Forum Post: Is there a secret inner circle on the ground at OWS?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 13, 2011, 8:29 p.m. EST by mgiddin1
(1057)
from Linthicum, MD
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I just found a concerning news article in Economic Policy Journal. It's short; here's the text:
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
The Secretive Inner Circle of 'Occupy Wall Street' John Carney has an excellent long essay detailing the sights and sounds of "Occupy Wall Street."
Carney's description pretty much falls in line with what I have seen at the two "Occupy DC" locations, one at Freedom Plaza and one at MacPherson Square. There are general assemblies, other meetings, planning and respect for one another.
But, the NYC "Occupy Wall Street" also has a secretive inner circle. Carney describes it this way:
Just a bit west of the library there is what appears to be the inner circle of Occupy Wall Street. Several people, many working on laptops powered by a portable generator, sit in an area closed off by tables.
Most people—including protesters—are kept out by beefy people whose blue arm bands mark them as members of the security group. Exactly what this secretive group is doing is not clear.
“They’re media relations, and outreach and planning,” one person said.
So why are outsiders being kept from the area? No one would answer.
And so, ironically, there’s a no trespassing policy enforced at Occupy Wall Street.
Obviously, a secretive inner circle is not good. The protesters outside the inner circle need to be asking this secretive inner core who they are communicating with and why. (end of article) Here's the link: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/10/secretive-inner-circle-of-occupy-wall.html
My comments: Is this true, or is it spin? If it is, this looks very bad from a PR standpoint. Also, reading this as someone who is participating from out of state, it strikes me as remarkably hypocritical. What's the real story?
People on the "media team" in NYC broadcast the live streaming video 24 hours a day. In addition, some people are working on coding projects - it makes sense that they don't want just anyone wandering around in there where they have equipment set up and looking at their laptop screens. Also, journalists and shall we say non-sympathetic observers. Journalists are all over that park now, they shouldn't necessarily be privy to everything that is on everyone's computer screens at all times.
Lastly - theft. These guys are sitting in the middle of New York City with some very expensive equipment laying around. I'd want to keep an eye on who had access if I were there.
Yes. The article is true.
There is a "class" structure within the movement. If you try to go to that area you will be stopped in your tracks. Only a select few are allowed there.
The sheep think they are making a difference with these asinine "general assemblies". But there is a hierarchy of leadership and a top class.
Call it the 1% ruling over the 98%.
Some animals are more equal than others.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44874685/
The original article was posted on CNBC.
I'm glad to learn that SOMEONE is in charge. I thought the whole thing was just a chaotic dog and pony show.
That's funny, I was thinking the same thing about our own government...
Indeed, there are many parallels: The big plastic box of granola bars, the hot hippie chicks, the endless, endless drumming....
yeah, where are the corporate kickbacks and the blowjobs by interns?
These are taking place in the VIP area, out of sight.
Yes. There is. Good luck finding it. It's not who you think. Watch the LiveStream for clues.
Of course there is. Any significant movement with a name, a 'media team', of course there was an original small group of people who masterminded the launch. The question that I think is more relevant is: are they still in control of the direction, or have they dropped the reins to fate and their 99%?
I would bet they will not expose themselves. This would cast scrutiny into their backgrounds, and then would cast a pall over the motivations of the entire movement. I suspect their backgrounds would make people go, "Heeey... are you really using me?", or at least go, "Heeey, do you know what you're doing?"
Unless you're collecting people like cards, I don't think finding them will be useful. I think it will be more useful to sniff out the emergence patterns in this movement - that will give you a real predictor of what to expect next. Too many people have been told it's their movement, and they choose where it goes; if this core original group tried to rein it back in now, I'm fairly certain they would fail. Now they're not riding the beast, they're chained to it. grin
Hey, that's not fair. You used italics
How'd you do that?
