Posted by floatingbridge on December 12, 2011, at 12:26:16
In reply to Re: The Psychology of Occupy Wall Street » Solstice, posted by Dinah on December 9, 2011, at 20:54:07
Dinah,
You know, you've kinda' nailed it here for me. I have not been comfortable with the slogan myself, though I stand with what in theory and in actuality is often at the heart of what is being said and stood for.
Black Friday? Our family does not leave the house. We buy absolutely nothing. I understand from where the name derives, but sometimes I feel there are no coincidences. At least when it makes ironic sense as in this case.
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> I think I'd feel better about the movement if they would quit claiming to speak for the 99%. I'm one of the 99% too, and they don't have my permission to speak for me. Nor would they be doing a good job of it.l
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> I did think of staging a counterprotest if I had heard of any occupying of retailers on Black Friday. I don't even shop on Black Friday (and as seldom as possible on any day), but I'd have made a special effort to go out and patronize any store targeted. I was *that* angry. However, I didn't hear of any local activity.
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> I'd like it better if they claimed to speak for themselves and admitted that they were pushing the ideas *they* think best for the 99%. I have an automatic aversion to anyone claiming to speak for me, particularly if they really aren't. My kneejerk reaction to seeing someone carrying a placard saying they are the 99% is to jump up and down and screech that they may be part of the 99%, but the 99% is not a monolith and they do not speak for me.
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> Sigh. I be very bad at making slogans. I'd fill them so full of disclaimers, they'd sound like a Prozac commercial.
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> *** I am speaking only for myself, part of the 99%, and do not have the authority or ability to speak for any other part of the 99%. Nor do I have the right to suggest that my views would not be acceptable to some part of the 1%, who are not a monolith and who probably represent a wide range of views.
It does not matter what has been made of us; what matters is what we make of what has been done to us.
poster:floatingbridge
thread:1004340
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20110926/msgs/1004801.html