democracy Archive

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A Word on the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protests

By
Tom OHare
– September 28, 2011

I don’t really understand what they’re all about, except in the sense that there is a relatively inchoate anger among my peers about the situation we find ourselves in, but I do have to agree with Keith Olbermann and his guest in the video below, that the reaction (or lack thereof) from the mainstream media is somewhat damning.

As they point out, if this were a Tea Party gathering of comparable size and the protesters were complaining about something batshit crazy, the Times and the Journal would be on it like white on rice. If there were a bunch of fat, old Aryan people calling for a return to the gold standard, Anderson Cooper would be live at the scene conducting interviews with octogenarians in electric wheelchairs. They’d be waving American flags, and shit. It’d make for great afternoon television. Instead, it’s people like me down there, disaffected 20-somethings who don’t vote enough to matter, but who understand loud and clear that our futures are mere bargaining chips for the Galtian overlords jockeying for position in the great Wall Street boondoggle. And of course, people like me are “just kids.” Kids are always complaining about something, because they’re dirty fucking hippies. Kids will grow out of it. Nothing to see here.

I don’t think it’s entirely too surprising that the media has been unable to grapple with the message that the protesters are conveying. The message is simply, “Fuck this.” Or, alternatively, “This is not what we signed up for.” We did not sign up for endless war, legally sanctioned torture, banks failing, failed bankers giving themselves golden parachutes, the requirement to incur thousands of dollars in student debt in order to be employable, housing bubbles, Social Security payments to nowhere, the rich getting richer, the middle class being decimated, food stamps, unpaid internships, raising the eligibility age for Medicare, or gutting the EPA’s budget. We did not sign up for the restriction of abortion rights, resurgent white rights movements in the era of an African-American president, or the odious phrase “illegal alien.” We signed up for progress, motherfuckers. And if you’re not going to help us get there, then get the fuck out of the way.

I don’t think that the protesters know exactly what they’re doing, but I think that’s perfectly okay. Fake it til you make it, and the best of luck to you all.

UPDATE: Also, what Greenwald said.

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Ridiculous Sentences

By
Tom OHare
– August 16, 2011

Tyler Cowen says that this, from Bryan Caplan, is something to ponder:

Finally, even if Mr. Powdthavee is right about the unhappy effects of income comparison, you shouldn’t conclude that redistribution is the solution. Yes, you could fight inequality of income. But you could just as easily fight comparison of income. Instead of praising those who “raise awareness” about inequality, perhaps we should shame them, like the office gossip, for spreading envy and discontent. In the end, happiness research and history teach the same lesson: If you live in the First World, you should be very grateful for what you have. So cheer up!

I read Cowen because he reads interesting things and links to them frequently, but he also puts on his “I’m a right-leaning libertarian” hat a bit too much for my taste. Calling the above “sentences to ponder” and linking approvingly is a case in point, since there is nothing at all about the excerpt worth pondering unless you’re an oligarch. The solution to rising income inequality is to “shame” people who would deign to point it out? And Tyler Cowen thinks that’s an idea worth taking seriously? Never mind that his own economic worldview should push back against this kind of lunacy (rational economic actors, after all, should have access to all the relevant economic data, not just the feel-good data), what’s more worrying is this active promotion of ignorance as being somehow at the root of happiness. Perhaps it is. I doubt it, but let’s give him that for the sake of argument. Doesn’t Mill’s famous aphorism still stand? Isn’t it “better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”?

What interest does anyone who cares about democracy have in promoting ignorance? Oh, right. Maybe libertarians aren’t interested in democracy, after all.

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The Toronto G20 Revisited

By
Ben Nolan
– August 12, 2011

New ruling, reported in today’s Star:

“The only organized or collective physical aggression at that location that evening was perpetrated by police each time they advanced on demonstrators,” Justice Melvyn Green ruled on Thursday. He was referring to a demonstration at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. on Saturday, June 26, 2010.

This demonstration:

Actually, that was the same intersection but the next day. The ruling pertains to an incident the night before. In words:

Green found that protesters were “harvested” by the police “punch out” tactic. Police would intermittently charge the crowd of about 300 people to force them west on Queen St. — and those who didn’t move back fast enough were seized, thrown to the ground and bound with plastic flex cuffs.

