Forum Post: How Come OWSers Like To Talk In Unison? Is this a Cult?
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 21, 2011, 8:18 p.m. EST by earnyours
(124)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The talking in unison thing is creepy. It's a cult-speak that seems to underscore a deep neediness to belong to something...anything. Outside of leftist protests, I just don't know where else in American life you find it. Are your ideas so weak that the only way they stick in your heads is through group chanting?
Sorry. I guess I have a habit of feeding them...
You make the point perfectly. Clearly, you're able to meet disagreement head on. LOL.
You mean like a never-raise-taxes-on-the-wealthy cult? Sacred pledges are also the stuff of cults.
Kind of like the "no taxation without representation" thing? Or the songs that the black community sang during the civil rights movement?
Group chants have a purpose in lots of big protests. They bring group cohesion, boost morale, get attention, and it's generally easier to understand 1000 people chanting the same thing than 1000 people yelling 1000 things.
No, kinda like what mindless cult members would do. Singing is normal, repeating every 5th word of a speaker is creepy. It's the kind of thing that would scare your non-cult friends and parents.
Seriously, is the need for belonging so intense that you need to talk in unison? Affirmation needs to be that close by? Isn't holding hands enough?
It's a common group dynamic in protests and generally angry movements. In fact, it's more common than singing, because it's easier to write up or find a suitable chant than to write up or find a suitable song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i23N1x3Hhco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjroDnkfvMg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv3ueYJgHOU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKKHrp4Lgb8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPoJGNhWB-s
Chanting has little to do with the need for belonging (though involvement in the group may, depending on the individual). It may play a part in affirmation, depending on how you define the word. It's all about communication, just like any other kind of speech.
Those are all nut groups, but even those are different. They're all saying the same thing, but not in close repetition of a speaker. The OWSers need such tight affirmation that they repeat 5 word bits at a time. It's creepy, needy, and just not what we do in America. Some of the leftists in Madison were doing it earlier this year too. It's mindless.
It was being done in NYC because they wouldn't allow megaphones or amplifiers and it was the best way to get the message heard throughout the crowd.
But I've seen it done WITH microphones too. In Wisconsin, they were indoors in a small corridor. There's just something about leftists and this neediness of lost 20-somethings. It's creepy and just not found in American life outside of this strange little fringe.
I find it a bit annoying myself. Don't know what to think about it exactly. I had read it was because of the ban on amplifiers, but apparently there's more to it than that. By the way, we're not all 'lost 20-somethings.' On the web, we're anything from teens to 60-somethings, and run the gamut from the unemployed to those in school, and from successful business owners to retirees.
The "run the gamut" thing doesn't hold water. I've visited some of the sites, committed long-time leftists and utterly lost and needy 20-somethings are the balance of the protesters.
Herr Derr!!! earnyours is another fucktwit paid to be here troll.
I just want to welcome this current ID of yours. Glad you could make it. Love you, love your show.
It seems we have a lot of new ones over the last few days. I've been checking their profiles.
I think it is a combination of the same ones getting stomped and having to open new accounts and wanting themselves to seem as if they are a bigger group then they are.
You may be right. They'll never give up, but neither will we.
No, we won't. :D
fish
Even though this post may be troll-ish, derogatory, confrontational, etc., the mic check thing does sound robotic and goofy, and it's just one more thing that causes mainstream America and the corporate-controlled media to ridicule and dismiss OWS as just another "fringe" movement. If we want to recruit the kind of massive support that we need, we need to stop hurting our own credibility with goofy theatrics, extreme rhetoric and destructive, quasi-violent tactics. Please see this: http://www.occupywallst.org/forum/ows-image-problem-jeopardizes-potential-support/
But it is a fringe. I can't call it a "movement" because that's purely aspirational. It's also not the 99%. It's the 10% that's always wanted socialism that sees an opening now to convince everyone else they're right. But the 89% isn't buying it and has been alienated just as you say.
Yes and it brings down corrupt systems of government. Watch us and learn.
Watch you and laugh. It's just sad watching some lost 20-somethings that just can't seem to move on in life like their peers.
which is it are you laughing or are you sad- you sound senile? have you had your warm oatmeal and milk - i think its tome for your nap. he who laughs last laughs best.
This is a unified movement despite your divisive take. The people in OWS are Americans. Is that a cult?
It isn't unified and it isn't a movement. Simply saying so doesn't make it so. That much OWS has shown us once again. It's just some grubby campers that are so needy they need to talk in unison for support.
Old display of anger. Everyone is washing now. The movement is recognized all over now. It actually has a presence. I know...deal with it because you have no choice.
Does that mean they've stopped shitting in our parks?
My park or your park?
Neither, it's our parks. That's something the self-important OWSers should learn about as they talk about "taking" places..
I don't want to visit your park. You might not like me. I am not like you. Please tell me what parks you visit and I'm sure that most of us will avoid them.
Yes, "my" parks don't allow shitting on the grass. Not very OWS friendly indeed.
Okay. You win despite the fact that you're exaggerating. Your dog shits on your couch and still you keep him. Why begrudge people who are broke and don't have a pot to shit in. And that they will eventually be responsible for making your life better without any sacrifice from you. Relax, OWS is good. Anti OWS is anti American people.
I am crushing your head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pKXMcfx1d8
creepin you out, eh?
so the process of mic.check is truly effective.
thanks
glad to hear it.
. . . .Mic.check . . . .
. . . .MIC.check . . . .
...and don't forget the childish finger wiggling. LOL
That's another goofy cult thing. Thanks for the additional example.