Get Serious or Get Lost

I was part of my local Occupy events.

Everybody I talked to there was serious about the problems we saw infesting our government and society, and committed to finding some solution to those, or at least sending a strong message to TPTB that these are not acceptable conditions for life in what is supposed to be the world superpower country.

Our city has a population of almost a million people. On our best days, Occupy probably had 250–300 people turn out. Maybe our local MSM understated the numbers: did we ever get 1,000 people?

I saw a note at the bottom of this article on Reuters today:

On Saturday [yesterday], 750,000 people marched in Barcelona [pop. 1.6 million] to call for the release of separatist leaders from pre-trial detention.

750,000 people. WTF were we thinking? We may be serious and committed and all that good stuff, but if we cannot transmit those attributes to our fellow citizens, we are empty wind.

I hear that the local Occupy group is ongoing all these years later. At the time of the original protests, they incorporated as a non-profit entity (501c3 I think) for legal purposes, to provide an umbrella for service activities beyond just the protests, and protection for activists against the expected (and eventual) prosecutions by the local PTB.

At this point, our local Occupy group has achieved that apex-point of all modern non-profits: they get grants from major (appropriate) interest groups and charitable organizations (I have no direct knowledge of the players), they spend the money from those grants writing more grant proposals to be submitted to those groups, and providing some food (and shelter?) assistance to the local homeless. Once every few years, they sponsor some street action: the last one was “in support of” the NODAPL protests.

This is how TPTB subvert and nullify protests in the good ol’ US of A: give the protesting group enough money to keep the lights on and support more grant proposal-writing, but not enough to support actually doing anything. It’s very effective: Rajoy needs to take notes.

Or maybe not. Barcelona can turn out almost half their population for a protest march, and still their cause remains in doubt.

Vive Catalunya.