Now come the iconic images that will define the moment when Occupy Wall Street transformed from simple and somewhat uncertain protest into a serious opposition of the crimes and political usurpation of democracy by corporations and banks. And, as I am sure surprises no one at all, those images are of police brutality against peaceful demonstrators:
I, for one, have no doubt that some of these images will become as ingrained in our collective imagination as the Kent State shooting or the pictures of fire hoses unleashed on civil rights marchers in Alabama, and to much the same end: the demonstration of the failure of the authorities to respond appropriately to the demand for overdue justice and change and the desperate resort to violence and brutality.
Journalist Chris Hedges, who has become one of several “go-to” voices throughout the last couple of months for understanding the motivations and broader context of the Occupation, has written what I think is probably the closest thing to a manifesto to come out of the situation to date: “This Is What Revolution Looks Like” The very first paragraph reads like a call to arms:
Welcome to the revolution. Our elites have exposed their hand. They have nothing to offer. They can destroy but they cannot build. They can repress but they cannot lead. They can steal but they cannot share. They can talk but they cannot speak. They are as dead and useless to us as the water-soaked books, tents, sleeping bags, suitcases, food boxes and clothes that were tossed by sanitation workers Tuesday morning into garbage trucks in New York City. They have no ideas, no plans and no vision for the future.
Consider some of the other events of the past week in the context of what is occurring in New York, Oakland, and Portland: the leaders of Greece and Italy have both been replaced by Goldman Sachs “technocrats” to insure that those countries fulfill their obligations to the banks first, regardless of the economic hardships that they will impose on the public. Meanwhile, Tahrir Square in Cairo once again has turned into a battleground between the people and the military junta that took advantage of that revolution to seize power. You have to be stupid or willfully ignorant at this point not to see that this country is approaching a similar crossroads: the failure of our political system has been turned into a running joke by the endless series of “debates” among the hapless, impotent, and possibly deranged Republican presidential candidates, while the Congressional “supercommittee” prepares to walk away from any sort of serious negotiation. We don’t have to worry about whether or not a Goldman Sachs man is going to take over, because the last two Secretaries of the Treasury have been Goldman Sachs executives, and Goldman Sachs bankrolls Barack Obama. So the “beginning of the beginning” is fully upon us, and if you think the authorities will draw the line with some pepper spray and a little extra muscle in the squabble, you’re as delusional as those Republicans.
