Ambivalence

I fluctuate between thinking OWS might really turn into something and then thinking the usual hotheaded halfwits who tend to take over leftie demonstrations will sink it.

OWS is still a much smaller movement than the antiwar movement was ca. 2003. Some jerk left a vulgar message on the comment thread (caught in the filter and deleted) taunting me because OWS has gone global. Well, child, according to some accounts between January 3 and April 12, 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against the Iraq war. OWS hasn’t come anywhere close to that.

I’m reading that hundreds of protesters marched to Times Square today, There were hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of New York in February and March 2003. Nobody noticed.

And my point is that getting a lot of people out into the streets isn’t the same thing as actually changing anything. I’ve noticed a lot of OWSers are contemptuous of the anti-Iraq war demonstrations. And I’d be the first to say (in fact, I have said) there was plenty to be contemptuous about regarding the anti-Iraq war demonstrations.

But, children, there’s times you don’t look all that different to me. Like it or not, some of you are making the same stupid mistakes. And what was the point of marching to Times Square? Were you trying to scare the tourists?

The riots in Rome ought to be a lesson that things will get out of control sometimes. Groups with no leadership and no self-policing authority and a fuzzily defined purpose — but getting a lot of publicitywill attract all kinds of hotheads and whackjobs, which could undermine everything you are trying to accomplish.

The anti-Iraq war movement couldn’t maintain momentum largely because the “movement” was like a multi-headed hydra, with each head wanting to move in a different direction. There was no cohesive coalition; just a collection of factions who would drag their diverse agendas to demonstrations and compete for attention.

Now, I understand the NYC OWS is considering electing an executive committee, which is a hopeful development. I would also strongly suggest setting some ground rules and coming up with some kind of enforcement procedures.

That may be anathema to many of the OWSers, but if they want to be taken seriously by most of the 99 percent, such things as public nudity, drug use, vulgarity, and off-message signs need to be firmly discouraged. I’m not saying they should hire bouncers; sometimes a little non-violent peer pressure goes a long way.

I’m sure they’re all very high with having started something now, but they need to keep in mind that they haven’t actually changed anything yet.

Rush’s World

Washington Post:

President Obama said Friday that he had ordered the deployment of 100 armed military advisers to central Africa to help regional forces combat the Lord’s Resistance Army, a notorious renegade group that has terrorized villagers in at least four countries with marauding bands that kill, rape, maim and kidnap with impunity.

The deployment represents a muscular escalation of American military efforts to help fight the Lord’s Resistance Army, which originated as a Ugandan rebel force in the 1980s and morphed into a fearsome cultlike group of fighters. It is led by Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet known for ordering village massacres, recruiting prepubescent soldiers, keeping harems of child brides and mutilating opponents.

Rush Limbaugh:

Obama Invades Uganda, Targets Christians

…Now, up until today, most Americans have never heard of the combat Lord’s Resistance Army. And here we are at war with them. Have you ever heard of Lord’s Resistance Army, Dawn? How about you, Brian? Snerdley, have you? You never heard of Lord’s Resistance Army? Well, proves my contention, most Americans have never heard of it, and here we are at war with them. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. It means God. I was only kidding. Lord’s Resistance Army are Christians. They are fighting the Muslims in Sudan. And Obama has sent troops, United States troops to remove them from the battlefield, which means kill them. That’s what the lingo means, “to help regional forces remove from the battlefield,” meaning capture or kill.

So that’s a new war, a hundred troops to wipe out Christians in Sudan, Uganda, and — (interruption) no, I’m not kidding.

If you could condense all the world’s ignorance and evil down to something the size of a golf ball, that would be Rush’s brain.