Cats Against Frist (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 06:56 PM
Original message
Thanks Occupy Wall Street For Inspiring the Youth With Your Tired Model of Revolution
Thanks Occupy Wall Street For Inspiring the Youth With Your Tired Model of Revolution
Seriously -- my stepson tells me today that he's decided not to get a job and is postponing college so he can:
1) Squat on abandoned properties.
2) Make public art.
3) Get food stamps.
4) Knit more.
This, after spending a week in the Seattle OWS camp.
I've been trying to tell him for weeks that he has the luxury of making a bohemian existence a "lifestyle choice," and that his friends and him have the opportunity to get a job, save up for some land, buy some land and do whatever subsistence farming/cottage industry/lawn art/navel gazing that they want to, without stealing from property owners and poor children.
I went through this and I got over it in the last several years, understanding that:
1. I wasted ten years of my life with that stupid, race-to-the-bottom crap.
2. Having a job, a career, an area of expertise, competency, etc. is far more fulfilling than being lazy and a slacker.
3. There's no reason that you have to adopt that tired countercultural shit to make this a better world.
4. Industrious people always build the change.
5. It makes much more sense, to me, to have those who care about the world in business and industry, and science and technology rather than isolating themselves.
6. Smart people building a better world is always better than romanticizing pre-Industrial revolution nonsense.
7. Getting arrested is pointless. If each person blockading a street were really ready to make this a better world, it would happen.
I had hope for this movement when it looked like it was going to be in the "real world" -- but after the most liberal Mayor of the most liberal city kicked out OWS, it became clear to me that it was all about forcing everyone into hum-drum and uninspired socialism, decorated with hippie lifestyle accoutrements.
Fail.
And now they're going to try to shut down the West Coast ports? Something the unions they're supposedly helping don't even support.
Here's a clue: Port commissioners are elected by the public. They hold OPEN meetings on a regular basis. If people give a shit, why don't they steward a democracy, rather than planning some stupid radical action. If the radicals had the support they need for actual revolution, they wouldn't be getting their asses pepper sprayed by fat cops.
This movement is over, and it failed because of a lack of imagination.
Try this:
Live well.
Be industrious.
Don't concentrate your wealth in unscrupulous corporations.
Steward your democracy.
Get healthy.
Volunteer and give to charity.
Be an educated voter.
Consume less.
Consume wisely.
Give a crap about the environment.
Unionize.
Don't be lazy.
Help.
No one's tried that yet. At this point, those things are radical action.
DCKit (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:00 PM
Response to Original message
1. While I agree with about half of what you said...
somehow I find the rest of it incredibly rude and offensive.
randome (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
2. You will be flamed and villified.
Because for many at DU, it's "You're either with us or against us." All or nothing. "Show me your loyalty papers."
OWS has done some very important things in the world.
But, yes, it does seem to have lost its way recently.
"Recently"?
saras (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:07 PM
Response to Original message
7. You failed, you sold out, you're bitter. DON'T TAKE IT OUT ON YOUR KIDS.
By far the most important lesson young people can learn is that they don't need that crap. They don't need to bend over for a "job". The real world doesn't require that of them, just fascism.
It's like someone who lives in an abusive situation only needs a little glimpse of freedom to really get the concept of not being abused.
But some end up being more comfortable with the familiar abusive situation and go back to it.
Here's where she went wrong:
Cats Against Frist (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:21 PM
Response to Reply #9
17. His mind IS made of clay -- he's 18 years old, for goodness sake
Raised by a bio mother who is wifty and woo-woo to the four corners, and a father who goes to work at 10 a.m. and even though he is my loving and beautiful partner, is still a little mind-controlled by the boho set. They also let him go to "alternative" school, which was his first foray into this craptacular lifestyle.
Cats Against Frist (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #53
55. My son reported fighting in the camps, drug use and sexual assaults in Seattle.
I live in the Pac NW and had firsthand accounts of the "Sexual Response" tent at Occupy Portland.
WinkyDink (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 08:06 PM
Response to Reply #55
64. No drugs or sexual assaults in the corporate world?
Evasporque (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:28 PM
Response to Original message
25. Try this
Try this:
Live well. = Obey
Be industrious. = Get a Job
Don't concentrate your wealth in unscrupulous corporations. = Invest 401k from work
Steward your democracy. = SHutup and vote for the status quo
Get healthy. = Make the right choices so you won't get sick
Volunteer and give to charity. = **** welfare and taxes choose your own charity
Be an educated voter. = Read the soundbites and follow the media
Consume less. = ONly buy the expensive quality stuff
Consume wisely. = Buy the really expensive quality stff
Give a crap about the environment = Recycle your beer bottles and carns
Unionize. = So Republicans will have something to villify
Don't be lazy. = Get a job
Help. = Help the man keep you down...
Taverner (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 07:57 PM
Response to Reply #49
56. Look - don't you think it's just a LITTLE hypocritical to bash your kids for what you did?
Yeah!
Those former substance abusers warning against drug addiction are such hypocrites!
Cats Against Frist (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 08:01 PM
Response to Reply #56
59. The point is that I have rational and first-hand evidence of why
he should not be making these lifestyle choices. He won't listen. I'm not bashing my kid. I'm bashing the people who think that it's somehow revolutionary to keep parroting this garbage for the impressionable youth to latch onto. People who are older and should know better. Or maybe they don't, because THEY've never done anything.
In which case, I wish they would STFU.
WinkyDink (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 08:02 PM
Response to Original message
60. "Getting arrested is pointless." I take it you've never read "Letter from Birmingham Jail"?
Oh yeah, I'm sure the OPs son is a regular MLK.
BTW - Mein Kampf was written while in jail too. I guess it depends on the character of the individual more than the circumstance.
Terry in Austin (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 08:05 PM
Response to Original message
63. So basically, he's a radical with a liberal dad. Classic conflict.
And who, exactly, are you to declare that "this movement is over"?
Cats Against Frist (1000+ posts) Tue Dec-06-11 08:10 PM
Response to Reply #63
68. No, he's becoming radicalized
What the **** 18 year old, who spent his week with homeless teens and old hippies, can butt up against parents with degrees in political science and critical theory, who have dedicated their lives to politics, and deserve anything more than a laugh? He's not a "radical," he's an impressionable kid being brainwashed by ****tards.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2435987