You put asterisks around the word. Found it by accident - I usually use asterisks to emote (describing a physical action - I like to write descriptively, and am also big on body language to increase understanding of communication, which is notoriously disconnected between two parties when only in text.. we rely on our bodies and faces to speak for us more than we realize) or emphasize something.
:)
Hint: use Markdown
Nice HTML, though. grin er, <grin>
Haha, thanks for the tip. I really appreciate it. <gesticulating wildly>
<claps> :D
Just watch the LiveStream for a couple days. Flip through photos in the Facebook pages of other park goers for uncensored group shots. Watch the crowd around the interviewed cameos, eg. Michael Moore ( ;) camera time, right?), some of the professors who have done teach-ins, etc.
Does any good ever come from people wearing arm bands?
Yeah, I'd like to add to the end to read, "or spandex pants?"
or flip flops with socks, rendering the 'camel toe' look?
I think there should be an exception for inside the house for less than 5 minutes.
remember the leg warmers from the '80s? those too...
I mean, honestly, they didn't even warm your legs - more like your ankles, and a smidgen of your calves. More like something to encumber you when you're running from that mugger who hides behind the roller rink.
and last but not least - men's speedo swimsuits. I had the misfortune of being on vacation back in August and somebody's friend actually wore one of those things. : (
somberly applauds
** Audience, lock in your votes with the touchpad under your seats, and we'll watch our results when we come back from this brief commercial break!
We are all equal, but some of us are more equal.
Haha, like superposition of particles... SUPERQUAL - The state of being so incredibly fair and balanced that you cease to have ego or persona, and instead adopt the ego and persona of everyone.
shiver
Oh, I see. So are you saying that some of us are elite?
Some of us are superqual. Like two of us are superqual. OK, like, the Dalai Lama is almost superqual. OK, nobody is superqual.
The real story is that we can't have the "useful idiots" finding out that this entire movement was planned last year, and coordinated by "top down, bottom up" revolutionaries who have been chomping at the bit to wreak havoc in this country for years. We can't have them find out that some of those evil 1%ers want to kill off their Wall Street competition so THEY control ALL of the puppet strings in Washington. Can you imagine how used and stupid they'd feel?
I know one of them, he goes by the name Steven and he is from florida. He is avowed Marxist.
Who supported the Marxists and the Bolshevik revolution? What connection do they have with the controllers of Wall Street, the Federal (not) Reserve (none) and the lobbying interests in Congress?
Well, I'd say the bankers, for one... Bankers have benefited from every conflict since biblical times, and probably before.
Marxist and progressive and socialist propaganda is all over this movement. The signs haven't changed. The slogans haven't changed. The mentality hasn't changed. But something has changed-technology. It gives ALL the ability to track and compare and compile and examine the data being generated. And the only ones who can't see it are the ones who refuse to look.
Right, these people are vying for control of wall street.
It would be a lot easier to watch The Pursuit of Happiness and start at the bottom.
What you said is so ignorant I can't believe you mean it.
It is ignorant to think for one second that once these protestors topple Wall Street that they will suddenly have the power and influence to design the future granted to them by those who remain. Read a history book. What happens to the foot soldiers on the front lines?
It is ignorant to believe that ANY group or ANY movement can be 100% free of corruption. Corruption LOVES chaos. Corruption LOVES war. Corruption loves power. More than it loves money. Money is just one of the weapons in it's arsenal.
I would be concerned in the sense that a secret inner circle should at least be United States citizens. If we find out that these are Canadians, being bankrolled by Canadians, being financed by a Hungarian... uh
I agree.
can anyone get into that circle
apparently not. some are criticizing it as heirarchical, with an elite few making the decisions. others are saying they're just trying to do damage control against would-be troublemakers, journalists, and laptop thieves.
either way, i think this looks very bad. it doesn't give me warm fuzzy feelings about the egalitarian theme behind the protests.
it's just a nest of computers
that doesn't make them the leaders
Anonymous Terrorist
Interesting. I'm afraid that is always going to happen, in any movement. One of the things Marx got wrong (NOT that I'm associating OWS with an anti-capitalist agenda, because I AM a capitalist) was his miscalculation that an good economic system regulates human behavior (the same miscalculation that Free-Market Libertarians make). Marx believed the revolutions would just happen naturally (historical dialectics); BUT the Russian Revolution was pushed prematurely by Lenin and the Bolsheviks. There's always going to be power/control hungry people in every group; but the OWS won't be what directly brings about change anyway; it's function is to bring people together, to stir the dialogue - from that, the new groups will form and be the change-makers.
