Rethinking Occupy Wall Street

So the interesting thing about Occupy Wall Street is that the protestors seem to be asking the government, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America thanks to the fiction of corporate personhood and the treasonous practice of campaign contributions, to increase regulation of the very corporations which own it. 


And then we're surprised that the police, the enforcement arm of this corrupt (and therefore I'd say illegitimate) government violate the civil rights of the protestors? This is the same government that, ignoring both our own and international laws, has been using extraordinary rendition to do away with foreign "terrorists". The same government that has executed US citizens without trial. And you're surprised?

No - it's time for a major shift in how we think about what legitimate representation is, what the role of government is in our society, and how we the people (the 99%) agree or not agree to engage in discourse or interaction with a corrupt and illegitimate government. I'd suggest a re-read of Voltaire and other Enlightenment philosophers about what a legitimate government looks like. Or even easier, re-read our own Declaration of Independence:


US Declaration of Independence

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

Dissent is Patriotic.

If you aren't pissed off then you haven't been paying attention