Occupy Wall Street as Superstition
You have to love this article by Abe Greenwald in Commentary. Here’s the thesis:
Watch any showdown between an articulate capitalist and an OWS-er. It’s not a political debate, but an anthropological event: present-day man reaching back through time to make contact with his primitive and superstitious ancestor. The capitalist understands the benefits of the free market but the Occupier doesn’t have to. The shamans of socialism have told him that Wall Street is populated by evil spirits. He’s been warned of the capitalist’s use of incantation and alchemy. If the capitalist seems to be making sense, it’s a spell. (And if the Tea Party seems to be comprised of thousands of voices it’s the wizardry of the all-powerful Koch brothers.) The Occupier will not engage a legitimate opponent because the opponent’s legitimacy is some sort of devilish illusion. Occupy Wall Street, therefore, literally has no need for logical argument.
Read the whole thing.
Please note that a fair observer of capitalism understands the limits of the free market as well as its benefits.
Most of us believe that the best form of government available to mankind is a modern democracy (or representative republic) and that the basis for such a government is rational discussion of issues amongst free and equal members. Greenwald’s piece opens a Pandora’s Box. What if, hypothetically for now, rational discussion is impossible for a violently assertive segment of society? In the past how did America deal with the American Nazi Party or the Communist Party or the KKK?
Well, for one thing we didn’t have a President excuse their actions as “broad-based frustration.”
In the end the superstitious will have to be made to accept the law and the politicians will have to be made to accept the will of the rational supermass of the people. In the end the people will again demand a government with enough stomach to “Secure the Blessings of Liberty.”
TimManBlog 