Occupying Wall Street – a New Birth of Freedom?

Previously we discussed the progressive protests and revolutions that are breaking out all over the world and terrifying the hell out of people with power and in positions of authority. One place where such progressive protests and revolutions appeared to be strangely absent was in the United States of America. At the time I thought this might be due to the uniquely docile and obedient nature of the American populace. Well, it turns out that this was just anti-American racism on my part. At the end of the day Americans are just like the rest of us – as is shown by the current Occupation of Wall Street. The protestors may not succeed in conquering Wall Street this time and the occupation may fizzle out, although thus far it appears to be gaining momentum. But if not today, then one day the people will rise up and conquer Wall Street - and history will remember the current protestors as heroes.

In an important way, this attempted revolution in Wall Street is the Big One, in the sense that it is going straight to the heart of the matter – to the epicentre of “the markets”. If it gains traction you would be surprised at just how fragile the current system is, and at just how quickly it could fall to pieces - it is an ideological construct based on a series of myths and fantasies, so it could easily collapse like a house of cards.

Today, we fear and obey “the markets” in the same way that we used to fear and obey God. “The market” is this weird abstract entity that everyone lives in terror of, even though no one has ever seen it – just like God used to be - omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent. Everything must be done in order to appease and satisfy “the markets”, just as things previously needed to be done in order to satisfy and appease God. Our leaders act in order to try and calm the rage of “the markets” in the same way that they used to act to try and calm the rage of God. We must not raise taxes on the wealthy, not because God would disapprove, but because “the markets” would disapprove. We must reduce government expenditure, not because God will throw a hissy-fit if we don’t, but because “the markets” will throw a hissy-fit if we don’t. We must reduce the amount we spend on health and education not because God demands it, but because “the markets” demand it. The poor and the vulnerable must be sacrificed because “the markets” demand it, just as previously the poor and the vulnerable needed to be sacrificed because the gods demanded it.

Of course, in previous eras the power of God did not actually come from God himself, but from people’s belief in the power of God. The same is true of “the market” – its power over us comes, not from the market itself, but from our belief in its power and its omnipotence – and from the belief that this power is inevitable and immutable. “The market” is like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz – if we saw it for what it really is, it would no longer wield its power and people would see that things do not have to be like this. “The markets” can only do what they do because the laws allow them to get away with it – ultimately, because we allow them to get away with it. If Wall Street is to be successfully torn down then first we must tear down the walls in people’s minds that prevent them seeing that things do not have to be like this.

Of course, no one who can think still believes in Capitalist propaganda. Does anyone think financiers deserve the money they get? Only the severely brainwashed still really believe this, because we have all seen financiers being bailed out by the taxpayer and have seen them protected and molly-coddled by the nanny-state. We have seen how our system of socialism for the rich involves vast forced transfers of wealth from the less well off to the better off. People have now stopped believing in this stupid system. And once people stop believing in a system it cannot long endure – it is already dead. The pent up anger and rage of the people towards the system is now literally immense.

Can you hear the fear in the voices of the apologists for power and wealth as they desperately try to fool you into believing their lies and their propaganda? They don’t even believe it themselves. They die with their conceits, and only piteous scorn upon their folly waits.