Consequences? An unjustly arrested protester gets his name cleared. Huh-fucking-zzah.

PS – Personal detail: I generally stayed away from the protests and just tried to live my everyday life. Still, wearing a forest camo T while walking to Union Station got me illegally searched by officer K Hancock, badge # 5793.

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Libya Update: Still Not a Democracy

By
Tom OHare
– May 23, 2011

Ben and I had a really, really long and self-indulgent debate back when the whole country of Libya exploded into violence. I said, essentially, that for the West to go in under the banner of promoting democracy and freedom was not only deeply cynical (realist political concerns likely dominated the behind-the-scenes debate, and realistically we simply do not give a fuck about burgeoning democracies), but also doomed to fail on the merits, as we in the North America and Europe basically had no idea who we were dealing with, who we were supporting, and what the end game was. (For the record, Ben’s response to this was to call me a poopy-head and go pout in his bedroom. That was his verbatim response, YouTube video of the pout-session and everything.)

Granted, I haven’t been keeping up with the situation as much as I should, but suffice it to say that things are not going well:

With Libya essentially divided in half by conflict, the U.S.- and NATO-backed rebels who control much of the east are carrying out what many view as a campaign of retaliation against those once aligned with Gaddafi, according to relatives and rebel commanders and officials. Such targeting raises questions about the character of the government taking shape in eastern Libyaand whether it will follow basic principles of democracy and human rights. Moreover, such acts could further deepen divisions in Libya’s tribal society and diminish the sort of reconciliation vital for stability in a post-Gaddafi era.

Both Egypt and Tunisia, where authoritarian leaders were ousted by popular uprisings, are striving to revise laws and struggling with how to deal with the former members of their regimes. Human rights activists note that Libya’s rebels have had to organize a state, including a new judicial system, in just three months during wartime.

But critics fear the Libyan rebels are going down the same path as Gaddafi — whose government is notorious for carrying out arbitrary arrests, torture and executions without trial — months after launching an uprising based in large part on their outrage over such injustices.

Some critics, including top officials working with the rebel council that runs eastern Libya, also point out that countless Libyans worked in Gaddafi’s government, many just for the paycheck. Those who committed serious crimes have probably fled rebel areas by now, they argue.

“There have been a lot of mistakes, even though the intentions are good,” said Jamal Benour, a judge who is in charge of justice issues for the rebel transitional council. “We need to have a proper judicial process, to build trust in law and order. Now, maybe we’ve lost part of the credibility of the revolution. . . . Some might say that what Gaddafi did in his regime is happening now under the revolution.”

Well, the road to hell is paved with… something, something. As TNC said at his spot (hat-tip to you, sir, btw):

The point here is not a reflexive isolationism. The point is that having a boot on your neck, while deeply tragic, is not an ennobling experience.

(Oh, and before I go: $20 says Ben updates this post within an hour to call me a poopy-head. TWENTY BUCKS!)

Read the rest of this entry »

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A Few Things Worth Reading On This Lonely Morning

By
Tom OHare
– May 11, 2011

I have to go to work this morning. HERE ARE SOME INTERESTING THINGS TO READ IN THE MEANTIME!

After a while, crocodile.

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Uprisings Against Dictators Are Not Inherently Democratic

By
Tom OHare
– March 14, 2011

You can count me among those who are wary of imposing a no-fly zone in Libyan airspace. I’m not convinced that supporting uprisings against dictators = supporting democracy, and while I don’t think many people would make that argument outright (because it’s stupid), I do think that some version of it is implicit in the (more and more frequent) calls for military intervention there.

Eric Martin asks the tough questions:

…[W]hen pondering the involvement of US forces, first and foremost, elected leaders must consider whether such an intervention is in our national interest, and, if so, what can realistically be accomplished and at what costs.  Along those lines, it is essential to establish what the objective of the intervention would be and what future actions will be necessitated/spurred on by the initial decision to intervene militarily. To paraphrase General Petraeus, “Tell me how this ends.”

As is so often the case, you should read the whole thing.