The other day I left the office around lunchtime and walked over to the Occupy Chicago gathering outside the Board of Trade. At the corner waiting for the light to change, I stood next to a protest drummer who fit the stereotype well: unshorn, unkempt and not much over 20.
Jay Smooth’s video blog is always good; last week’s was especially good.
If you haven't been following the conversation around Occupy Wall
Street, it's perhaps best summarized in terms of the Tumblrs.
First there were the 99 percent, who have been demonstrating in
New York and elsewhere for weeks.
"Occupy Wall Street may not come up with solutions, but at least it is asking the right questions in a nonviolent setting," says Shane Claiborne. "I don't believe that love can be forced, but I believe it can be provoked."
I'm a big fan of The Conversation, the New York Times online feature in which Gail Collins and David Brooks have a casual chat. I think the appeal is supposed to be that the two are reasonable, amicable and witty columnists who clearly like each other a lot. That's all nice, but what I enjoy is the palpable pleasure the hilarious Collins takes in needling the less intentionally hilarious Brooks.
Whatever its explicit message, Occupy Wall Street has made a powerful statement with its very mode of existence.