I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of …
… ennui?
Not sure I can fairly characterize it all in a word, but that comes close.
Briefly, here’s what happened: A couple of people gathered around the State House steps at 6 p.m. this evening, and many of them for an hour or so after, apparently with the intention of provoking the authorities into mass arrests, going far beyond the 19 of last week.
It was a bust, because the authorities responded rationally.
There were cheers when Brett Bursey announced that he had been told by the head of Public Safety that the protesters would be allowed to stay as long as they liked, if they didn’t camp out.
They need to brush up on their Marcuse. This was a classic case of repressive tolerance. OK, maybe not exactly the way Marcuse himself defined it, but repressive tolerance as it came to be commonly used later.
This, boys and girls, is how a liberal society absorbs the energy right out of dissent — the society tolerates it, and the steam goes out of it. Then, of course, if some dissidents are determined to provoke a disproportionate response, they engage in provocations that lose popular support. And so their movement becomes marginalized.
But that hasn’t happened to the Occupy Columbia movement yet, as they went happily on with their “General Assembly” before the Confederate Flag at 7 p.m., doing their “human microphone” thing to their hearts’ content.
In fact, to paraphrase the ultimate journalistic cliche, as of 7:15 when I gave up on it all, a good time had been had by all.
The possibility of confrontation had brought folks out in numbers not seen before. The Old New Left was out in some force, from Tom Turnipseed to Kevin Gray to my gentle Zen friend Hal French. But there were plenty of kids, too, striking poses and shouting high-flown slogans and getting off on the heady rush of having their words passionately repeated by the crowd.
Gilda Cobb-Hunter was there, as the one elected official I saw. Her shouted message was fairly benign, to the effect that This is your house!, which of course it is. (You can see and hear her on the video above, after the unidentified speaker at the start of the clip, who was pretty typical of the speakers.) Not even Nikki Haley — repeatedly excoriated as “our tyrannical governor” by some of the more excitable speakers — disagrees with that.
What happened tonight was that the great fog was clarified a bit. Now we know, and we’re back to what Nikki had complained about to start with — camping out on the grounds is forbidden. At least, that’s the way things stood when I left. I hope the situation didn’t deteriorate after that.
By the way, I have no idea how many of the roughly 200 people there were supporters of the movement, but I’m guessing most. When I told my friend Claudia Brinson that — and she shouldn’t have been surprised — I was not among them, she had one of her Columbia College students interview me. The one coherent thing I remember saying was, “Just because Nikki Haley is wrong doesn’t mean these folks are right.” And it doesn’t, especially when I don’t know exactly what they want.
As I Tweeted a little later, “They just sang ‘We Shall Overcome.’ They think it’s the same. What they miss is that civil rights marchers had clear goals, not just emotion.” At some point, pointless activity becomes an inexcusable waste of human energies.
Speaking of Twitter, before signing off, I’ll share the rest of my impressions from the night, as they occurred in real time:
- Standing in the middle of this enthusiastic Occupy Columbia crowd, wishing whatever is going to happen would happen soon.
- As I just told Columbia College student who was interviewing me, just because Nikki Haley’s wrong doesn’t make the protesters right.
- Here’s what the crowd defying Nikki Haley’s 6 p.m. order looks like…
- They just sang “We Shall Overcome.” They think it’s the same. What they miss is that civil rights marchers had clear goals, not just emotion
- Brett Bursey says DPS chief says they can stay, just not camp out. Protesters declare victory. They should read up on repressive tolerance.
- The duly constituted authorities played the best hand they had. Smart, measured response. Crowd has continued to dwindle since announcement.
- I keep seeing protesters who have pulled aside the tape across their mouths so they can smoke. WAY too much smoke around here.
- Kevin Gray is disappointed he’s not getting arrested tonight. I mean, what’s a guy got to do?
And then, I went home for dinner.
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- Tom Turnipseed strikes a dramatic pose.
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- A police-eye view.
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- Gilda Cobb-Hunter and Brett Bursey.
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I accurately predicted this outcome. Haley revises her decision, and nothing happens.
Lots of sound and fury from the Occupy movement – signifying nothing.
They really sang “We Shall Overcome”? Talk about delusions of grandeur…
Yes, they did. They’re very earnest. And they take themselves very seriously.
@Bryan– good call, but predicting that Haley will change her mind in response to popularity is hardly clairvoyant!
You may also be right about the sound and fury part–though not a tale told by idiots, the Achilles foot (block that metaphor!) of all lefty movements is the need to be inclusive and let everyone be heard and veto….Rick Hertzberg of The New Yorker said as much. The lack of direction beyond not liking the 1% is why the 99% will not be as significant as the Tea Party–whose focus on a narrow agenda and election results gave it more oomph.
My favorite silly moment last night came during their “general assembly.” They were about to vote on something, and it was announced that if it didn’t get 90 percent, it would be defeated.
Talk about tyranny of the minority — 10 percent plus one rules the day!
Was their general assembly to discuss disbanding and one guy setting up a lemonade stand? Because that’s what it looked like at noon today.
I would ask did you drink the lemonade, but I won’t.