When Warriors Quarrel

A headline that may amuse: 

Occupy Wall Street activists sue each other over who owns the movement’s Twitter account.

But gosh, they were doing so well. 

Comments

[Jacob]

The perfect end to it.

[Karen M]

Now, three years after the movement's cultural and political apex, things have gotten a bit complicated for OWS activists.

Snork.

[Watcher In The Dark]

"To try to figure that out, a group of activists filed suit in the New York State Supreme Court"

So having been hell bent on sticking it to the man and being against the one per cent they are now going to, er, determined to obey the judgement of the man who is probably well in the one per cent. If it wasn't so pathetic I would laugh like a drain.

[Anna]

Someone call the Judean People's Front.

[svh]

I almost wish they were still going. I used to enjoy your round-ups.

[David]

I almost wish they were still going.

They were a concentrated source of unintended comedy.

[Greg]

It's rather amusing when the property is theft crowd is locked in a titanic struggle over theft of property.

[Mags]

David, off topic but does this count as a classic Guardian sentence…?

"With establishment figures showing up at festivals, the idea of popular music as a form of psychic resistance to entrenched inequality becomes ever more distant."

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/18/burning-man-glastonbury-david-cameron-establishment-psychic-resistance

[David]

does this count as a classic Guardian sentence…?

Heh. I see you’re getting the hang of it.

Some supposedly grown men really miss being teenagers.

[Sam]

< Guardian voice > "Pop festivals should be more leftwing and only leftwing people should be allowed in." < /Guardian voice >

[David]

< Guardian voice > “Pop festivals should be more leftwing and only leftwing people should be allowed in.” < /Guardian voice >

It has the air of a midlife crisis. And it took three people to write it.

Though I suppose it’s quite funny when someone attempts to conjure intellectual gravitas by pretending that pop music festivals constitute both “subaltern modernism” and “psychic resistance” to… well, being an adult. The Guardian publishes some variation of this toss - pretty much the same article - every few months. And the author is usually some pretentious man-child who used to read the NME or Mixmag very, very seriously and now works in the Clown Quarter of academia.

Which possibly tells us something.

[sackcloth and ashes]

'With establishment figures showing up at festivals, the idea of popular music as a form of psychic resistance to entrenched inequality becomes ever more distant'.

The 'establishment figures' have been on stage performing at these gigs for quite a while now.

[The Lurker on the Threshold]

Is "psychic resistance" something to do with seances?

[pst314]

"Pop festivals should be more leftwing and only leftwing people should be allowed in."

Calling Eric Cartman...

[Joan]

At least they've stopped raping people and shitting on cars.

[Hal]

I'm stuck home with a bug while reading through Scottish election results and finally got around to reading through that one.

Oh, Dear . . . .

The attendance at this year’s Burning Man festival of libertarian Republican policy wonk Grover Norquist has caused some controversy over the past few weeks. There have also been grumbles about members of the Silicon Valley elite heading out to the Nevada desert and setting up their own VIP enclaves at the festival. Names include Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and “a slew of khaki-wearing venture capitalists”. . . . .

. . . In this climate of stultifying top-down sameness and a lack of confidence from below, festivals still hold out the promise of something more edgy, more left-field. At their best, festivals epitomise that popular modernist trend of offering people the chance to create and inhabit alternate futures in the here and now, however momentarily. These potentialities still exist at Glastonbury and other festivals, even if only as an echo. This is why people are still drawn to them. They’re seeking out that spirit of radical experimentation, of trying out new ways of living in the world. As one participant at this year’s Burning Man put it: “This is a great experiment in self-actualisation.”

Actually, ah, No. Not even close. To borrow from physics, that's not even wrong.

Generally speaking, those who started BM have long since moved on to other things. When I first heard of BM, well over a decade ago, the uniform assessment noted that the decline was well in progress, with a summary being, basically, Y'know, it just hasn't been the same since they banned the drive-by shooting range.

Apropos of the Occupy twits twittering tweetly, BM is undergoing yet another round of lawsuits.

And in turn . . .

But why do we get so upset when the rich go glamping at Glastonbury, or when David Cameron visits the Salford Lads Club to claim the Smiths as his favourite band? When Cameron named the Jam’s Eton Rifles as one his favourite songs, . . . .

Well, actually, no we don't get upset. We continue to note that random personal preferences remain random personal preferences.

. . . “celebrity culture” is held up as one model of the “good life”, while the cultural elite display open bigotry and hatred of the contemporary working class (“chavs”). . . .

. . . and there is the hiccup.

cc is held up---i.e., let's see if anyone falls for this one---as one model . . .

In short, under no circumstance is cc established as the model, and as has been established across centuries of hipsters being asses, and adults being the inevitable leadership, all that we are seeing with the "celebrity" hatred of "chavs" is mere peons that have gotten some cash at the moment expressing their hatred of mere peons who don't have the same cash, at the moment.

Patricians, by contrast---and this is all patricians, from the working class master plumber patrician to the upper class mandarin patrician--- Just Don't Care.

[David]

Well, actually, no we don’t get upset.

The presumptuous “we” is a Guardian signature.

[ac1]

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/09/18/political-affiliation-of-man-who-firebombed-black-congressmans-office-wont-surprise-you/

[wtp]

ac1, even that article when it states that the guy is unstable and "needs help", which while true, is itself a bit of a shrug-off. This was a college graduate. Not much different from so many in the clown quarter of academe. Though give him credit for having ambition, willing to act in tune with his beliefs instead of sitting in a park bitching. Actually, that "clown quarter" thing...I think it's a significantly higher percentage. In Florida we have a governor and an ex-governor running for election, both claiming the other "cut funding to education". I suppose they are supposed to be so-called "negative ads", but I'd be inclined for the one who actually did. This nonsense of "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance" is BS. Ignorant people have the potential to learn new things. People who "know" things that ain't so, not so much.

[jimmy]

In reponse to 'I ate a tomato'...

Where was the tomato grown, how was it picked, was the farmer paid a fair price by the supermarket, were pesticides used etc etc etc ????
as i said, everyting is political but by your flippant, juvenile comments, i don't expect you to 'get' it

Must be a wonderful festival. Can't see any reason why people might want to get away from attitudes like this!

[jimmy]

Poor lefty trendies crowded out by squares who just don't get it.

[Hal]

Hmmm. Mildly OT question for the peanut gallery and for David:

Any commentary on the Scottish referendum?

I was only having a general scan of the headlines going into the vote, and thus couldn't state which way I would have voted had I been in the position to vote---and certainly would have been rather more steeped in all the issues if I had.

At the same time though, my definite interest comes from the background of very ingrained Cape Breton Islanders---as I recall one cousin's comments, while we apparently left in the 1700s or so, on the occasions when at least one uncle of mine who grew up in the 20th century would go ballistic, he would automatically start screaming in Scots Gaelic before remembering to switch over to English . . .

I'm looking at all the home rule promises---Oh, Please, ""Devo Max"", double quotes deliberate, is merely a construct worthy of Laurie Penny or so, complete with accent---, and I'm noting assorted variables where all the interesting variations I'm reading about can apply, and noting Oooooooohhhhhhh . . this is going to be FUN iiinnnnnnteresting . . . . . . . .

[Spiny Norman]

Italics on the loose!