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Investors.com...
Look
Who’s Singing Along In Karaoke Of
Revolution
By Mark Steyn
Posted 11/04/2011
Way
back in 1968, after the riots at
the Democratic Convention in Chicago, Mayor Daley declared his forces
were
there to “preserve disorder.” I believe that was one of Hizzoner’s
famous
malapropisms. Forty-three years later Jean Quan, mayor of Oakland, and
the
Oakland City Council have made “preserving disorder” the official
municipal
policy.
Last
Wednesday, the “Occupy Oakland”
occupiers rampaged through the city, shutting down the nation’s
fifth-busiest
port, forcing stores to close, terrorizing those residents foolish
enough to
commit the reactionary crime of “shopping,” destroying ATMs, spraying
the
Christ the Light Cathedral with the insightful observation “F**k”, etc.
And
how did the Oakland City Council
react? The following day they considered a resolution to express their
support
for “Occupy Oakland” and to call on the city administration to
“collaborate
with protesters.”
That’s
“collaborate” in the
Nazi-occupied France sense: the city’s feckless political class is
collaborating with anarchists against the taxpayers who maintain them
in their
sinecures.
They’re
not the only ones.When the
rumor spread that the Whole Foods store, of all unlikely corporate
villains,
had threatened to fire employees who participated in the protest,
Regional
President David Lannon took to Facebook:
“We
totally support our Team Members
participating in the General Strike today — rumors are false!” But,
despite his
“total support,” they trashed his store anyway, breaking windows and
spray-painting walls. As the Oakland Tribune reported: “A man who
witnessed the
Whole Foods attack, but asked not to be identified, said he was in the
store buying
an organic orange when the crowd arrived.”
There’s
an epitaph for the republic if
ever I heard one. “The experience was surreal, the man said. ‘They were
wearing
masks. There was this whole mess of people, and no police here. That
was
weird.’”
No,
it wasn’t. It was municipal
policy. In fairness to the miserable David Lannon, Whole Foods was in
damage
control mode. Men’s Wearhouse in Oakland had no such excuse. In
solidarity with
the masses, they printed up a huge poster declaring “We Stand With the
99%” and
announcing they’d be closed that day. In return, they got their windows
smashed.
I’m
a proud member of the 1%, and I’d
have been tempted to smash ‘em myself. A few weeks back, finding myself
suddenly without luggage, I shopped at a Men’s Wearhouse, faute de
mieux, in
Burlington, Vt. Never again. I’m not interested in patronizing craven
corporations so decadent and self-indulgent that as a matter of
corporate
policy they support the destruction of civilized society.
Did
George Zimmer, founder of Men’s
Wearhouse and backer of Howard Dean, marijuana decriminalization and
many other
fashionable causes, ever glance at the photos of the OWS occupiers and
ponder
how many of “the 99%” would ever need his 2-for-1 deal on suits and
neckties?
And did he think even these dummies were dumb enough to fall for such a
feebly
corporatist attempt at appeasing the mob?
I
don’t “stand with the 99%,” and
certainly not downwind of them. But I’m all for their “occupation”
continuing
on its merry way. It usefully clarifies the stakes.
At
first glance, an alliance of
anarchists and government might appear to be somewhat paradoxical. But
the
formal convergence in Oakland makes explicit the movement’s aims:
They’re
anarchists for statism, wild free-spirited youth demanding more and
more total
government control of every aspect of life — just so long as it
respects the
fundamental human right to sloth.
What’s
happening in Oakland is a
logical exercise in class solidarity: the government class
enthusiastically
backing the breakdown of civil order is making common cause with the
leisured
varsity class, the thuggish union class and the criminal class in order
to
stick it to what’s left of the beleaguered productive class.
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the rest of the article, and
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