"Protests" in the U.S. - A Deeper Meaning?

I'm still trying to get my hands around this so-called 'protest movement' that we are watching in the U.S., and moving past the reflex sarcasm and eye-rolling - just at the absurdity of it all, is difficult at best.

There are so many obvious contradictions and bemusements to be found in these "protests" it is difficult to take them seriously.

For instance, when I see college-aged students railing against "corporations" while wearing designer sun glasses, designer jeans, REI backpacks and nike shoes, while using apple computers and iPods (just to name a few obvious contradictions), makes it hard not to laugh and turn to the football game.

Not to mention the unfortunate fact that their Che Guevara T-shirt was also manufactured by a...(gulp...dare I say it?)... corporation. But I digress.

However, there may be some prophetic significance, so lets take a look:

Video Exposing How "Occupy Wall Street" Was Organized From Day One By SEIU/Acorn Front

Friday Fun. Reason.tv visits Occupy Wall Street

This article underscores the fact that most protestors have no idea what exactly they are protesting or why.

Student loan debt, campaign finance reform, and general anger with the sluggish economy were the more frequent grievances aired, but the demonstrators are hardly monolithic in their passions or opinions.

You Say You Want A Revolution

Some perspective is given here:

What do the Wall Street protesters want? You know, stuff . . .

I chatted with some of the throng. All wanted me to know they were speaking only for themselves, not the group. So what’s the endgame here? “Uh . . . that’s hard to explain,” said Moses, a nice young man. His answer was a nonsensical roundabout, but he used the phrase “socio-economic” a lot. He implied he was unemployed, so I inquired about a dream job. “To be a decent human being . . . to not live in reaction to a market.” Gotcha.

Becca, a sweet “organic gardener” from Brooklyn, was there to “end a capitalist system that treats people like cattle” and live in an America where everyone has “equal wealth.”

She wanted a country with a “high tax,” a la “Sweden and Finland,” to ensure “personal well-being.” (Those Scandinavian examples both have a much lower corporate tax rate—26 percent and 26.3 percent, respectively— than the U.S.’s 35 percent rate, but let’s not get hung up on details.)

Most everyone is aware of how unserious Occupy Wall Street is. The New Republic mocks it. Salon laments its fecklessness, and then curses Fox News for noticing it. Mother Jones sheepishly dubs the childish schizophrenia “The Kitchen Sink Approach” in a piece on the movement’s inertia.

Tea Party: Wall St. crowd not like us

The tea party has just about had it with all of the comparisons between their grass roots movement and the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Amy Kremer, chairwoman of the Tea Party Express, says the Wall Street demonstrators “don’t even know why they’re out there protesting on Wall Street.”

“You know, it’s really kind of bizarre. These kids are out there and have on these T-shirts that say ‘F capitalism.’ It’s really ironic that they’re out there and communicating through their gadgets that were created through competition and free enterprise and capitalism,” she said.

But Kremer insists that Occupy Wall Street is nothing like the tea party and suggests that the protesters in Manhattan might get more respect if they took their picket signs and chants to the nation’s capital and directed their anger at President Barack Obama.

“It sounds like it’s a lot of people that are out of work, that are angry. Now you have a lot of students that have graduated and can’t get jobs. But that’s not Wall Street’s fault, and we need to look at Washington, D.C., instead,” she said.

Protestors Accused of Hurting NYC Economy

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday accused the Wall Street demonstrators of trying to cripple New York City's economy.

"What they're trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city," the mayor declared in his harshest criticism of the three-week-old protest that has caught the attention of the nation.

Although he expressed sympathy for "some of their complaints," Bloomberg warned that addressing them has to be accomplished "without hurting people and making the problem worse."

"If the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city -- the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy -- we're not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean the blocks or anything else."

Shocking Video: Frances Fox Piven and Fellow Professors Indoctrinating College Students

Occupy Wall Street Causing Problems On Main Street

But the group that says it's fighting against banks and corporations on behalf of the "99 percent" of America's "have-nots" may have caught Main Street in the crossfire -- with their continued presence causing big headaches for nearby small businesses.

"Usually, there are hundreds and hundreds of people in this area," said Stacey Tzortzatos, owner of Panini & Co. Breads, which sits adjacent to Zuccotti Park. "People do not want to have to pass through the crowd or walk through the park to come to my business -- so they go elsewhere."

