The Cellar - Wall Street Protests

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Funny,

Occupy Wall Street Protests Spread Across the Country With No Unified Message

http://abcnews.go.com/US/occupy-wall...ry?id=14696466

Quote:

Originally Posted by SamIam (Post 761778)

Well, there's nothing wrong with making a profit. The problem occurs when companies and CEO's get into the "its never enough" mindset. The problem occurs when profit is worshiped to the exclusion of all else. The problem occurs when the end justifies the means, no matter how immoral or destructive to society at large those means usually are.

I don't think its a matter of the corps or CEO's "hating" the nation. They are indifferent to the nation. All that matters is money which buys power which allows for grabbing more money, etc. The nation and its people are just things which must be manipulated, stepped over or stepped on in the quest for "more". But a CEO doesn't hate the American people any more than you or I might hate an ant we happen to step on.

Well I am quite sure these protests are going to put a stop to all of that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 762166)

Well I am quite sure these protests are going to put a stop to all of that!

Eric Cantor, the Republican majority leader, also expressed the same contempt for Americans who now suffering due to his political agenda, trickle down econmics (also called voodoo economic), Misson Accomplished, and other lies.

Eric Cantor is also most cited for subverting any compromise to solve economic problems. His attitude towards the American worker is similar to TheMercenary's. It's their own fault.

The exciting thing about these protests, I think, is only just starting: the part where economists and philosophers and social scientists start to get involved. So many political conversations dead end with "well, that could never happen in today's political climate."

This might be a chance to re-evaluate what the political climate really is; to start with the possibilities of human reality, and then work out how to make it a political reality.

Slavoj Zizek at OWS

Quote:

Don't fall in love with yourselves, with the nice time we are having here. Carnivals come cheap—the true test of their worth is what remains the day after, how our normal daily life will be changed. Fall in love with hard and patient work—we are the beginning, not the end. Our basic message is: the taboo is broken, we do not live in the best possible world, we are allowed and obliged even to think about alternatives.[...]

In mid-April 2011, the media reported that Chinese government has prohibited showing on TV and in theatres films which deal with time travel and alternate history, with the argument that such stories introduce frivolity into serious historical matters—even the fictional escape into alternate reality is considered too dangerous. We in the liberal West do not need such an explicit prohibition: ideology exerts enough material power to prevent alternate history narratives being taken with a minimum of seriousness. It is easy for us to imagine the end of the world—see numerous apocalyptic films -, but not end of capitalism.

In an old joke from the defunct German Democratic Republic, a German worker gets a job in Siberia; aware of how all mail will be read by censors, he tells his friends: “Let's establish a code: if a letter you will get from me is written in ordinary blue ink, it is true; if it is written in red ink, it is false.” After a month, his friends get the first letter written in blue ink: “Everything is wonderful here: stores are full, food is abundant, apartments are large and properly heated, movie theatres show films from the West, there are many beautiful girls ready for an affair—the only thing unavailable is red ink.” And is this not our situation till now? We have all the freedoms one wants—the only thing missing is the red ink: we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom. What this lack of red ink means is that, today, all the main terms we use to designate the present conflict—'war on terror,' "democracy and freedom,' 'human rights,' etc—are FALSE terms, mystifying our perception of the situation instead of allowing us to think it. You, here, you are giving to all of us red ink.

I have a better plan....

All corps should lay off all their workers for one month without pay and shut their doors and see if they are worthy of any part of this process. If they are so evil they should just shut their doors and shut off the lights.

Merc, that guy lives on the street adn is in no way what OWS is about.
He says "google me the lotion man on youtube."
I suggest you take him up on it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 762320)

I have a better plan....

How would that help? Whats the point?

You know what is really funny? These fools protesting are all upset about corps while the NBA is on strike over a 3% difference in profit sharing that involve billions of dollars. Yet no one is all over sports teams. No one is marching on the fool idiots of Hollywood. Yet they point the barrel of their weapon at the very machine that keeps the economy humming along and if it stopped, they would all starve and most likely be killed as a source of food. They don't have a plan or a clue....

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 762333)

How would that help? Whats the point?

Unless I'm wrong, he is trying to make the point that financial companies and banks play an important role in our economy and affect everyone. Although, by making a hyperbole, he is trying to cut any conversation about reform, which is what the OWSers are going after (besides a few individuals but you cannot generalize with that).

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman (Post 762333)

How would that help? Whats the point?

"Going Galt", from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Where the rich people run away and form their own society to teach the poor people a lesson.

At Occupy Seattle, local police are citing drivers who honk their horns in support of the demonstrators.

From the local news:

Quote:

Starting at 11 p.m. Friday, police started pulling over and ticketing drivers who honked as they drove past protesters.

When the first car - a taxicab - was pulled over, the protesters followed and shouted at police who then formed a blockade around the driver's cab.

The cab driver was then given a $144 ticket - and protesters ended up handing him money afterwards to help pay for his fine.

"I'm really sorry this happened to you tonight, man," one protester said to the cab driver.

There are numerous copies of the news video.

Awe hell, maybe they should just shoot at them... :rolleyes:

Than you would be completely happy....

Economic illiterates, is the impression I get. :facepalm: Who can't understand well enough to even want to get better.

I can imagine the cops going, "I think I liked it better when they were all 'Fuck tha Police' instead of the :turd:"

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:corn:

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 762320)

Enough with the references to Ayn Rand's hyperbole. I think American tax payers should have shut off the lights at AIG, Bank of AMERICA, etc., etc., etc., etc. long ago. You wanna know who John Galt is? I'll tell you. He is a businessman whose soul is filled with greed and believes that neither ordinary human morality or basic business ethics apply to him. He was given a golden parachute by his board of directors for running his enterprise into such terrible debt, that only the government he pretends to despise had the resources to save his sorry ass. He is every CEO who helped manifest the banking and financial institution crises. And he has yet to take responsibility for his actions. Not a one of these corporate felons modeled after Rand's favorite criminal have yet to go to trial.

Without the worker/tax payer bailouts, most of your favorite corrupt institutions would be here no longer. Again and again, I have brought up this point, and again and again you refuse to discuss it.

Its as if I were to set up Robin Hood as the be all and end all of wise economic policy. The character of John Galt is attractive to 17 yrar olds who know nothing of economics and business and to adults who wish to live in the Land of Oz. (and I don't mean Australia)