“Police officials said Monday that they expect demonstrations at this week’s World Economic Forum will be mostly peaceful, but they plan to strictly enforce a century-old law barring groups of demonstrators from wearing masks,” The Washington Post reports. “Chief of Patrol Joseph Esposito said the law applies to groups of three or more. ‘Three or more with masks and they’re marching, they’re under arrest,’ he said.”
Thousands of demonstrators are expected on the streets of New York starting Thursday, when political and business leaders from around the world begin arriving for the four-day event.
‘We are concerned, but on the other hand we are in very good hands,’ said Klaus Schwab, the conference’s founder and president.
Protest organizers say many marchers plan to don costumes and carry giant puppets
Pretentious anti-globalists, you say? What does that make you, Patriot? Go tell it to the union guys who build things and put out fires–they’re waiting for you.
And last time I checked, the pretentious anti-globalists were destroying a coffee shop, not drinking in one. But fear not, Patriot–by all accounts the NYPD is a well-armed, well-trained, aggressive State militia, and will quash whatever they please in their capacity as the local armed wing of the Multinational Corporate Oligarchy, to which you, sir, have deferred your patriotic allegiance. (But I suppose as an academic you don’t have to worry about your job being lost to a wage slave from across the border.)
Interesting post by A.D. (see below).
Let’s parse it, shall we? A.D.’s comments will be in quotes and italicized, my responses will be in brackets and bolded.
A.D. writes: <i>”Pretentious anti-globalists, you say?</i>
<b>[Yes, that’s what I said.]</b>
<i>”What does that make you, Patriot?”</i>
<b>[No. My patriotism has nothing to do with my having acknowledged (in my original post) the existence “pretentious anti-globalists.” In fact my patriotism, such as it is, is quite incidental to my opinions about anti-globalization protesters. But I noticed you capitalized the word “patriot”; am I to understand you believe my proper name to be “Patriot”? Because my real name is printed just below the post, if that helps you out…]</b>
<i>”Go tell it to the union guys who build things and put out fires–they’re waiting for you.”</i>
<b>[Are you suggesting that all union people are supporters of the anti-globalization movement? Or that all firemen secretly wish to stop the spread of McDonald’s into, say, Rome? And if so, would you mind providing evidence for these assertions—or is it common practice for those holding your position to make this stuff up as you go along?]</b>
<i>”And last time I checked, the pretentious anti-globalists were destroying a coffee shop, not drinking in one.”</i>
<b>[How <i>proud</i> you must be defending them, then! But that misses my point. Granted, your buddies probably weren’t drinking coffee in a <i>Starbucks,</i> I’ll give you that; but I’m sure there are more than a few anti-globalists out there who enjoy a nice Columbia-grown (and picked, and packaged, and marketed) double espresso from time to time (albeit served to them by a fifth-generation neighborhood native who runs the local one-location-only Mom’n’Pop coffee shop). That these particular coffee drinkers are motivated enough by such a shallow ideology to leave the privately owned, painstakingly authentic, isolationistic coffee houses where they spend their days reading Naomi Klein long enough to screw up traffic, remains surprising.]</b>
<i>”But fear not, Patriot–by all accounts the NYPD is a well-armed, well-trained, aggressive State militia, and will quash whatever they please in their capacity as the local armed wing of the Multinational Corporate Oligarchy, to which you, sir, have deferred your patriotic allegiance.”</i>
<b>[As a matter of fact, I <i>don’t</i> fear. And that’s because I won’t be marching around the streets of NY with a puppet on my head—or engaging in any other such pretentious silliness –while wartime tensions are high. Therefore, I trust that the NYPD won’t have any reason to “quash” anything with regards to me.
By the way, this “well-armed, well-trained, aggressive State militia”—y’know, the local armed wing of the evil corporations—aren’t these the same kind of union guys you painted as pure and anti-global just a few sentences ago?
But I digress…. Let’s see…”Multi Corporate Oligarchy”? You’re kidding, right? Even were I to grant you such a simplistic, ludicrous, and hyperbolic characterization of how our country is run, what alternatives have you to offer? Tribes? A central bureaucracy? A big emerald city run by Wizards? What?]</b>
<i>”(But I suppose as an academic you don’t have to worry about your job being lost to a wage slave from across the border.)”</i>
<b>[To a wage slave? No. But to an academic from another country? Sure thing. In fact, such hiring practices have been part and parcel of the whole “diversity” movement. How can I, Milton Grein, be expected to teach the “colonialist narrative,” after all? I’m from the U.S.—the great hegemon, the imperialist devil—and so what kind of victimization can I bring to the discussion? No, university departments require an authentic, historically oppressed person to teach about oppression. If only they would just stay in their own country and teach their own kind, instead of spreading out all over the globe and taking jobs away from us local profs….]</b>
1) I called you Patriot because what else to call a man who is more concerned about the welfare of wealthy CEO’s and shareholders than that of the American worker. I guess you support W’s stimulus package too.
2) Let’s say your name is Milton. That’s kind of an old-fashioned name, isn’t it? (Were you named after Milton Friedman by any chance? LOL) So there’s a good chance you’re over fifty, and that you were around for the Vietnam War. My guess is that you were in college at the time, or else were drafted but avoided combat like your boy W. Assuming you were in college, did you support the war protests, or did you swing more to the beat of the National Guard at Kent State? Who were the real patriots in those days, Milton? Speaking of college, have you ever seen the movie Animal House? As a student, were you one of those right wing discipline-loving repressed homosexual pyscho frat boys like Dougie Niedermeyer? Or were you a little bit of a hairy troublemaker, like the guys in Delta House? Did you march for Civil Rights, or did you cheer the government’s dogs and fire hoses, just like you’ll cheer when the cops beat the shit out of puppet-wearing dissenters in New York?
3) No, I’m not suggesting that all union members are against globalization, but I’ll guarantee you that most of them are. To say that most firemen secretly wish to stop the spread of McDonald’s in Rome is totally beside the point. (Which I guess means I don’t have to provide evidence for that assertion, since I never made it.)The issue, Mr. Grein, is American jobs. Labor typically sticks together. Go to a union rally and you’ll see pipefitters, firemen, construction workers, teachers, all marching as one. What would you say to people who are losing their jobs because corporations are pursuing cheap labor into the rain forest, or because aliens are coming in and working for two bucks an hour and no benefits? Would you tell these Americans to stop whining, adjust, get two or three shitty jobs in the service industry while they take a computer course at night to make themselves useful to the marketplace? And then tell them to move to China if they don’t like it?
3a) What do you have against privately-owned, independent shops? Do they offend your vision of total uniformity and conformity of a corporate-run world?
4)Who said the cops were “pure?” They’re cops–they do a job. Just because their job is to control a crowd at an anti-globalization rally doesn’t mean they’re pro-globalization. I’d think that that would be obvious to a college professor.
5) Your vow to not participate in any dissenting demonstrations while “wartime tensions are high” is also terribly patriotic–just what W and company would love to hear.
6)My alternative to the multinational corporate oligarchy which you paint as being completely ludicrous and non-existent would be a mixed economy, sir. That means healthcare, food and education for everyone, even those who can’t afford it; an end to “corporate welfare;” regulatory standards for industry; more transparency during negotiations of policy; and accountability by politicians.
7) Don’t fret about your job being taken by a foreign prof. As a white American male (I assume you’re not Tanzanian) you will soon be a minority, and then you’ll be in great demand.
A.D.