control over to government agencies. Entertainment is a needed opiate in that environment.
But enough of my explaining how the Occupy movement is nothing more than a Socialist movement. If people can't see that much, no level of explanation is going to penetrate their dense heads. Neither will the innumerable examples of Socialisms failures convince them that Socialism simply does not work, as they will perpetually invoke the claim that
Instead, let me turn to another 99%. This 99% is composed of true failures. These poor wretches lacked what it took to survive. While the 1% was busy industriously carving out niches, the 99% got busy dying. No doubt if the 99% had the language skills to do so they would have blamed the 1% for their failures. And in some cases the 1% had inherited something valuable that aided in their success. This does not mean that the 1% were in any way at fault for the failure of the 99%. The simple fact of the matter is that the 99% were not resourceful enough, not adaptive enough, not lucky enough to succeed.
 | |||
| Trilobite: We Are The 99% |
 | |||
| Megalodon: We Are The 99% |
 | |
| Archaeopteryx: We Are The 99% |
 | ||
| Macrauchenia: We Are The 99% |
 | |
| Homo Habilis: We Are The 99% |
You got it. Fully 99% of all life that has ever existed on earth is extinct. Most of that life went extinct well before humanity or politics were even in the picture. Many things contributed to these extinctions, but rarely was it the fault of other life. Some species managed to survive due to genetic inheritance which gave them adaptive advantages. Others, lacking those genetic perks, carved out niches and granted their accumulated perks to their offspring. This was not a game of social fairness, this was a fact of survival. Had the 99% then been granted a voice and forced the 1% to support them, none of us would be here today. Nor would the million or so other species which inhabit our planet. Resources have always been limited, and always will be. While nature has maintained a balance in the past through culling the weak, advances in technology now allow humanity to bypass nature and prolong life. Meanwhile we continue obeying one of those genetic perks that encourages us to reproduce, straining the balance to the breaking point. Were that not enough, we use another inherited gift, intelligence, to create social and political structures alongside well meaning but misguided ethical campaigns which damage that delicate balance even more.
The world cannot support countless billions of people. Finger pointing at who consumes or has the most will not fix this problem. Diverting the limited resources of one successful group in order to maintain a less successful group won't fix it either. We certainly can't expect a government entity to fix the problem. FedEx and UPS would not exist if the government could adequately manage mail delivery. Private schools would not consistently produce better educated students at half the cost of public education if the government could efficiently handle education. Incompetence, greed, and corruption will be found in any government institution, and this includes Socialism.The sheer idiocy of handing all affairs over to a bureaucracy is appalling.
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. Those are not my words, but penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Fall of 1778. We have seen this hold true throughout history and will doubtless see it yet again as new generations ignore the lessons and turn their backs upon the gifts of wisdom bestowed upon them by their ancestors. How quickly the stagnation and decay of the former Soviet Union are forgotten. George Santayana is credited with saying "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
It seems then that unless the Occupiers will direct their gaze to the past and see the naive folly of their demands, they will continue to try dragging the world into tyranny and ruin until they have made us all a part of the 99%
 |
| We Are The 1% |
No comments:
Post a Comment