Tuesday 11 October 2011

The Problem With #OWS


I don't disagree with a lot of their gripes. But with too many of the protesters, you get the impression they themselves don't understand their own gripes.

See Katherine Ernst's piece in City Journal:

When life is exponentially easier for you than it was for most of the world throughout most of human history— right up until the mid-twentieth century—boredom creates a vacuum. To be a hero, you have to create your own dragon to slay. ... Mastering the intricacies of credit-default swaps so as to articulate an effective reform of the broken financial system? Way too tough. Better to create a dragon that can only be slain with performance-art zombie metaphors.
...
New York magazine polled “100 protesters who are in it for the long haul.” ... 55 percent didn’t vote in the last election (you might want to try the ballot box first, guys). The real takeaway is this, though: 34 percent are “convinced the U.S. is no better than, say, Al-Qaeda.” In other words, a significant percentage of this tiny-but-loud group of protesters are chasing a dragon.



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