I saw this video a couple of days ago on Worldwide Hippies. I was particularly disturbed by the horse-faced female wearing Royal Purple embroidered with gold waving at the 99% as if she were Lady Douchebag or someone in Caligula’s court.
The folks on the balcony are representatives of a small, entrenched group of patriarchal dickwads who are carrying on Robber Baron Jay Gould’s tradition of hiring half the working class to kill off the other. The people in the street are the ones they think they can kill. Certainly there are thugs among the police who are eager to brutally enforce the Owners’ rules, but the most powerful hired thugs are elected officials, judges and talking heads effectively scattered throughout a media.
Looking at The Owners throughout history, we see the same group of pudgy, overfed Europeans colonizing Africa and the Americas a couple of centuries ago in a determined effort to rip the riches from the land with no regard for the damage they caused to the earth itself and especially to the brown, indigenous people they pressed into slavery. Those slaves were exported to the British colonies in North America for agrarian purposes. Poor whites became indentured servants. Some whites were paid servants like housekeepers, valets, nannies and overseers – and of course, other whites were transported to penal colonies. The salient point in this historical overview is that those folks on the balcony are the moral descendants of the slave traders who refused to sign the original US Constitution unless slavery was a protected institution and brown people only counted as 3/5 human.
Slave traders and Mine Owners must have reminded me of a song my mother played a lot during the late 1960′s in which Miriam Mekeba describes Aparatheid.
Notice Miriam’s photo, with frozen smile and fire in her eyes and consider the last verse:
White men don’t sleep long and don’t sleep too deep
Or your life and your possessions how long will you keep?
For I’ve heard a rumor that’s running around
That the black man’s demanding his own piece of ground.
Woody always says that the trouble with today’s Oligarchs is that they have no memory of the guillotine. We of the 99% must find a way to gently remind them. Miriam Mekeba did it with a song that could chill a plantation or mine owner’s blood and bones. Given the comfortable arrogance displayed on that balcony, the level of hubris among this generation of Owners may be high enough for us , the 99%, to chill some bones ourselves. We’ve got to keep on reaching for the highest ground.
While those people on the balcony look down at the protesters with smirking faces and champagne flutes, (had to google that one), the rest of the country is suffering. I think smug bastards honestly believe that they will be able to continue their grifting games without repercussions, that the country is going to forget eventually and they can just go on selling the country short for a buck. I don’t think it’s going to go down that way this time.
A population will only put up with so much for so long. As Woody is quoted as saying “The trouble with today’s Oligarchs is that they have no memory of the guillotine”. The guillotine is an example of what happens when finally the citizens say enough. I think this time it’s the people saying ENOUGH!
Great post, P.e. Nolan! And officially…. Welcome to RoundTree7.
Thanks, Krell.
I’m pretty sure it’s not going to go down that way this time either. I was filled with hope yesterday down on Wall Street, but also with fear. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” JFK
Excellent post, and let me echo Krell’s welcome.
Maybe those young people in the street will bridge the gap between the left and the comatose.
PF,
Indeed—welcome aboard, and how perfect that you included a song from the great Miriam Makeba in this post! Those condescending idiots on that balcony dhould be thankful we leftists are as tolerant as they are NOT. Otherwise, standing in a perfect line as they were, some gun crazy moron would have easily blasted them off that balcony. Wgat a contrast between those who value the First Amendment over the Second!
Right on, Jack!
I’m always astounded when songs my mother played back in the day come flashing into my mind out of nowhere. As it happened, Piece of Ground woke me up from a dream where I was on a tiny raft with a small, small sail. A giant silver and orange spotted carp was about to chomp on my toes when the song woke me up. I am convinced it was all about Here Be Monsters because really, when something comes bubbling up from the deep – what else could it be?
Oso, that’s exactly my hope too. The good news is that there are several old folks among the occupiers. There is great diversity among the 99%. Earthaluja!
Great opening act Tricia! Wow on your cultivated musical genius. You know … we are sittin’ in the midst of history… and ALL OF US … WWH, WWL, RT7, any of the places you go to read all about it…. ALL OF US are responsible for an integrity to the story… authenticity to the MOVEMENT that is exploding. The voice you introduced to me here, well, it makes me think how so far beyond politics this whole event-uality is …..humanity needs to shit or git off the pot… EVOLVE or be done. All of you folks and of them folks out across the world standing along side… we are truly in the sky with diamonds. We are creating our world.