Occupy: The Great Unenlightened Rebellion

Contrary to left-wing embellishment, Occupy is neither avant-garde, nor debonair — but rather, an intellectually dejected and insolvent cultural miscarriage; a systematized parade of profound ignorance and unenlightened rebellion. It is, to say the least, a civic mortification.

Moreover, Occupy’s economically inept and directionless crusade has been permitted to freely swill from the troughs of public patience and expense for almost 12 painful and protracted months, despite wholly failing to formulate a single cohesive message, let alone any substantive solutions. Instead, in a deficient and colorfully muddled conception of corporatism and capitalism, this throng of Zuccotti trust-fund babies, along with their opportunistic unionized protégés, has only debilitated and discredited the legitimate need for sober and enlightened discussion.

Indeed, the perverse transformation of discourse has been dizzying to suggest the least. In a mere matter of months, dialogue has gratuitously morphed from whether government should be engaging in preferential corporate treatment — the very antithesis of a free market — to unabashed demands for free education, free healthcare, and free jobs after college graduation. All of which haven’t the slightest to do with corporate cronyism. Others have gone so far as to demand guaranteed living wages “regardless of employment.”

The true tragedy of this angst-laden Occupy movement, however, hasn’t been its overly disseminated meltdown, but rather the disingenuous maiming of the very 99 percent it has arrogantly proclaimed to personify. Ripe with rapes, assaults, drug overdoses, and murders, Occupy has deplorably and disgracefully hindered hundreds of small business owners across the U.S., who, by no fault of their own, have spontaneously found their small businesses submerged at the bottom of Occupy’s populist cesspool.

Furthermore, Occupy has intimidated scores of additional hard-working, middle-class employees from attending jobs, while coercing scores of others to spend their valuable time mapping out alternative work routes in order to avoid the unruliness and minimize any potential confrontation. Sympathizers and naïve adherents would have Americans believe that the Occupy protests are, in fact, friendly to a free market and affable to capitalist ideals. Protester actions, though, have diametrically illustrated otherwise. Occupy’s antics late last year to “discourage shoppers” from purchasing goods on Black Friday is merely one robust example.

Then there were the reprehensible attempts on the West Coast to collapse shipping ports, which, in effect, not only impeded on workers’ rights to be productive, while simultaneously risking driving up the price of goods. But it had real potential to hurt innocent consumers — particularly the poor. Such an irresponsible scheme could have also, quite conceivably, inhibited entire small working-class towns economically dependent on the transportation of commodities and merchandise goods.

Do these tactics sound hospitable to free market ideals and the working class? Do these strategies in any way, shape, or form, relate to corporatism or the need to reform private sector governmental meddling? According to AP estimates earlier this year, Occupy has cost American taxpayers more than $13 million spanning 18 U.S. cities. In New York alone, the first three weeks of Occupy protests cost New York taxpayers $2 million.

For most U.S cities, though, the rising financial burden of these politically contrived demonstrations is merely one concern. There is growing trepidation that public safety in neighborhoods surrounding the chaotic protests is being severely compromised as well. For example, during the protests in Portland (my hometown), many officers had to be pulled from their regular patrols — often in lower income neighborhoods — in order to help maintain civility downtown, in turn, again, hurting the poor. Then there are the encampments in Washington DC, which have not become home to rational dialogue, but rather thousands of rats (as if DC didn’t already have enough of them).

Most certainly, convincing Occupy protesters that their dance with self-importance has marred the working class more than it has facilitated would be a futile and ineffectual deed. Not because the task couldn’t be accomplished, but rather because the authentic interests of most Occupy protesters were never sympathetic to the working-class to begin with. Instead, Occupy has been, and continues to be, a celebratory cluster of indolence, self-gratification and unenlightened rebellion. A campaign the genuine 99 percent, to be frank, can’t wait to expire.

About the Author: Brandon Loran Maxwell is an essayist; political analyst; satirist; playwright; and journalist. He has been published in various local and national publications, including: The Hill, The Washington Examiner, PoliticIt, The Oregonian, Free Republic, Freedoms Journal, Hip Hop Republican, Street Motivation Magazine, and UtahPolicy.com. In addition, he has been personally profiled in a number of other publications and has been a guest on various news programs. In 2009, he spoke on judicial reform alongside then Congressman Wu. He is a winner of Portland, Oregon’s One Act Festival; a coordinator for Students For Liberty; and a political science and film studies undergraduate You can read more of him at BrandonLoranMaxwell.com

This blog post originally appeared at StudentsForLiberty.org