Megan Carpentier reports that anti-capitalist vandals in Albany brilliantly made a play for class solidarity by wrecking a Christmas display:
Graffiti on the signage read “The commons are not for sale. Stop shopping” and “Happy Holidays, capitalists,” in addition to simply blacking out the names of the sponsors. The vandals also snipped extension cords and damaged 15 light displays, which required 3 electricians to repair on Christmas Eve.
The Capital Holiday Lights display, a 15-year tradition in Albany, included almost 125 light displays in the public park, for which viewers are normally asked to pay $15 per car to view. The proceeds exclusively fund the Albany Police Athletic League’s educational, athletic and recreational programs for local, disadvantaged kids in an effort to keep them safe and off the streets. The costs of the display are offset by the corporate sponsors, allowing PAL to keep the cash.
Great job! So now instead of getting, say, electricians to think that you’re sticking up for their right to fair compensation, they’re muttering to themselves about how they have to work on Christmas Eve to repair a display that their kids probably like. You guys are fucking geniuses.
There’s a persistent failure by the left in America to meet the culture where it is, rather than where it would like the culture to be. Vandalizing a Christmas display? Guess what, fellas: people like Christmas. It’s weird to me, since I’m a Jew who isn’t so fond of the way the culture hits me over the head about Christmas, but I see from my wife’s gentile family that Christmas really, really, really means a lot to a lot of people. It’s up to you, anti-capitalist: you can get everyone to focus on what they have in common with you; or you can make them want to beat your ass black and blue by disrespecting a cherished tradition and causing problems that disproportionately harm people on the lower rungs of the wealth ladder. And you wonder why you’re losing.
Think of it like this, in a way you probably won’t like. You know how al-Qaida in Iraq got Anbar Province to play along with it for years, even though they were a band of outsiders? Because it focused relentlessly on the common grievances posed by the U.S. troops in people’s midst. And you know how al-Qaida in Iraq turned victory into defeat? By cutting off the fingers of smokers and telling people they couldn’t practice their religion in the local idiom. You guys are obviously not the evil, violent people that AQI is. But let’s be honest: you’ve got an agenda that most people don’t share; and you’re trying to convince them they should be on your side. What’s the smart play here?
2011.12.26
Hell yes.
It’s a slippery slope between effective nonviolent civil disobedience and being a fucking douche bag.
For people who are supposedly empathetic to the plight of the working classes, they sure do have pretty self-centered strategies.
2011.12.26
Yeah, it frustrates me regularly. My lefty friends want to vote for candidates who don’t exist and could never win in America, they want to support legislation that could never make it out of committee, and they demand economic, regulatory and tax policy that would be political suicide for anyone but Dennis Kucinich to even PROPOSE.
They write angry posts on Facebook positing that “VOTING FOR THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS IS SUICIDE” without ever addressing how voting for greater of two evils (or else the lesser of three evils – it varies) will help in any way.
This just is not a particularly politically liberal nation, and if you want to try to move that window to the left, offending the apolitical and more conservative and demanding fantasy candidates to vote for or you’ll just quit and walk away are not likely to yield the kind of results you’re hoping for.
mikey
2011.12.27
Corrections: “11:25 Vandals destroy Christmas display in Albany, NY, where an OWS camp was just wrecked.”
The OWS camp is in Academy Park – in another part of town. Not Washington Park where the Christmas display is.
It is not presently known who did the vandalism. It is just as possible the vandalism was done by Agent Provacateurs in an attempt to turn public sentiment against the OWS.
Get the facts before jumping to conclusions.
2011.12.27
I am am older American member of Occupy–a movment which preaches non-violence. It embodies high ideals–but in a larger sense, it no longer has encampments to reach its young members to reinforce the position of non violence. It is a leaderless movement. There is no Ghandi, no MLK, no noble icon to reach the masses and speak out agaisnt violence. Non violence is the only effective form of protest.
Young people are adrift, pissed off and operating as free agents. 5,000 young occupiers have been arrested, pepper-sprayed, beaten and dragged off by men looking like RoboCop. Their encampments are gone. Do they percieve America as a police state. I think the anwer is yes. Do they care what you think? I can’t answer for them. What will happen in the future? I pray a leader arises who preaches non-violence. Otherwise, we are heading for anarchy. Which is how America was founded–by anarchists.
These are times of great upheaval. What will be accomplished. It is very hard to predict. The violent dismantling of the encampments had a profound inpact on the young people.