Occupy and Destroy

The Occupy Wall Street movement is now spreading out of New York and overseas. I witnessed some of it first hand while just recently in America. I already wrote about the foolishness being promoted by these protestors, and how – as usual – they have got things wrong big time.

In another piece I stated: “As I was walking through Madison Wisconsin today, a college town known for its radicalism, there were a group of these ‘Occupiers’ there with all their usual confusing and meaningless signs. One of the demonstrators proudly held up a sign with these words, ‘Down with greed!’ This encapsulates perfectly what is wrong with leftwing ideology. It reflects precisely the typical moral and mental meltdown of the secular left. They are somehow convinced that people out there (capitalists, bankers, etc) are drowning in greed, while they are somehow pristine bastions of altruism and charity.

“This has always been the fatal weakness of leftist analysis. Marx thought that the bad guys were the owners of the means of production, while the good guys were the poor exploited workers. But this assessment is far too superficial and inadequate. Evil is not in certain classes of people (the bosses, etc) but in the human heart. Sin affects every single one of us, and so too does greed. The guys holding their signs trying to shut down Wall Street and other places (with all their corporate gadgets – fancy sneakers, iPads, smart phones, etc), somehow think they are immune from greed and other evils.

“But they are as full of it as anyone else. We all are. That is because we are all selfish and sinful, and in need of a saviour. But the lefty radicals think that if we can destroy American corporations and the banking and finance system we will see heaven come down to earth. These guys are dreaming. But the radical revolutionaries continue to war against the very things which have allowed them to live the good life in the first place. Such misguided and deluded activism is not just a product of America. It is a sad but fixed part of the Western world.”

As the protests spread, one has to ask just what is going on here. I guess with Obama in the White House and Julia in the Lodge, the lefties have been feeling a bit let down of late, with no one to protest. There is no more Bush or Howard to kick around, to blame for all the world’s ills.

Thus they have to find yet another cause to make a stink about, and produce a lot of damage and destruction along the way. We have seen it all before of course. The left forever wants to tear down and destroy, while conservatives, as the name implies, seek to conserve and preserve. David Horowitz nicely offers the contrast here:

“A friend of mine sagely observed that the difference between conservatives and leftists is that we are creators and they are destroyers. You couldn’t have a better picture of that than the contrast between the peaceful Tea Party demonstrators and the mobs defacing cities and causing millions of dollars in damage all over America and now the world. That’s because the Tea Partiers love their country and respect their communities, even those they disagree with. Whereas the destroyers respect nothing and are driven by their primary emotions which are envy, resentment and hate.

“Make no mistake about who these people are. This is the same global communist movement that attacked the World Trade Organization and ‘evil corporations’ in 2001, and that took to the streets to defend Saddam Hussein and call Bush Hitler in 2002. The forces behind this movement are identical: Soros, the Shadow Party, gangster socialist unions and a ‘progressive’ intelligentsia whose hatred of the capitalist West has caused it to lose its collective mind.”

Ann Coulter also focuses on the major differences between the two groups: “Tea partiers didn’t block traffic, sleep on sidewalks, wear ski masks, fight with the police or urinate in public. They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments, and petitioned the government against Obama’s unconstitutional big government policies, especially the stimulus bill and Obamacare. Then they picked up their own trash and quietly went home. Apparently, a lot of them had to be at work in the morning.

“In the two years following the movement’s inception, the Tea Party played a major role in turning Teddy Kennedy’s seat over to a Republican, making the sainted Chris Christie governor of New Jersey, and winning a gargantuan, historic Republican landslide in the 2010 elections. They are probably going to succeed in throwing out a president in next year’s election. That’s what democracy looks like.”

Or as Michelle Malkin put it: “When fiscally conservative tea party activists held protests over the past two years, they filed for all the required permits and paid for their own power. Occupy Boston, by contrast, neither sought nor obtained any proper permits at any level, according to the Boston Globe. Instead, city and park officials have been cowed into providing them gratis electricity and camp space lest there be ‘conflict.’

