Posted on 11/17/2011 5:49:54 PM PST by RobinMasters
As partisans on the left and right try to co-opt and compare the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, both sides ignore that they aren’t really that different at all. Both, in fact, hew to the same conventions as all mass movements. And as the 2012 presidential candidates — including President Obama — attempt to form their positions on each one, they’d all be wise to put them in perspective.
In Eric Hoffer’s seminal 1951 work, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements,” the similarity is drawn with startling clarity.
The work of a self-educated gold prospector-turned-longshoreman-turned philosopher, the treatise examines important mass movements in history from the French Revolution to the Nazis. It’s also refreshingly devoid of political correctness. Hoffer describes those who may be susceptible to the allure of mass movements in practically Dickensian terms: They are either “misfits,” “spinsters” or “the inordinately selfish,” to name a few.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Yeah, the two on the right are sure torture to look at!!
We modern day humans are enjoying the easiest existence that any humans have ever experienced and it is our combative nature that prevents us from fully appreciating that fact. We argue over who created that existence and who is tearing it down. Wash, rinse and repeat.
I would need to see a full body picture of Ms. Cupp in order to decide if he article has merit......:-)
Not really. We rightfully but the blame where it belongs, Congress (both parties).
Ows on the other hand dutifully follows the dem party line and falls for the misdirected blame.....just like all useful idiots do and have done.
Oh, there is something terribly wrong with the country, but the typical OWS protestor can’t articulate a good reason for his or her discontent. Other than saying that things are “unfair” or that they are being crushed by their school loans, these OWS protestors are remarkably uninformed about economics and the constitutional role of our Federal Government. By contrast, the average Tea Party member can express their discontent in concrete terms — the Federal government is too large, we are taxed too much, and the Federal government should return to a more limited role in American society.
Other than both groups being unhappy with the status quo, we have nothing else in common. The Tea Party goals would result in prosperity and increased personal freedom for successive generations of Americans. The OWS demands, such as can be inferred from their mixed-up message, would result in the ruination of this country and may lead to civil unrest and violence.
I have heard them complaining about government dysfunction and have to agree. I think there are degrees of encampments of them and some of them are po’d with govt. In this ... they are similar to the Tea Party.
But, as I said ... they’d never work together because of the things that divide them.
I read the article. It did not make sense. I studied Hoffer’s work while in grad school in Boston in the 60’s. The TP does not fit his pattern. OWS does.
TP is proactive citizens focused on specifics. OWS is reactionary without intellectual grounding. In truth they have nothing in common but exist as polar opposites.
Trying to argue that opposites are the same is a fool’s errand.
>> Did anyone actually read the article? >>
Every word. Your point?
I was about to jump all over my friend Sarah Elizabeth until I read the full article at NY Daily News.
I suggest reading it before knee jerking.
I think you and I are on the only ones.
I read the entire article and I think she’s waaaaay off base.
generally speaking the similarity starts and stops with ending government corruption
That’s pretty much her point too.
#occupy. They’re like the Tea Party’s “special” little brother.
EVERYTHING they say or write is calculated to push their agenda. Cloward-Priven.
Their complaint against the Government is that it is too Capitalistic.
Te Party = productive members of society.
OWS = Dope smoking, maggot infested moochers.
Why would they complain about government dysfunction? Their ilk had complete control of the Federal Government for two years. They could have done anything they wanted and they surely tried. Look at the boffo job they did! I detest these OWS protestors, just as I would have detested their predecessors in the 1960’s — although, at least in the 1960’s, a lot of the protesters had one legitimate issue to protest, the draft. Still, I despise them both.
Methinks her bear meat from her last hunt was bad. What a terrible article.
So soon Nov. 2010 is forgotten..
Nov. 2012 will be the main event..
S.E. is engaging in “hand jive”...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.