XPost: alt.activism, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.usa   
   XPost: alt.tv.pol-incorrect   
   From: weberm@polaris.net   
      
   NEW YORK--We didn't think "Occupy Wall Street" worth going to see, but we   
   were in the neighborhood Saturday night, having just left a party a block   
   away, so we decided to drop in and see it. We spent a couple of hours   
   chatting with people in the park and found them to be, with one   
   exception, endearingly earnest.   
      
   The exception was a middle-aged man who became agitated when he heard us   
   tell somebody else that we found the scapegoating of a minority, clearly   
   implied by the ubiquitous slogan "I am the 99%," creepy. Not wanting to   
   start a fight, we directed our attention and conversation to someone else   
   nearby, which eventually deflated the angry fellow, who wandered off.   
      
   But everyone else we met was very nice. Our experiences were in line with   
   those of The New Republic's Walter Shapiro, who visited last week: "What   
   struck me was the sincere and good-natured smallness of it all." As we   
   wandered through the park, we saw no alcohol but a fair amount of pot,   
   probably a good combination if you want to keep things mellow.   
      
   Possibly there was a selection bias at work, in which the disruptive   
   elements were away from the park at the time we visited. The Wall Street   
   Journal reports that "thousands of anti-corporate protesters marched   
   Saturday from New York City's Financial District to Times Square in a   
   show of force that resulted in 74 arrests."   
      
   On a taxi uptown after we left, we saw a band of between 12 and 20 young   
   men, at least one wearing a face mask, striding down the street. Some of   
   them were in the middle of the street, interfering with traffic and   
   shouting slogans (this was after midnight). On the sidewalk to the right   
   as our taxi rolled past, it appeared some of the protesters were   
   scuffling with policemen. Perhaps the Zuccotti crowd would have been more   
   menacing if we had waited for their return.   
      
   No one we met seemed to care much for Barack Obama. Indeed, at one point,   
   when we started analyzing how it might affect the president's re-election   
   effort, somebody interjected: "This isn't about Obama." Our surmise is   
   that people who sought meaning in "hope and change" three years ago have   
   by now given up and are looking elsewhere.   
      
   The name of former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, ostensibly the commander   
   of this army, never even came up. "For these kids who are driving this   
   thing, being in The New York Times doesn't mean sh-- to them,"   
   documentarian Danny Schechter tells TNR's Shapiro. "It's not their frame   
   of reference."   
      
   The only media figures we heard mentioned during our visit to the park   
   were Fox News president Roger Ailes and, as one guy put it, "your boss,   
   Rupert Murdoch," chairman of News Corp. It's true that the Occupiers   
   regard Fox with suspicion and hostility, but to hear them tell it, it is   
   the only medium that matters. We salute our Fox colleagues for a   
   brilliant marketing job. They have managed to embed their brand in the   
   minds of the young generation, some of whom, when they get older and more   
   sophisticated, we predict will become loyal viewers.   
      
   For a protest against business, Occupy Wall Street seems to be generating   
   a lot of it. For one thing, it's a tourist attraction: We talked to a   
   college girl visiting from Salt Lake City and a guy who had come up from   
   Maryland. (He is photographer Ed Fagan, whose work accompanies this   
   column and whose protest slide show can be viewed here. He is available   
   for weddings and other occasions.)   
      
   Food trucks were lined up along the perimeter of the park in what,   
   outside business hours, is normally a quiet residential neighborhood.   
   Which leads us to the worst aspect of Occupy Wall Street: its effect on   
   the local quality of life. The party we went to was in a private   
   residence, and people there who lived nearby were unanimous in wanting   
   the Occupiers gone.   
      
   People who live in small towns, suburbs or sprawling cities may not   
   appreciate just how close Manhattanites dwell to city life. In many parts   
   of the city, you step outside your apartment building and are right in   
   the middle of the hustle and bustle. That is part of the charm of living   
   in Manhattan, and people who choose to live here do so with full   
   awareness of the attendant nuisances, from bums to street fairs.   
      
   But residents of the financial district couldn't have known they were   
   moving next door to a perpetual hippie festival. Zuccotti Park, although   
   subject to an easement for public use, was never intended as a   
   round-the-clock protest zone. Occupy Wall Street has gone on for a month   
   now. For the people who live nearby, that's about 29 days too long.   
      
   --   
   "If Barack Obama isn't careful, he will become the Jimmy Carter of the   
   21st century."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)