“Many of these occupiers are primarily occupied as paid rent-a-mobsters for unions, left-wing think tanks and the radical Working Families Party. While one collective hand soaks the taxpayers, the other hand is busy soliciting free stuff. Occupy Los Angeles activists took to Skype on their laptops to solicit donations of iPhones and iPads. Occupy Wall Street members on Twitter organized an ongoing ‘#needsoftheoccupiers’ drive for everything from batteries and tarps to ‘gently used’ coats and sweaters, wool socks, sleeping bags and energy bars. Occupy Austin organizers publicized their wish list, including a free barbecue grill, portable toilets, extension cords, a Bobcat forestry cutter for clearing brush and network cameras for a livestream.

“These are not principled advocates of fiscal responsibility. They are professional freeloaders. Unlike tea party activists who focused like a laser beam on politicians in both parties responsible for redistributing wealth to Big Business cronies by force, the Occupy Wall Street movement is everywhere and nowhere. The entitled Kamp Alinsky Kids are poaching WiFi and trespassing on private property under the guise of ‘social justice’ but in plain service of themselves.

“Their T-shirts and speeches glorify Marxist radicals Che Guevara, Emiliano Zapata and Chairman Mao. They lionize convicted death row cop killer Troy Davis and WikiLeaks collaborator Bradley Manning. They condemn ‘Nazi Bankers,’ Jews, Fox News, the American Legislative Exchange Council, Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott Walker, the Koch family and the New York Police Department (‘Pigs!’). They promote the illegal alien DREAM Act and 9/11 Trutherism.”

Indeed, the amount of ugly anti-Semitism alone should be a concern for every citizen. As Derek Hunter explains, these demonstrations are filled with every nutter, anarchist and radical around, complete with plenty of Jew-haters: “Meet ‘occupier’ Patricia McAllister. Patricia works for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She also hates Jews. She told Reason.tv, ‘I think that the Zionist Jews who are running these big banks and our Federal Reserve, which is not run by the federal government, they need to be run out of this country’.”

Even better than description are the actual images of these demos. It may be best to contrast the Tea Party versus the Occupiers by means of pictures. See here for example: toddkinsey.com/blog/2011/10/10/tea-party-vs-occupy-wall-street-in-pictures/

And pictures are a good way to expose the gross hypocrisy of these guys as well: www.lewrockwell.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Evil-Corporations.jpg

As countless reporters have already discovered, most of these marchers don’t have a clue why they are there. They just seem to want to make a stink, and capitalism is once again a handy target. Marybeth Hicks offers some concluding observations about all this: “Now, after nearly a month of pointless protests, the Occupy Wall Street movement predictably is attracting the unfortunate and the unmotivated: homeless folks looking for free food and young people looking for a rager and an excuse to have exhibitionist sex in a public park (in the spirit of responsibility, organizers are giving out condoms at supply tents); not to mention unionists and political opportunists from every radical leftist interest group with poster board and a marker.

“Who’s surprised? A directionless mob that can’t articulate a concrete purpose virtually screams, ‘Lead me!’ As the saying goes, since they don’t know what they stand for, they’ll fall for anything. Perhaps there is some earnest yearning fanning the flames of outrage among the Occupiers. It’s possible this generation is so in need of a moral compass that it’s simply searching for true north. Sadly, having been left for so long to the devices of liberals, this generation of would-be revolutionaries mistakes emotion and placards for ideas and ideology.”

Indeed, rage and protest signs are always easier to come up with than is clear thinking and moral discernment. As I noted earlier, the “sins” which are being targeted here are just as true of those on the left. As Solzhenitsyn once rightly reminded us, evil is not out there somewhere, but runs across every human heart.

But pretending that bigger government, more handouts, more socialism, and less responsibility are somehow going to make everything better will in fact help no one. Indeed, we have already tried the socialist alternative, and it has been the costliest and deadliest failed social experiment in human history.

Indeed, it is the “God that failed” as one collection of essays by former communists penned in 1949 put it. We have been there and done that. But today’s radicals, who clearly have learned nothing from history, want to inflict all this horror and misery upon us once again.

While the free market is not perfect, it is far and away to be preferred to the sorts of solutions being demanded by these spoiled radicals. If they want to return to the stone age, let them, but they better not insist on dragging the rest of us down with them.

