Rather than Continue to Piss in the Wind, this Armistice Day, Dismantle the Wall Street-Pentagon Axis of Evil

An Open Letter to the OWS Movement:

A little guerilla theater never hurt anyone. That said, the 1% have dealt with this sort of thing before, and they have a successful protocol for neutralizing it.

1. Ignore it.
2. Break some heads and see how far they can get with that.
3. Gauge public reaction to the head breaking.
4. Ignore it.
5. If public reaction is too unfavorable, identify some underlings to use as scapegoats.
6. Scapegoat the underlings.
7. Gauge public reaction to the scapegoating.
8. Ignore it.
9. If the public continues to clamor, offer token concessions (e.g., forgive interest on selected college loans or home mortgages).
10. See how many people can be bought off to go home--usually a pretty large percentage.
11. Isolate the remainder that refuses to be bought off and go home.
12. Arrest and/or kill the remainder.
13. Lay low for a few decades.
14. Begin process of slowly dismantling the concessions.
15. Gauge public reaction to the slow dismantling.
16. Ignore it.

Chris Hedges has reported that JP Morgan Chase has donated $ 4.6 million to the NYC Police Foundation. That should keep the OWS stuck behind yellow tape for a good long time.

Even so, the squeaky wheels will be greased.

Just remember: Jesus was sold down the river for 30 pieces of silver.

If the OWS is to become something truly revolutionary, it needs visionaries. An MLK, a Malcolm X, a Bobby Kennedy in his Presidential bid. Of course, that is when the "lone gunman," that recurring figure in American politics, will take the stage.

You're not up against amateurs. They know what they're doing and they have the resources necessary to buy lives, consciences, assassinations and, most importantly, silence and time.

Think how extraordinary a phenomenon was FDR. Born into the 1%, he was comfortably living the life expected of him until one morning he woke up and couldn't move his legs. Crawling across the floor to the bathroom, it suddenly occurred to him that being in the 1% could not protect him from polio. He never forgot this insight; in a sense, he was radicalized. But then radicalism was in the air in the early part of the 20th century. Unlike today.

BHO should have grown up with FDR's insight; he had every reason to. He learned how to talk as if he did. But he's no FDR. He's not even an RFK.

OWS needs friends in high places if it is going to succeed. Otherwise, it will be managed and, eventually, commodified, like everything else in this country.

And one last thing: it's not just Wall Street. It's the Wall Street-Pentagon Axis of Evil. Until OWS makes that connection and focuses its energy against the true enemy of our democratic aspirations--the military junta that runs this country behind the charade of civilian governance--the movement will just be pissing in the wind.