Occupy Us and Obama
Posted on: October 5, 2011
- In: Obama | ows | people vs. corporations
- 8 Comments
A couple of months ago I was worrying that Obama getting assissinated by Corporate stooges might be the only way that America would be saved. Made me very sad to think so, given how moved my wife and I were when he took office. But one reads history, and sometimes national tragedies like that are the spark that sets a nation on the healing course.
Then that thought was replaced with a happier one: America could be saved if Obama loses in 2012, followed by the Republican who wins driving the country completely over the cliff, handing us over to the Corporations. Then Obama would come back to lead the People in its charge against the Corporations.
Of course, nobody makes a comeback like that.
And then along came Occupy Wall Street. Bingo! I now see how America will be saved.
The kids will drive this Occupy Us thing, bringing along the rest of the 99% — left and right, old and young, white and not so white, straight and gay … all of us. Then, when it becomes obvious that this movement will not subside, and can not be subdued, Obama will swoop in from the wings, and take over leadership of the movement, accepting credit for it too.
It will be just like Lincoln getting credited for the abolition of slavery when he was a laggard on the issue all the way through the 1850s and even into the first part of the Civil War. He came late to the party, but history gives him the lion’s share of the credit.
Obama will be serve an analogous role on People vs. Corporations.
If you know anything about the Enneagram, you’ll recognize this as a classic “7” play. And as I blogged years ago, Obama’s 7-ness is core to the reason why I predicted in 2006 that he’d win the presidency and lead us on this epic struggle.
Man, I feel so much better. Hated my first idea about Obama’s role in saving America. Was dubious about my second idea. Am bullish about this third one. Bullish enough to blog it.
That’s OK, Obama. Sit quietly while the Occupy Us movement grows. Stay quiet, just as you did during the Arab Spring. When it become obvious to everyone that this movement is prevailing, swoop in like it was your idea the whole time, and I for one will cheer you.
It will be a cynical cheer, to be sure. But a heartfelt one.
8 Responses to "Occupy Us and Obama"
October 6, 2011 at 6:56 am
Thanks KG. Re health analogy, I’d say America is like the guy with advanced metastatic cancer, but still isn’t even aware of it. e.g. The Occupy Us movement, which took 2 weeks for it to appear on the “Top News” of my New York Times Android app, has now completely disappeared again. i.e. Cancer symptoms flaring up, and the patient notices them for a moment, but then forgets about them the next moment. This patient is in for BIG trouble.
October 19, 2011 at 9:08 am
I came back to say what I said when I first came here – congratulations on absolultely NAILING the People Versus the Corporations – as you can see with OWS, it HAS started and no one, and I mean no one other than the 4T itself, has called it as well as you did more than 8 years ago.
So big congrats – altho I guess it will be a Pyrrhic victory of sorts because as you can see from the many OWS vids, the violence has already started.
That being said, I am still disappointed that you still have somehow maintained your total hero worship of Obama – this in spite of every concrete bit of evidence to the contrary. We are now involved in 6 or 7 foreign wars instead of 2 (I lost count along the way – does Uganda count as one or not ?) – Wall Street and banks continue to rape the American people with the help of all the ex-Goldman Sachs people that Obama selected to provide direction. I could go on and on ad nauseum. I continue to feel sorry for Obama in many ways, he was stupid enought to step in to a situation that was made un-fixable for a long long time now. It is truly unfortunate that for decades to come that he will be blamed (much as Hoover unfairly continues to be) for all that is about to occur. Granted is all going to come to a boil on his watch, so he does bear a great deal of responsibility for steering the Titanic, but the destiny of the ship was determinged long ago by a myriad of other ‘leaders’ who the People were stupid enough to put their faith in. Such is the point of the Fourth Turning I guess.
In any case, it matters not. Things are now officially out of control and as you said in the earlier posts, and as the 4T pointed out almost 15 years ago, it will be the Millies who drive this thing forward to generational warfare.
Aside fromt the protesting – this will be the big first step :
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/
And I can guarantee you that most of those delegates will not be over 50.
On a personal note – the violence of the economic collapse reached right into my home this weekend – someone tried to do a home invasion into the room next to where my kids sleep. I was able to chase them off – but I was stupid and incredibly lucky – and I am very very angry at myself because I should have known what was coming because of all I have read over the last 10 years.
It was pretty much a telegram from God, the Universem, whatever – my ‘normal’ way of life is now over. The Rubicon be crossed.
I still wish you luck, and I still hope you wakeup about the leader worship before it gets too late for your own children & family. There are no leaders, there are no heroes – reading history tells us what the consequences are to those with the greatest faith in the ‘system’ (any system) – there is just the steamroller of events that flattens all who get in its way.