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/15/the-destroyers-1/
http://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2011/10/05/this_is_what_a_mob_looks_like/page/full/
http://patriotpost.us/opinion/michelle-malkin/2011/10/14/costs-of-the-occupiers/
http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2011/10/16/democrats,_the_media_and_the_heart_of_the_occupy_movement
http://townhall.com/columnists/marybethhicks/2011/10/12/wishing_i_was_wrong_about_the_occupiers

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25 Replies to “Occupy and Destroy”

  1. And this article by English Marxist Brendan O’Neill is well worth reading. He says:

    “Mocking anti-capitalist fashionistas is the gift that keeps on giving. Yet behind the obvious daftness and corporate hypocrisy of this pseudo-political yelp of adolescent outrage, something more serious is unfolding on Wall Street and other cities being “occupied” by the agitated: the final death agony of the progressive Left.”

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/wall-street-occupiers-are-an-insult-to-the-workers/story-e6frg6zo-1226167979536

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  2. Another very good piece can be found here:

    http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/41354

    “Radicalization is about protest with no other purpose but protest. Its goal is to block streets, get arrested, write about the experience and then come back tomorrow and train the newest arrivals to do the same thing all over again. The demands don’t really matter. With a friendly administration in DC, this is more about visibility and setting a national agenda by hijacking the consensus. Activism is about disrupting democracy through force of will. Shout the loudest and your agenda moves up to the top. Given a choice between a vocal agenda and a muted opposition, the public will often go along with the vocal agenda. And even if it doesn’t, the politicians will.”

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  3. Thank you for this clear-thinking article, Bill. For some reason, the “Mad Max” version of the breakdown of society, kept creeping into my mind…on the road to vengeance and oblivion…as I read this.
    We are surely entering the “third day” of the Lord. (Hosea 6:1-2; 2 Peter 3:8).
    Monica Craver

  4. And one of the most important bits of commentary is this:

    “As long as a nation is virtuous, they will place God at the top of their priorities. A nation that believes in God recognizes that our rights are given to us by Him, not government. If government gave us our rights, then government can take them away. This is one of many reasons that liberal systems of government like utopianism, communism, socialism, and even American Progressivism, denies the existence of God; or in the case of the monarchies during the time of the founding of this nation, take control of the church. Without God, or with religion under governmental control, the government becomes the primary priority in one’s life when it comes to morals, rules, and rights. In that way, government, without God in the way, has a greater opportunity to exert control over the people.”

    http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/41353

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  5. Oh well, at least we know whose side you’re on now Bill. Evil is one up on you there. It doesn’t discriminate, or vote.

    I’ve been following these uprisings since May, and while there’s no doubt the cause has been hijacked (at times) by the left wing, not all protesters are amoral neo-hippy pinkos with a “property is greed” agenda. There are a lot of representatives of a plundered middle class that is shrinking rapidly, as well.

    It was obvious that, as soon as the mainstream media found it could no longer ignore the protests, it would also play its part in hijacking the movement on behalf of powerful interests (left, right – whatever – I’m sure you’ll nail them, Bill) by depicting it as anti-Semitic and Communist. That was as predictable as sunrise. I was hoping you wouldn’t go there, especially with such wholeheartedness.

    The protests have been manipulated, no doubt. Some of the protesters might be going about it the wrong way; they might not all have the best motives, but neither, definitely, do the kleptocrats they’re protesting about. You are right, Bill. Evil lurks in ALL human hearts. The protests were bound to deteriorate, just as economics was always bound to become little more than organised greed. God’s not in the picture, that’s why.

    You are only serving the interests of the mainstream media, the fruits of which are just as evil, Bill, by portraying this whole thing so one-dimensionally, then claiming that you can “see through” all that deceptive wickedness. God’s Opposite number is bound to be a lot smarter than you are. He’d love it if we all listened to those journos and commentators who want us to see either the political left or the political right as repositories of all fruits good or all fruits bad. Or stifle debate by labelling people anti-Semitic or communist, or sexist, or racist, or ageist, or fascist, or homophobic. He LOVES that stuff!

    I don’t come to this shrine very often these days Bill, but it seems to be coming along well.