No, libertarians believe human behavior regulates markets. There, fixed it for ya.
If this story means anything, a relevant analogy would be Animal Farm, by George Orwell.
Humans panic, when they do, the market regulations are meaningless.
Humans deceive, when they do, the market regulations are meaningless.
The bad people in society must be watched by the wise.
If a society cannot determine its wise people from the rest, it is lost and beyond redemption.
(btw thanks for inspiring my new sign)
What sign did I inspire and how did I inspire it?
Yes, I agree that Animal Farm was an excellent allegory of the Russian Revolution. But I disagree with you about libertarianism. I didn't say "markets", I said "system." Libertarian purists are as backward as Marx, thinking that the free market SYSTEM is self-correcting. That's the same ignorant idealism Marx spewed. Any system is only as good or bad as the principles practiced by its people. If an under-regulated capitalism is producing the kind of societal-destabilizing chaos it is now, can you imagine the insane totalitarian hellhole your Ron Paul-toting dream would create?!? AS FOR ORWELL, his works focused on overall totalitarianism, without regard for which end of the spectrum. Yes, the USSR provided an ideal model for writers to work from then; but don't be naive. You can read "1984", and see there's no difference whatsoever in the tactics and doublespeak used by either the Politburo or the Republican Party.
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I agree about doublespeak coming from the Republican party.
Please don't use the fascist system existing today to sully the concept of freedom. I'm sure you know it's not the remnants of freedom that are responsible for this mess. And stomping out the last of our freedom isn't going to fix it, either. The abuses happen because the damned thing is structured that way, and the players are like fish in an aquarium. And they would no more welcome a free market without their advantages than their overseers would.
Interesting point about the system. I did say market, and the distinction is apt. If it's a free market, it's not a system, it's spontaneous order, it's what free, honest people do to survive and thrive in the absence of coercion. It's a near-organic extension of human life itself. We don't have the freedom I speak of, obviously. We do have a system, and it certainly has some stinky-holes in it.
I do think we are closer in agreement than it might seem in cyber-space. I don't mean to bash the philosophy of libertarianism, because if I was living in a smaller, contained community, particularly with common principles, I'd be down with it. What I tire of is whenever people approach these philosophies as if they are perfect, self-correcting, without requiring maintenance. That isn't exclusive to any particular group of people, and thankfully, you certainly don't seem to be the kind of person who simplifies the complexity of life.
I didn't mean to sully the concept of freedom. I meant that totalitarianism could potentially come from an free-market society, particularly if a single individual or power could create a monopoly around the most vital of resources. Freedom is a tricky gift; it's like fire, and depending on how it's used or handled, can either illuminate the world or burn it down.
I agree, decentralization is key.
Here's an interesting take on how freedom creates prosperity which then attracts parasites like flies to a banquet, if you haven't seen it already I'd like to know your take on it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVjIR_oai-A
.
pfadrian, you don't get to just spout your ignorant bs about libertarians or free market economics unchallenged.
For anyone who would like to find about Libertarian philosophy and Austrian economics, mises.org is a good place to start.
I'd rather talk to HankRearden. You seem a bit agitated and defensive.
mises.org refuge of simple minds.
Nice try commie.
I'm not a communist.
and soros in the the inner-inner-cicrle, no maybe thats the inner-inner-inner circle.....
what a load of crap
Are you there? Have you seen any of this?
Keep going, I think you have almost divided us and can get your bonus.