For Tzortzatos, the "occupation" has resulted not just in a loss in business. "I've had a lot of damage from the protesters," she said. "I've had to put a $200 lock on my bathroom because they come in here and try to bathe. The sink fell down to the ground, cracked open, pulled the plumbing out of the wall and caused a flood. It's a no-win situation. If I open the restroom for one, 30 people line up outside, disrupting my business."

A manager at the nearby Essex World Cafe -- who asked to remain anonymous -- shared similar complaints. Referring to three young men waiting at the end of the counter, he explained, "They want to use the toilet, the phones, we give them free water and free ice. They sit here and don't buy anything, but they recharge their phone batteries with our plugs, and I tell them, 'Hey, if you guys are going to come, I need to do some business here. We are suffering, too!'

So what do we have?

It appears that these protests have been organized by a combination of extreme liberal groups, unions, SEIU, Acorn, etc., the usual groups - and populated with bored college students and unemployed post-graduates. The crowd is largely white, and based on the pictures which rapidly reveal the designer accessories, laptops, designer clothes, jewelry, backpacks, and shoes, it appears to be an upper-middle class group as well. Now we are seeing the unions moving in to get in on the action.

So what does this mean?

I am guessing that as soon as the weather turns cold this "movement" will rapidly dissipate.

However that may be the cynic speaking.

At a minimum, this seems to represent yet another effort to dismantle the U.S. system - something the administration has been attempting at breakneck speed for the last 2+ years. The disturbing aspect is the fact that the groups who back the administration's efforts to dismantle the capitalist system in the U.S. are backing these protests.

With a financial system that is currently teetering on the very brink of survival, this "movement" could potentially have an impact - an impact which could further push the U.S. into the abyss.

Every day we see further erosion of the basic freedoms previously enjoyed in America - and ultimately (and paradoxically) these protests are pushing for more central control and less individual freedom - whether done wittingly or unwittingly.

But as stated so many times before - it has to be this way. America has to fall as a world power in order to usher in a world government system with a single leader in charge.

It appears that we are well on the way to seeing that fulfilled.

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Just for some fun. Also see:

Faces of Occupy Wall Street: Mom's Basement Edition

It's not working. It would be nice instead of slobbering over these nitwits that the media did a little digging into who's funding this.

Internet pledges arrive via two main websites: occupywallst.org was registered July 14, two months before the demonstrations began, by a Los Angeles privacy service that shields the owner's identity.

The Alliance for Global Justice, a nonprofit with 501c3 status, helped Occupy Wall Street to collect tax-exempt donations and open a credit union account to centralize funds.

Alliance for Global Justice, huh? Funny, but a few seconds of research leads us directly to none of than George Soros and his Open Society Institute. These folks also show solidarity with Marxist regimes in Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Well, of course.

And this:

A Letter to the New York City protestors

What I mean to say is, you have a marketing problem.

When you decided to sit in traffic and block the Brooklyn Bridge a few days ago, with that blazing pink "SMASH PATRIARCHY-SMASH CAPITALISM" sign in hand, you probably didn't see the regular people you stranded in traffic.

You know, the ones with real-world concerns, business to attend to, families to go home to, et cetera. You may have read about such people during college in a book called "The Petit Bourgeoisie," or something like that. Many of us grew up calling them "the middle class."

Whatever you call them, they are hurting badly in this economy, probably more than you are. (I'm just judging by that sweet digital video camera I see you holding out in front of the cops, in hopes of provoking them into a viral-video police brutality incident.)

Those people you left stuck in traffic have a hard time paying their bills and rents and health insurance and mortgages. They worry about things like finding decent schools for their children to attend and making sure they don't get fired at work, and fixing leaking roofs and chimneys.

You know what they don't worry about, ever? Smashing patriarchy and capitalism.

I know you'll find this hard to believe, but these regular people probably weren't very happy to see you on that bridge, carrying your preprinted black and yellow protest sign that hundreds of you got straight from the communist Workers' World Party (or one of its less frighteningly named affiliates).

And that underscores the problem with the 100 million-plus people who work for a living in this country. They lack an enlightened perspective that would show them how your camping trip in lower Manhattan has already helped their lives.

See, regular people don't like banks any more than you do. But when they go to buy houses for their families to live in, they often find that they don't have half a million dollars stuffed in their mattresses. So they shortsightedly embrace financial imperialism, otherwise known as a mortgage.