    Robert Drane

  6. The biggest irony of the OWS protestors is that their tactics play into the hands of the very people they should be most angry at. They are part of the ‘useful idiots’ who are too dumbed down to understand how life works, so they rail haphazardly against the ‘unfairness’ of it all.

    There is a lack of coherence in their grievances and also a great measure of hypocrisy as they complain of capitalism, but are quite happy using their iPhones, and laptops, and facebook, and needing electricity and wearing nice manufactured clothes, and using backpacks, and eating good food, and etc. etc. etc.

    But we should warn them, and warn others. This 10 minute video, an edit of a longer interview recorded over 25 years ago, is a clarion alarm bell from a Soviet KGB defector. These protestors are doing nothing new. They are just as greedy and corrupt as the people they affect to despise. The world has seen it all before.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Iz3VjoHXLA

    People should also follow that patriotupdate link above about greed, Bill. I love this quote from Thomas Sowell:
    “I have never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”

    We all need a Saviour, not utopia, and His name is Jesus.

    Mark Rabich

  7. Thanks for addressing this situation, Bill. Just when you think they are all out of ideas to hasten the destruction of every pillar of society, they come up with something seemingly even more destructive and evil than their last move. With the global economy already on the brink, they want to smash the last of it. And isn’t it clever that the Left have managed to blame ‘those greedy capitalists’ when it was leftist governments high on Keynesian economic theory who have emptied the future funds of the West and left us without a safety net (at least within the natural realm). Brilliant Horowitz quote. You’ve put a voice to what we have been thinking as we’ve watched this new global nightmare, since it’s ‘spreading like wildfire’. Unfortunately people who are already predisposed to rebellion will be drawn to this like a magnet. Time to call upon the Lord to raise up His church.

    Isaiah 59:19b: When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

    Dee Graf

  8. Good points Mark. This argument about protesters using iPhones, Facebook and other technology etc is interesting though. I know what you’re saying, I hear it a lot, and I have wrestled with it as well. I guess it comes down to this: people have to use what resources are available if they want to disagree with things on other levels of society. Those resources WERE developed by the very society they protest against, but by implication, this means all protest against that society, even when we observe its moral deterioration, should remain silent, because these are the very means of dialogue provided for us and, apparently we’re hypocrites for using them.

    The fact is that human potential and the resources of God’s Earth are meant, by God, to be for all of us. The fact that big companies mine those resources, or have R&D money we don’t have, or can afford to go through the whole patent treadmill, doesn’t mean they OWN those resources, or that potential. It means they developed these things and presented them to the world. Thankfully. It also means they might, as we all are able to do, develop an inflated sense of “ownership”, which, given the way human nature works, becomes addictive, as does the power that comes with it. People ARE allowed to protest about that. Pointing out protestors’ hypocrisies and agendas is easy. Most people with a Christian radar can see them and know they’re just as bad as the things they attack.

    I sometimes think about Christ – did he prefer “left-wing” sins over “right-wing”? I don’t think so. Even hypocrisy is an overrated vice – we ALL contradict ourselves sometimes. But Christ saved his juiciest language for those hypocrites who had no intention of changing, because they just believed they were right all the time, even in their sin. Today’s “money changers”, are protected by scribes and pharisees who seem to be so righteous in their partisanship. He saw EVERY sin; he wasn’t blinded by agendas or partisanship. Then he forgave them. But he REALLY gave it to Pharisees.

    It was Pharisaical to hang on grimly to your own agendas and judge sins accordingly from that point-of-view. It was self-interest at work, in the guise of holiness. It still is. The Bible shows us that God actually HATES that.

    Robert Drane

  9. Quite right Dee

    Those of us who lived through the end of the Cold War and were aware of the threat of militant, atheistic communism are now seeing the same old stuff being replayed before our very eyes. Marxism is not dead – it has just morphed into a new form.

    And both then and now plenty of naive Christians are absolutely clueless as to the very real threat we face. What was that text? “My people perish for lack of knowledge”.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  10. Communism, Marxism and all their manifestattions are far from dead. These human tendencies wrapped in ideology are going to morph into a huge threat, and, of course, they’ll call themselves something else. Christians DO need to realise this; they shouldn’t be naive. The world is going to change for the worse. These protesters don’t have the answers, and in fact they are part of the problem, as are the powerful elites they attack. Christ is the answer.