Congrats again for calling it all – now we get to see how long it takes for the Millies to bring it all down.
Matt
October 20, 2011 at 7:01 am
Matt re-emerges! Yay!
First, let me say I was troubled to read of the attempted home invasion at your house, but glad to read you thwarted it. Scary stuff.
A friend of mine has counseled me to buy a shotgun for these kinds of reasons. That’s on the list of things to do for us.
And yeah, there will be sporadic violence in the nation. But I suspect this will be a Ghandian revolution — for the reasons I wrote about 8 years ago.
In fact, I’ll bet that the violence coming out of OWS will largely be the actions of agent provocateurs.
Re Obama, ya gotta dive into the Enneagram. His behavior these past 3 years has been classic non-confrontational 7.
Has he been “Bush-light”? Hell no! “Bush-plus” I’d say.
But unlike Bush, who truly represented the Corps and the 1%, I think Obama is just kind of faking it. He’s just too “weak” to stand up to them.
Suskind’s book really drives that point home. I mean, if what Suskind wrote is true, what kind of man would let Geithner keep his job? A spineless one, that’s what.
I see OWS as giving Obama the “cover” — in about 4-6 months — to stand up say what re really thinks about the Corps. Or at least, what he “really thinks” given he has a huge movement that will back him up.
March 23, 2012 at 8:30 pm
I just came across the link below and it made me think back to 5 or 7 years ago when I first found your old blog. You may remember I tried to get peoplevscorporations.com off the ground back then too… I posted some of my own writing and copious links to yours, but it soon fizzled due to my own lack of momentum. But at least I still have the domain name! It expires just before the Mayan apocalypse, I think that might be a sign…
Anyway here’s the link:
http://www.amend2012.org/
(http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Robert_Reich)
Perhaps Obama will catch on to this wave soon and the only people that will need to die are the corporations… I think it’s a nice idea, but any restrictions introduced on corporate personhood would have loopholes or be generally ineffective if he were leading the charge. Obama is neither a leader nor a hero… and his “swooping in” would kill any momentum behind your idea’s original motive. Obama’s future was purchased by the corporations who own the world’s governments long before he became a senator. And any student of history will tell you that Cointelpro is alive and well in Zuccotti park…
–Andy
March 25, 2012 at 2:01 pm
Good to hear from you again Andy. Re Obama, IMHO, his role vis a vis People vs. Corporations will be little different than was Roosevelt’s role on the emergence of the middle class, Lincoln’s on the end of slavery, and Washington’s on the over-throw of the British.
History says that each of these men was, at best, ambivalent on their respective issues before those issues became front and center in the nation’s consciousness.
But when those issues did take center stage, these men’s responded with the heroism with which history credits them.
The only difference in my mind with Obama is that the issue of his time (PvC) is still bubbling under the covers, and yet he’s almost finished with his first term. For all three of his predecessors, their issues were burning down the nation — and everybody knew it — at time they become president.
So I’m a bit nervous about how this one is going to play out. Could we be at the gate of the end of America — an idea that goes back more than 500 years?
I hope not.
Comments are closed.
Duck! and Gather 
October 5, 2011 at 5:44 pm
It sounds like a wonderful process to a tumultuous story. I hope it gains momentum and is not just stuff made of fairy tales.
The big difference that I see between Lincoln taking credit and Obama taking credit for the work accomplished largely by others, is the number of ailments being tackled by both men.
In Lincoln’s day, it was focused on the abolition of slavery, and it has taken 150 years for racial equality to have permeated through to social consciousness (and is still a work in progress).
In Obama’s present day, it’s not just one focused problem. The problems are many (as seen by the complaint list of The General Assembly and the demand list on the Occupy Us site): poverty, lack of healthcare, economic instability, ecological destruction, ethnic/sexual preference/etc. inequality, etc. Numerous problems.
If I were to analogize this, it would be as such: A man is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his prognosis is very poor. He undergoes surgery, the spread is minimal, and the cancer is excised. He has a very slow recovery period, he recovers and does well, but has to continually watch his health for minor problems that arise here and there. This is the abolition of slavery to present day racial more-or less-equality.
Another man diagnosed with colon cancer, metastasis to the liver, with renal failure from hypertension prior to the cancer diagnosis, is diabetic, and had suffered a heart attack the year before – well, this guy may be hooped.
(But maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps the analogy is not accurate, and perhaps the many problems this country is facing are not life threatening. I don’t know).
But America is resilient if nothing else, and miracles do happen.
I’m sure pulling for America to succeed. (Success as defined by the mission of The General Assembly). I’m rooting for America not only because I like to see people do well, but because if America sinks, Canada will be going along for the ride.