Before I kick off, I feel I must make a comment regarding the methods of a certain colleague. Look: going out of your way to emphasize (I swear) spelling errors in the argument of someone who’s challenging your argument (SIC! SIC! SIC!) … that seems to be a common tactic of internet message boards, which can be best translated as, “You’re an idiot, so I don’t have to even bother to take your argument seriously.” Of course, it has nothing to do with content. In a word, it’s “sic”. Really … can’t we discuss things like rational adults?
Interestingly enough … this actually leads in to my first point. This week includes the first of May — “May Day,” which, for some odd reason, is dear to the heart of communists. So, of course, it was inevitable that various leaders of the Occupiers would want to do something special on that day. Apparently, it’s a nationwide strike, or something.
The only problem is: the Occupiers by and large are made up of folks who aren’t working much anyway. Otherwise, how would they’ve been able to camp out 24/7 — smoking dope, sleeping around, and #2-ing on cop cars? So … I think their call for workers of the world to unite … it won’t gain that much traction. Sorry, folks.
Anyway … the more and more I hear about how unhinged the Occupiers are threatening to get (so much so that the liberal media has struggled to ignore them — not glorify them, as they used to), the more I think of The Beatles, and their classic song “Revolution”. For those of you who don’t know, John Lennon and company wrote the song after the counterculture of the ’60s asked them to really offer their support for the cause.
Except John wasn’t impressed. Although he’d be known as the guy who wrote “Imagine” — which, when you take away the powerful melody and beautiful music, reads chillingly like a simplified Communist Manifesto — nonetheless, one thing he, and the other Beatles, would not put up with was the use of violence to bring about change. Hence: “When you talk about destruction — don’t you know that you can count me out!”
But that wasn’t the only beef The Beatles had: “You say you got a real solution? Well…you know — we’d all love to see the plan.” Lo and behold … what plan do the Occupiers have? Nothing but railing against “the 1%”. They march, they chant, they “mike-check” to the point of parody (“I would like to thank—” “I WOULD LIKE TO THANK—” “All of you—” “ALL OF YOU—” “For coming here today!” “FOR COMING HERE TODAY!”).
But what are their solutions? They don’t have any. Frankly, I don’t blame them: any solution might cause a lot of people to leave their coalition (or what passes for it). After all … if all you’re doing is ranting against “the system”, or “the establishment”, or something similarly vague … well, sure you’re going to get a lot of people intrigued. It’s the blank slate. How do you think Obama got elected?
But our Fab Four didn’t stop there. If and when you do have a solution, make sure it doesn’t look “out there”: “You want to change the Constitution? Well … you know — we all want to change your head. You tell me it’s the institution? Well … you know — you’d better free your mind, instead. But when you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao — you ain’t gonna make it with anyone, anyhow!”
Needless to say … the counterculture shrugged off John’s advice — and the movement collapsed. And the Occupiers? Increasingly, when they do give specifics, they sound like Marxists.
Interesting note: John Lennon reportedly went all the way, reforming in the late ’70s to an honest-to-goodness Reaganite! Say what you will about John — his romance with Yoko Ono probably wasn’t the most dignified time of his life (“Bed for Peace” indeed!) — but, liberal as he was for so long, he was always an honest liberal. The Beatles railed against high taxation and government waste in “Taxman” (“Don’t ask me what I want it for … if you don’t want to pay some more.”). And from what I’ve heard, John wasn’t one to go blindly into foreign-aid fundraisers — he would ask where the money would really go. (George Clooney, take note!)
A lot of celebrities could learn from his example. As could the Occupiers.