    I also agree with another point you make frequently, Bill, and that is that many evils can even masquerade as Christianity itself. Evil is never more dangerous than when it comes cloaked in good.

    Robert Drane

  11. Thanks Robert

    As to some of your earlier comments, you seem to be confusing matters. To proclaim the Christian truth that we are all sinners, all greedy, etc., does not mean we then lose all moral discernment and pretend there are no threats out there. The truth is, while many might have the best of intentions marching in these demos, there are those who are bent on destroying the West, and are more than happy to use such folks as “useful idiots” (Lenin’s term) to accomplish their purposes. We help no one by being naive about real dangers, or simply hiding our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is just peachy out there.

    And this has nothing to do with “labelling” people but simply speaking the truth about the situation. Marxists exist, big time, as do anti-Semites, those who want to destroy the West, and so on, and they are fully involved in the Occupy protests. Christians believe in reality, not in pretending things will be otherwise. Not facing up to the dangers we face is to denigrate Christian responsibility. One might as well complain about Wilberforce “labelling” the slave traders, and so on. Speaking truth and identifying real dangers are Christian duties.

    As to left and right, I have spoken about this far too often to rehash it all here. I simply ask you to go here for example to see my response:
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/07/29/christians-and-the-election/
    http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2007/09/13/religion-and-the-political-spectrum/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2006/10/17/faith-and-politics-part-1/
    http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2006/10/17/faith-and-politics-part-2/

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  12. Robert,

    You must be talking about some other media that I have not yet encountered! Here is a commentator in the USA on MSNBC basically inviting the violence to escalate and also the hosts of the show effectively agree with him!

    http://moonbattery.com/?p=3327

    There’s a great comment on the original YouTube page for this clip:
    “He calls for violence, and? the peaceful Tea Party repulses him…what a patriot.”

    Also, when I clicked on that socialist skewed rag, The Age, yesterday, to see how they would whitewash the violence (as you did) this was a caption on one of the photos:

    “Italian riot police in Rome fired tear gas and water cannons as violent protesters hijacked a peaceful demonstration against corporate greed.”

    Robert, isn’t it funny how those pesky “violent protesters” hardly ever seem to manage ‘hijack’ any peaceful Tea-Party or pro-life or other conservative demonstrations? Thousands of Tea Party events now across the USA over a couple of years, and not a single arrest. Believe me, they have many people in their ranks extremely deeply frustrated at no representation in their government and out of control spending of their tax money. Why have they not deteriorated into violence? Yet it was reported that over 700 were arrested at the New York OWS protest alone. Loads of arrests elsewhere too along with damage to property, illegal disruptions to traffic, businesses, etc.

    Please don’t try to claim that overall the media aren’t painting a much nicer picture of the protestors than they deserve, rather than reporting their overt hypocrisy and aimlessness, not to mention their volatile bent for anti-social behaviour.

    And another thing – corporations don’t claim to own resources per se, as you seem to acknowledge we just pay them for the skills to transform those raw materials into something we can use. The value of the raw materials for an iPhone 4S or a Samsung Galaxy S2 or the latest Nokia, etc. is probably not more than a few dollars. If we don’t like what one corporation or business is doing, there is usually this wonderful thing called competition which means that if they do it badly enough for long enough, they will suffer on the bottom line, or go under completely because people will go somewhere else. That is actually significantly more democratic a process than voting once every three years for any government. As Bill said, I think you are dreadfully confused about a range of things.

    Also, if you think – as some people do and you seem to be alluding to – that mining companies claim to own resources – I can only wonder where the metal components in the computer you’re using now came from and why you seem to own them now. The fact you have a computer as well as all the rest of most of your mod con possessions today that you did not invent, develop, build and market means that they are already “for all of us.” Would you prefer to go out to Western Australia or wherever else to get the raw materials and try to build a computer yourself? The fact is, those ‘evil’ corporations have benefitted you – and everybody else in 21st Century society – a great deal!

    I will listen to protestors when they turn up outside Wall Street without any of the things I mentioned – until then, they only look utterly foolish and hypocritical to me.

