The photo almost everybody saw.
(photo: Beck Diefenbach/AP caption: Occupy Oakland protestors burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall during an Occupy Oakland protest on the steps of City Hall, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif.)
(photo: Beck Diefenbach/AP caption: A woman pleads with Occupy Oakland protestors to not burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall during an Occupy Oakland protest, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. Police were in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse Saturday night, hours after officers used tear gas on a rowdy group of demonstrators who threw rocks and flares at them and tore down fences.)
What happens when your typical, mainstream news consumer hears little description of how Oakland PD, in violation of its own operating procedures (while under threat of a federal takeover because of excessive force), enters into a war of abandon with an overwhelmingly peaceful movement -- not to mention, the independent media, as well? And then, what happens on-top-of-that when, de-emphasizing even the angry mayor's distinction that a "radical, violent splinter-group" chose to attack City Hall, you get a culturally incendiary and profoundly prejudicial photo like this leading off national stories far-and-wide showing one of the bad boys holding up a little Occupy sign while headlines allude to -- and the captions identify them as -- regular Occupiers? I guess it's hard to conclude anything other than the fact that the movement -- in an act that makes no sense -- must have decided to torch itself.
Here's just a subset from a larger sample of photo leads from the events of the weekend:
...I think you get the picture.
Flag photos via: Mercury News photo gallery.
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2) Occupy can't claim solidarity with anyone and everyone when it wants to and disassociate from them when it wants to. as they always say, there is no 'model' Occupy member, many manifestations.. they can and should be judged by each manifestation.
Of course, if the establishment needs to reason to take action against what is guaranteed by the constitution and it's preamble it is easy enough to plant a few agent provocateurs.
OWS won't die. It cannot die. If it dies it signals that we have given in to the forces that are in control of the country, the world, it's economy and it's doings.
If it dies we have all surrendered to being serfs and slaves-which we now are, of course.
Spring is almost here and with it's spring into rebirth and regrowth so shall OWS grow stronger than ever.
http://documentaryheaven.com/confessions-of-an-undercover-cop/
Nobody is interested in OWS anymore, it exists only to further the vanity and self importance of those involved.
As a matter of fact, it hasn't even tried to connect, it has just become background noise.
I, along with a lot of others, had high hopes when it started, but I no longer support them, or even care anymore.
This episode has put the final nail in the coffin.
It has become simply a collection of vain left wingers and anarchists. Oh I'm sure there will be many posts disagreeing and telling us how important OWS is, but thaT's BS!
They had their moment to accomplish something, but they blew it badly.
end of story.
Just keep doing it on TV...
*GASP*
or, if #ows burns flags they might spook fence sitting liberals who would appreciate a kinder-gentler peasant uprising please.
then #ows might not have the support of the self-identified "liberal" faction of the right wing.
o noes!
wondering now, how exactly 'withdrawn' support from liberals would be different than having the movement constantly co-opted and characterized by liberals...hmm
while the former might prove uncertain the latter we could surely do without as it would seem that liberals too often imagine that systems can be undermined and rearranged without consequence
( http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/44372 AHEM)
but they cannot.
if they would like to interface with ows they should at least;
UNDERSTAND.(agreed or not) a root critique of nationalism (and the crude fetishization of nationalist symbols)
at least understand (agreed or not) a root critique of capitalism
..if those 2 things are examined, for those liberals interested in interacting with something called "the left",. it would represent 'a start.'
absent that context, all the hand-wringing which puts scraps of colored cloth and vacant commercial buildings ABOVE the needs and interests of the impoverished MANY, would appear thoughtful.
Are you hearing support from occupy movements in other cities for this flag burning. Are you hearing support even from other occupy Oakland protestors? If not, I wouldn't ascribe the actions of these few folks, to a nation wide movement.
Also, please keep in mind, if these folks were part of the activities earlier in the day, they were likely tear gassed while peacefully assembling. That does tend to get folks irritated at the system. Nevertheless, I haven't heard any support for them beyond what one sees in the picture.
there is something intellectually despotic about projecting nationalistic sentiments onto a population who have spent much of their adult lives being shat on by their respective nation-state.
particularly for the youth among them.. they have endured an entirely post-reagan america.. an america which is interested primarily in arranging them (if they are poor) for either fashionable consumption , imperial military deployment, or for a life of onerous wage slavery.. or ideally, some combination of all of those things.
what real life context should provide for a more nuanced critique?
it would be difficult to present one without absentee speculation or without reaching into (all of our) DEEP reserves of nationalist/patriotic mythological axioms.
but uncle sam loves them as much as the jolly green giant or any other corporate mascot,.. more so,. the green giant hasn't attempted to use their desperation as a way to funnel them to either rent themselves to rich people or toward a military enlistment which pretends to export these same 'opportunities' to impoverished 3rd world country X.
i haven't seen any of the other #ows satellites apologize for #OO.. THAT would be a disappointment.
There's a piece of land, in which millions are corralled and controlled, and the flag's a symbol of a past that no longer exists.
There is no US, there's only national security and US interests, which aren't your interests, aren't anything to do with your security, and the two will never intersect.
You don't live in a democracy, you have no say in how the government/corporations rule over you, you are almost completely powerless, even in your everyday decisions, and they don't care about your welfare or life. At all. You are merely another resource to be exploited.
The Constitution was suspended with the Patriot Act, habeas corpus doesn't exist, and now Congress plans to expatriate people.
Everything that we see is a performance put on for us. All of the performers are (happily) paid to play their roles, from Obama on down.
It is a brilliant productions, one that divert us, leads us to believe that we are a part of it, and sells us products we do not need.It feeds our hopes but will never do anything to bring them to realization. The promise is eternally there, the fulfillment forever elusive.