Occupy Wall Street’s government problem
Posted on November 25th, 2011 by Alexander Thorburn Hoffman
Alex Hoffman is an award winning political cartoonist. His cartoons have been published by The Daily Bruin, The Commentator, Cartoon Movement, American Thinker and The Libertas Institute. He's currently the graphic artist behind Townhall's political ecard site, Freedom Cards.
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This is simple – IDIOTS!
It would be more accurate if the protester was saying “We need more responsive government that values individuals more than corporations.” But that would ruin your gag. Nice try though.
Brian, what a lovely sentiment you quote. Sadly it has nothing to do with the spoiled rich white kid hipster marxist nihilism of the Occupoo movement. But that would ruin your euphemism. Nice try though.
Two “nice tries” in a row, which are really a pose to deflect how devastatingly accurate this is. “We need more responsive government that values individuals more than corporations” — this awkwardly worded sentiment reflects the fairy tales the left believes about government power, that an authoritarian government is “responsive to individuals”, simply because they believe that the kind of elites they like will be in charge. Orwell dramatized what really happens in Animal Farm: the “responsive government” of leftist dreams in reality cracks down *more*, not less, on individuals and their liberty, as an ever-more powerful authoritarian elite pursue control over the populace for “their own good”. Citizens who lead corporations are replaced with political cronies, and so on. These people have no idea how disastrously ignorant they are.
Emerson, sorry, I glossed over your comment too quickly and thought you were saying “nice try” to the cartoon, too. I should have said that the first “nice try” is a pose to deflect how accurate the cartoon is.
I suspect the phrase “Sock it to The Man! Re-elect The Man!” might be better :-)
Brian,
We do need gov’t more responsive to individuals. Can you recall one historical example where expanding government has realized that goal?
To preserve the middle class we must shrink the federal government, for it transfers the tax base to the 1% you protest while failing to prosecute their blatant crimes (most recently MF Global’s theft of client funds).
Our current government has been extremely responsive to individuals. Obama and Pelosi have done very well for themselves, as have many of their friends. The thing about government ‘responsive to individuals’ is that some individuals are just more equal than others.
Eric is exactly right. Orwell portrayed our situation aptly in Animal Farm. I’d like to note religious flavor and the cult like zeal of the OWS people. It’s true that many of them are critical of the current administration, but I believe most of them would still vote for Obama over a Republican who wanted to shrink government. No halos for republicans, but at least some of them realize that the fox isn’t likely to fix the door to the henhouse. I think what makes it so difficult to convince liberals that government (of course it must be a liberal government) isn’t the answer stems originally from their having pitched the doctrine of original sin. On the one hand anything expressed in mythological terms is risible to them, but on the other hand they adapt their own myths, and these myths don’t even have the virtue of being true. For instance their Manichean understanding of the political universe: some men are good (The nearly messianic Obama) and others are evil (The demonic Bush) Some political parties are made up of white christian bigots and others are made up of intelligent people who thirst for social justice. Another of their myths is that truth is just a construct, except for their truth which is really true. Not all religion is counter to reason. True religion works in concert with it. But where religion is false or falsely understood it will resist reason, for people define themselves by their passion, not by their reason. Mythology explains man to himself. If we get this wrong. Christianity exposes false myths. Only in Christianity is the mythic victim innocent. In all others he is guilty, and mythic violence follows upon this realization. This is not a pitch for Christianity; it’s a pitch for understanding how myth affects our actions. If we do not understand in a deep way Christianity teaches about myth, we ourselves stand a very good chance of getting caught up in the contagion of mythic violence. It’s not enough to self-identify as a Christian. Every college graduate should be familiar with the work of Rene Girard, but he’s not taught anywhere.
Animal Farm analogy is good, but too abstract. Lord of the Flies is also a great model for the OWS debacle. Even better, though:
Milton Friedman: “I think you’re taking a lot for granted here. [That more government will be good – we just need to find the right leaders – who will reward merit]. Where in the world are you going to find these angels who will run things based on merit?
Did the Soviet Commissars run things on merit? Did Hitler run things on merit? Pardon me, but do American presidents run things on merit – or do they make their appointments and decisions based on political clout?”