    But when they are effectively facilitating the very people who will make things worse for us (ie. make us poorer after destabilising the economic ground we all rely upon) they deserve all the condemnation from ordinary working people they can get.

    As for left-wing and right-wing – I fail to understand why the middle ground between total government control and no government whatsoever in economic or social terms can ever be considered ‘extremist’. The founding fathers of the USA – having researched why and how other governments throughout history had failed – understood very well the concept that government was necessary (in fact, God ordains it), but its power should be limited to a bare minimum so as to not be a greater burden than is necessary financially or infringe on freedoms more than is needed to protect rights. Hence things like the opening phrase ‘We the People’ and the 1st, 2nd and 10th Amendments, to name just three.

    Your last comment seemed to get closer to back on track, but I’m really a bit astonished by some of what you wrote earlier.

    Mark Rabich

  13. Thanks guys

    Ann Coulter:

    “Curiously, the only point universally agreed upon by the protesters and their admirers in the Democratic Party and the mainstream media is that “Occupy Wall Street” should be compared to the tea party. Yes, that would be the same tea party that has been denounced and slandered by the Democratic Party and the mainstream media for the last three years…. To the contrary, the Wall Street protesters have no specific objections and no serious policy proposals in a country that is governed, as Abraham Lincoln put it, “by the people.” They protest because they enjoy creating mayhem, not because the law is being ignored or their rights violated without penalty by government officials. They are not in the tradition of the tea partiers, much less our founding fathers. They are not in the tradition of the civil rights movement or Operation Rescue. They are in the tradition of Shays’ Rebellion, the Weathermen and Charles Manson.”

    http://patriotpost.us/opinion/ann-coulter/2011/10/13/wingless-bloodsucking-and-parasitic-meet-the-flea-party/

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  14. And Tim Blair hits the nail on the head:

    “It’s also difficult to maintain protest momentum when so many people are happily employed. Australia’s unemployment level is around half that in the US, where the fringe left has a larger and angrier audience for its anti-corporate shrieking. Just a suggestion, but if the Occupy Sydney folk really want to tap into some broad-based community resentment, they could examine an undemocratic government measure introduced by stealth which threatens family incomes and employment. It’s called the carbon tax. People really hate it. You know what to do, kids. Fight the power!”

    http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/even-occupy-groupies-dont-stay/story-e6frezz0-1226167895878

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  15. I’m naive. From my understanding, ‘Occupy’ is because of an across-the-board frustration (yes, some groups might be trying to ‘hijack’ it, but lets not loose focus). I don’t think people are claiming that they themselves don’t have greed, its just that corporation’s greed has a larger impact on society than an individual’s, and they are protesting that corporations must have and take responsibility for their actions.

    It is indicative of society of a whole. There is an attitude both as individuals and as corporations that has meant that laws have needed to be made to protect other people as people’s ‘moral compass’ is no longer guiding them. So yes, as individuals, people need to take responsibility of their own attitudes which is perpetuating the system, and they don’t realize that – but it is possible that this movement may lead to some introspection, and individuals, politicians and board leaders etc take note and create laws that curb some of the dangerous actions corporations have made in business.

    There is a dichotomy between what is ‘morally right’ and what is ‘legally allowed’ and people see many corporations ride that line in their business dealings/takeovers/giving out loans etc. Unfortunately, in today’s market it actually has world-wide repercussions.

    So yes, when you and your friends get sacked after 10yrs of loyal work, but the CEO gets a huge pay packet (which is more than a Prime Minister/President who actually runs a country and has more influence etc gets), and the company registers a large profit/or even a loss – it brings the dichotomy home.

    I just had a read of an Australian article which I thought was very good. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/business-must-engage-in-battle-for-hearts-and-minds/story-e6frg6zo-1226169108879

    Catharine Carpenter

  16. I forgot to also say after: ‘it is possible that this movement may lead to some introspection, and individuals, politicians and board leaders etc take note and create laws that curb some of the dangerous actions corporations have made in business’…But in the end only Christ can change all of our hearts and how we treat our fellow man and this would have a spill-on effect on how we conduct business, and would be less need for ‘big government’ to enact laws to protect others from our actions.
    Catharine Carpenter

  17. Thanks Catherine

    Yes at the end of the day only Christ can bring about genuine change here. But respectfully many Christians seem to be missing the point here about OWS. Does human greed occur on all levels of society, from homes to corporations? Yes of course. Are all businesses and corporations perfect? No, of course not. But those are really not the issues here. What is fundamentally at stake is the very system which has bought unprecedented well-being and prosperity to the world – the free market. For all its faults, no other system in human history has done so much to alleviate poverty, free people from grinding and enslaving labor, and transform societies.

