Bob Glass filed the following report from New York. Photo credit:Wikipedia.
On Wednesday I went to Zuccotti park in lower Manhattan to see what all the hoopla was about concerning the swelling crowds gathering to protest Wall Street and Capitalism. Zuccotti park, one of the few private parks in New York City, had been turned into a command post and staging ground for the myriad of groups and individuals who had gathered to vent their rage against the disparity between what they perceived to be the haves and have nots in this country.
The scene was part Woodstock (minus the talent and music) part rave (minus anything resembling ecstasy) and part public forum (minus anything resembling intelligent dialogue). The overwhelming majority of people were in their teens and early twenties — lost souls not quite sure what they were angry about. I spent a few hours going through the crowd talking to as many people as I could, and it seemed that each person had a different agenda, a different bone to pick, and a different cause celebre.
In addition to the young people in search of life’s meaning and some type of government handout there was the usual assortment of left wing organizations, including but not limited to the Communist Party USA, the Socialist Workers Party, Workers World Party, and dozens of unions including the SEIU. It became clear to me that the rhetoric of class warfare championed by Barack Obama and dutifully spread by the major media had permeated the crowd and was the only common thread holding the rabble together.
They all seemed to agree that greed and capitalism are the roots of all evil and culprits for all of society’s ills. They shouted the usual left-wing slogans like “Tax the rich feed the poor,” “Jail the bankers,” and “The people united will never be defeated.” They were particularly upset about the taxpayers bailing out all of the big Wall Street banks and investment houses, but no one seemed to make the connection that the person most guilty of this is Barack Obama.
It soon became clear to me that I was witnessing the formation of Obama’s shock troops, those he will try to exploit to bully and intimidate his way back into power.
The supreme irony was not lost on me that so many of these people had ipads and ipods and were using them with great success to organize their movement. I could not help but remember Lenin’s famous quote, “The capitalists will sell us the rope that we will hang them with.” And I thought of the passing of Steve Jobs, one of America’s greatest inventors, entrepreneurs, visionaries and capitalists. A man who will forever change the way we all live for the better.
Considering what little the occupation crowd has made possible, compared to what the great champion of the free market Steve Jobs has made possible, I could only shake my head. As Howard Roark reminds us, “Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light.” The occupation forces seem eager to throw in the torch.