As unlikely as it is for OWS to gain power, what would it mean for our nation, and our society, if they did? Michael Bane provided a frank answer. Bane has several decades of experience in the coverage and study of riots and social cavitations worldwide as a journalist. He is also the host of “Best Defense Survival” on the Outdoor Channel.
Bane discussed Occupy’s anarchist collaboration: “If anyone succeeds in bringing down the United States government or creating a social dislocation that breaks this fragile, amazing machine the Founders created, what comes after is not pleasant. What comes is what was before the Dream of America… That was simply survival of the most vicious.”
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Bane continues, “What the toy anarchists in the Occupy movement don’t understand is that the best organized people in the country are the criminal enterprises. They’re very good at it. MS-13? Biker gangs? Mexican cartels? These guys are good at anarchy… because they are without conscience or any sense of moderation… That is what anarchy looks like. Anarchy looks like someone’s head on a bed.”
The communist and socialist elements within the Occupy movement believe the elimination of our current system, or at least the collapse of it, will bring about a favorable revolution. What the Occupiers fail to understand is the historical, if not psychological, context behind a revolution. These movements are regularly co-opted by more insidious ideologies. Those who instigated the French Revolution ultimately found their way to the guillotines just as many of the antagonists who toppled the Russian Empire found their way into the gulags of Soviet Russia.
Regardless of what conjecture we make about an Occupy rule, what will most assuredly come to pass will be the disorder, chaos, and criminal enterprise that would arise from the ashes of social upheaval. In disrupting ports, freight, and passenger transportation, Occupy may be able to achieve a collapse of our system, but at a cost much greater than they bargained for.
Rawles points out, “If anything, [Hurricane Katrina] is evidence that there’s just a thin veneer of civilization on First World societies. It doesn’t take a lot to peel that back. What’s underneath is not very pretty. Human nature dictates that when people are desperate, they will take desperate measures and you do not want to be caught in the middle of that.”
Ahern added, “The agenda [of Occupy] is the same thing we saw in the ’60s- turning the United States into a socialist democracy. Whether you call it socialism, communism, or progressivism, it’s still the same idea. You take stuff away from the people who have earned it and give it the people who have not. Of course, the people who have earned it are not going to like that and, at least, you are going to have to abrogate civil liberties and certainly be ready to back up what you want to do — with violence.”
Bane echoed similar concerns, “The irony with the Occupy people is they seem to be pining for an age that has never, and cannot, exist. Instead, you will end up with an age of the top level in the elite and a whole lot of people at the bottom… To want to destroy a system that abrogates that is appallingly stupid.”
It was suggested by those interviewed that the Occupy movement will only further polarize our nation, and I agree. Those on the left will redefine themselves farther left and those on the right will only move farther right. For those of us on the right, leftists moving any farther left may seem ludicrous. Furthermore, we may mistakenly dismiss the OWS protesters as incapable of having any rational idea of how to run our country. However, as suggested, these people have an idealized vision of that end, albeit one lacking significant consequential understanding.
Let’s face it, though; many of them are facing poor job prospects and massive amounts of debt. They’re pissed and, in some ways, I don’t blame them. Yet millions have chosen a different path from these radicals — one of personal responsibility — and therein lies the ultimate downfall of the OWS movement. The Occupy ideology sheds personal responsibility, instead transferring those duties and burdens onto the back of society.
The Occupy movement has a tough road ahead. Regardless, their final place in history and overall influence is still unclear. However, what is clear is the radical elements within our society are here to stay and will inevitably be an issue we will all have to confront.
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