Well, to be honest I can’t say for certain that the individuals in the video (dated September 23rd) watching the protestors marching past them from their balconies on Wall Street work for Goldman Sachs, other Investment firms, hedge funds, or one of the numerous financial institutions (private and quasi-governmental) implicated in creating the global financial crisis that caused the Great Recession, but odds are that if they do not, they move in the same circles. So take a good look at them in the video below beginning about the 54 second mark.
Don’t they look so happy and serene, and amused by the doings of the hoi polloi making their little march and chanting their silly slogans? They are laughing, joking with each other,smirking, and taking pictures and videos to show there friends of the absurd little people in the street below who stupidly believe that these little protests will have any impact on the lives of their betters standing above them. And these well dressed, relaxes folks are celebrating the occasion with no doubt expensive liquor.
Of course, since the date of this video they’ve become a little more anxious. After all, the NYPD has now have been given free rein to use mace and batons (please don’t call them “billy clubs” as that would be so louche), and we know the CEO of one of these firms instructed the NY Times Financial Reporter to conduct a reconnaissance mission to determine the danger he and his minions faced from these bums and low-lifes. Still, I have to believe that what we see in the video above represents their true feelings regarding the Occupy Wall Street protests: disdain, condescension, bemusement and joy at the chance to take a break from driving the world’s economy off a cliff in order to enjoy expensive alcoholic beverages (no Yukon Jack or MD 20-20 for the members of the ruling class, oh no!) while mocking the DFH’s on the sidewalks below.
Just look at their faces. Look carefully. Do you see any expression of empathy? Compassion or sympathy? I see one well dressed man lifting his glass to them in a sardonic salute. They think they hold all the cards. They don’t look worried in the least. It’s almost as if they think the protests were a little bit of street theater created for their own amusement. Why else take time off from their busy, busy day running the world if not to enjoy a 3D reality show performed especially for them. It’s as if the people in the street are ants, and they know they can step on them anytime they wish, but out of boredom or apathy they chose not to that day. Certainly their faces tell me they don’t consider the protestors below as real human beings deserving of the same rights and privileges that they, the Lords of Wall Street, greedily keep to themselves.
It’s all there in their eyes. To them we are insignificant, lacking any value or respect. We might as well be a different species from them. Our struggles, our pain, our demands are not worthy of their time or attention. The only thing they think us good for is to provide them a little entertainment on a late afternoon after the markets have closed.
Perhaps they still believe that about us. But we have not gone away since this video was shot. We are still there and the movement, despite all the scorn and ridicule about our movement in the media they control, despite the police state tactics of law enforcement agencies employed against those of us on the front lines, not just in New York but around the country (the top recced diary at Dkos about the illegal and excessive actions of the SFPD in San Francisco is but the latest of many examples around the country).
I wonder, when they go home to their palatial estates or expensive Manhattan condominiums and penthouses, before they go to bed after checking the opening of the Asian markets on their Blackberries, whether a little smidgen of fear has crept into their lizard brains? Surely this can’t keep going. Surely these “things” will crawl back into the woodwork where they belong as the temperatures get colder. Surely, this movement, without funding and directions from Billionaire financiers and political operatives will fall apart and blow away like dust on the wind. Surely.
But however smug they may appear outwardly, they can’t be sure, can they?
It’s times like this I wish the definition of nonviolence made occasional exceptions for a punch in the face.
If the US had the equivalent to the Baader Meinhof Gang those corporate cock suckers would be in hiding.
If I were to speculate for a moment, I would note simply that I would not be surprised if a Baader Meinhof equivalent sprung up at some point in the not too distant future. We’re not at a point where such a group’s actions would be especially welcomed by many in the US. If we did get to a point to where such a group would have popular support, hopefully they learn from the mistakes the original group made.
If a Baader Meinhof gang pops up in these parts, you can be sure they’re being funded by the FBI or the CIA. I hope you understand what I’m saying.
Let’s just say the thought would definitely cross my mind.
But they will be.
These are the same types that jumped off of buildings around the time that the Great Depression started in October/November of 1929. They are the ones that were guillotined during the French Revolution, the ones who had to flee Cuba when Castro took over, the ones who were tried and executed during the Russian Revolution, the ones who were sent to work in the fields during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. (Of course, none of the previously mentioned movements were particularly…fastidious…about whom they punished, but that’s a whole ‘nother can of grand guignol, ain’t it.)
They are always with us. In the ebb and flow of history they have their high tides and their lows and so do the people upon whom they parasitically thrive. Most of them are not particularly intelligent (Are parasites ever very intelligent?), but they must serve some purpose or they would not be part of the evolution of mankind and the life of Life itself.