    The very computer you have used to type your complaint about corporations was of course the product of corporations and the free market. What the hard core in these protest marches want is the complete eradication and annihilation of the very thing that makes your life today so pleasant, easy and remarkable. They want to destroy the free market. They see it as the enemy. They want to replace it with failed systems, such as socialism, bigger government, and so on.

    That there are well meaning people marching, concerned about various injustices is one thing. We all should be concerned about injustice. But it is naivety in the extreme to think that somehow injustices will simply disappear if we smash Wall Street, destroy banks, and dismantle capitalism, which is the real goal of those pushing this.

    With all due respect, I find most Christians are abysmally ignorant not only of basic history but basic economics. This is a cultural war, with radicals, anarchists and Marxists seeking to use the gullibility and naivety of many to push their agenda – the ultimate goal of which is to smash America and the West. Being ignorant or unaware of history and economics really helps no one here.

    And as to social justice and economic systems, I have tried to deal with these topics elsewhere. Not meaning to over-burden you, but some of these articles might be worth taking a look at:
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2006/10/06/in-praise-of-wealth-creation/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2006/11/16/christianity-and-poverty/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/08/08/social-justice-part-one/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/08/08/social-justice-part-two/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2010/09/01/%e2%80%98social-justice%e2%80%99-versus-biblical-justice/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2007/05/21/rethinking-the-welfare-state/
    https://billmuehlenberg.com/2006/12/19/in-defence-of-multinationals/

    So it is one thing to care about the world in general and justice in particular, but it is another thing altogether to properly analyse the causes of the problems, and offer some genuine workable solutions. I see neither happening in these protest movements. It is just the tired old left seeking to destabilise the West and foist upon us all its failed and bogus agenda. If they really want to improve things, they should be targeting Pennsylvania Avenue (where Obama resides) instead of Wall Street.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  18. We are against greed.

    FEED ME

    We are against greed.

    I NEED BLANKETS

    We are against greed

    GIVE ME A LAPTOP

    We are against greed

    PROVIDE MY SANITATION

    We are against greed

    ELECTRICTY

    We are against greed

    Gimme gimme gimme…

    Michael Hutton

  19. “When thousands say they want to overthrow capitalism and redistribute property, take them at their word, especially when their chants, signs, words, actions, websites and blogs all support that. And when they are as highly-organized, highly-funded, highly-networked, highly-mobilized and highly-motivated as the Wall Street Occupiers are, then we need to be afraid, be very afraid.

    “How grassroots can this movement be when a simple scroll through the internet reveals that Big Labor and Big Community Organization are openly supporting it, organizing it, taking donations for it and drafting petitions for it? Some of those organizations are MoveOn, SEIU, AFL-CIO, National Nurses United, Working Families Party, Van Jones’ Rebuild the Dream, Adbusters, US Day of Rage, Take the Square, October 2011, We are the 99%, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, CREDO and MoveOn’s very own Avaaz.org — the international progenitor of the Arab Spring.

    “A cornucopia of America’s pop culture glitterati have thrust themselves into the midst of the Occupation with calls for revolution from Danny Glover; shouts of solidarity from Van Jones; cheers from Al Gore that OWSers are “pointing out the flaws in our system”; and professions from Michael Moore (whose latest agitprop was presciently entitled “Capitalism: A Love Story”) that “There’s a shared feeling among people down there that this economic system that we have is unfair.”

    “All of the people interviewed at Occupy Oakland spoke with one voice: we must get rid of the system. And they didn’t hold back when probed: the system we must dismantle is capitalism.”

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/10/the_revolutionaries_revenge.html

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

  20. Please also watch the short video at the end of the article that I link to in my above comment – it is most telling. Marxism is not dead – it has just morphed into a new forms.

    Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

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