Phil Donahue interview from the 70’s.
I would just like to add that the cartoon is especially apt because there is an element of willful blindness in many among the OWS crowd of victims. Prometheus was blinded by the eagles that tore his eyes out. Oedipus put out his own eyes when he learned the truth of what he had done. But these OWS types simply keep their eyes close tight lest they see and turn again and be healed. (I do realize I made various writing errors in my first post. I really should reread before pushing send. But you get the idea. Thanks for your patience. You get the main idea anyway.) As for Girard, you could start with I See Satan Fall Like Lighting. I think there may also be a Girard Reader which would give you a good survey of his thought.
Government is just the name we give to that the burning feeling in your eyes and throat.
Government is just the name we give to that burning feeling in your eyes and throat.
“We need more responsive government that values individuals more than corporations.”
Actually we need a government that stays out of the way; that stops trying to micro-manage every aspect of our lives; that stops corrupting individuals and business; that stops growing at an unstoppable speed; that stops the relentless seizure of power through the guise of regulating interstate commerce; that stops crushing our country through the replacement of elected government with never-ending, ever-expanding government agencies.
Government’s main function anymore is to be the middle-man in taking from one person and giving it to another. So much of it goes on that the inefficiency and corruption of the middle man is ignored. Any reasonable assessment of the situation would have the two parties try to come up with a fair system that cuts out the middle man except to assure that certain rights like property ownership were protected and illegal damages were adjudicated.
Government takes money from the evil corporations at a disproportionate rate and the corporations blame the lower and middle class taxpayers who benefit from the progressive tax structure. Corporations try to stem their loses by trying to get favorable tax treatment by the government and the lower and middle class cry foul against the corporations. It’s a classic divide and conquer scenario… or better a cross fire plan where government gets in the middle … fires in both direction and then ducks for cover while the adversaries shoot it out. The bigger the hype the less attention is paid to the middle-man who now eats 25%+ of our GDP for passing around favors with other people’s money.
@ Brian Rosen: You say the OWS type should be saying, “We need more responsive government that values individuals more than corporations.” Your kidding right? A truly factual summary of the OWS movement goals would have the OWS type saying, “We need a Marxist dictatorship; bring back Joe Stalin.”
The only person that is responsive to my needs is me. Depending on some functionary to be responsive is, it seems to me to be, doomed to failure.
As an American who owns stock, I am an individual AND I am a corporation. So am I evil in the eyes of these bastards? I’m taking a bath on the stock market with my net value dropping over 30% this quarter ALONE. Imagine, once there was a time that this would have been a bad thing. But today OWS sees it as good, and my losses “deserved”.
What’s more, if I wanted to start my own business (And I can’t because I live in California – a land of stifling regulation, overbearing environmental requirements and excessive fees and taxes, not to mention added administrative burdens (like having to learn everything there is to know about human resources)) I would incorporate, which would make me an “evil corporation”.
I remember that the left used to laugh and berate the “American Dream” when I was a young man, and I was a sucker for wanting to pursue the career of my choice and own my own home. I didn’t notice when it became evil to want to be responsible, successful and self-sustaining…. but at some point it happened. Now those same people are telling me about income inequality and wealth redistribution.
Exit question: If we all make exactly the same income in this dream of wealth equality, why in the hell would I waste my time working in the first place? Why would I invest if my income will be pooled? Why would I work harder and study more, if there’s no benefit? And after everyone realizes they don’t have to work for an income, who will? So, what then? What happens when everyone is on permanent vacation?
Golf and a basket ball game today. The more America turns into Chicago the more comfortable Obama seems with it.
For once I agree with the hippie. It would have been SO easy to give them exactly what they were asking for simply by having TWO policemen spraying pepper instead of just one.
Emerson, I can tell you are very serious about following what OWS wants because you used the phrase Occupoo and you crammed in as many Red Scare references as possible. It’s great to know there are such astute Americans like you always willing to brush off hundreds of thousands of people as dirty hippies. Have fun when the rest of your amendments and rights go bye bye.