Their day is coming.
Sooner rather than later, it is beginning to appear.
Sooner rather than later.
Worldwide.
That “Arab Spring as a symptom of a coming worldwide infection” that I suggested in this article? (War + Revolution as Earthbound, Traveling Infections. Again.)
Yup.
Looks like…
We shall soon see.
If the weather remains relatively mild for another several weeks in NYC?
If the cops are driven to real violence?
If there is another serious downturn in the world’s economy?
If it begins to get cold and there are economically-caused fuel/food delivery problems?
Yup.
We shall see.
Very soon.
Watch.
Later…
AG
Arthur, the turning point will be when the cops refuse to gas them and refuse to arrest them. Throughout history those at the top have used some at the bottom to suppress the others at the bottom. When they refuse that game, society collapses. These collapses are scary. Sometimes they lead to something better, more often they lead to something worse.
/Sometimes they lead to something better, more often they lead to something worse./
People often say that, but where is the actual evidence that this is the case? I’d like to see it actually compiled. People are always afraid of the unknown, and I feel like people just trot that line out because others have always trotted it out. Has it ever been, you know, studied for a thesis or something?
Which part of it? We saw what happened in Cairo. At some point the cops will refuse, and society will not collapse, it will begin to recover.
The old society did indeed collapse. I think you agree with me but would prefer “regime” or “political structure” to “society”.
French revolution led to the Terror. Russian revolution led to Stalin.
No, nothing formal, just an observation. Can’t think of other examples offhand, but I remember reading about them.
Of course, in the long run, both France and Russia worked out. In the short run, a lot of innocents died.
That picture need a caption…Here are the 1%ters having a good time with the 40% they stole from my dad’s retirement 401K.
I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of that picture. It’s very captionable.
The view from Versailles changes day by day. We the people are not amused when the clever Masters of the Universe make a public show of their ignorance as they did at the Chicago Board of Trade Building
Most likely the 1 percenter signs were not posted by CME group monarchs Craig S. Donohue, CEO and Executive Chairman Terrance A. Duffy, but by their gloating courtiers – the derivative traders who profit from causing misery. They should be thinking about how to get that $60 billion nest egg out into the world to help forestall the slave uprising before it becomes less entertaining for them.
Sounds to me that they need to be reminded of the words of f S Johnson: “Nothing concentrateth the mind like a hanging”.
String up a bundle of old clothes, and label it “Lloyd and other 1%”. Down on Wall Street.
These people think that they are safe and that they are the masters of the universe. They are neither.
from our friends in the GWN, via the ottawa citizen:
Actually BooMan, you are the smug one. You smugly dismissed the Tar Sand protests. And Obama is about to green light the Tar Sands pipeline.
Naomi Klein joined the Wall Street protest yesterday–fresh from her Tar Sands protest.
Your progressive credentials are now nil.
But thanks for the lip service, BooMan. It’s what you–and Obama–do best.
I’m not Booman.
Please check to see who wrote the story.
If you have a beef with Booman take it up with him or post your own diary.
I did post stories on the Tar sands.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/8/26/153737/311
I don’t find anything I wrote smug.
The names! Madame wants the names!
Someone’s sleeping on the sidewalk
As the winter sun goes down
Someone’s drinking cold champagne
In another part of town
And the only thing he thinks about
As he sips his glass of wine
“It sure feels good sitting here tonight
Now that I’ve got mine”
I’ve got mine, I’ve got mine
This isn’t such a bitter world
‘Cause I’ve got mine
Someone’s wandering the streets tonight
No way to warm his hands
Someone’s turning up their fireplace
Making travel plans
His mind is on some sandy beach
Where the sun is gonna shine
He thinks, “I don’t have to hang around
Now that I’ve got mine”
You see them in their limousines
You see the way they stare
But they don’t see us looking back
Because they don’t really care
They say, “I’ve got mine, I’ve got mine
The world is as it’s meant to be
‘Cause I’ve got mine”
So I make a small donation
What more can I do?
You know I didn’t make this world
I’m in it just like you
I’ve worked all my life on this house of cards
To keep it all in line
I can’t take care of everyone
Now that I’ve got mine
There’s another kind of poverty
That only rich men know
A moral malnutrition
That starves their very souls
And they can’t be saved by money
They’re all running out of time
And all the while they’re thinkin’
“It’s okay ’cause I’ve got mine”
I’ve got mine, I’ve got mine
I don’t want a thing to change
‘Cause I’ve got mine
I’ve got mine, I’ve got mine