The Occupy Protests Were Laughable, Until Now

By all realistic indicators, the Occupy protests that have been taking place across the country have been laughable. The Day of Rage began with a no real sense of direction or even agreement that there would be rage. The first New York protesters didn't know if they wanted to have a party, march on Wall Street, protest at the United Nations, or go home.

The situation didn't improve any when the protests disrupted traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge during rush hour. At best this aggravated people, at worst it aided large oil companies who couldn't be happier to see people leave their cars running for a few hours longer. When Occupy decided to go nation-wide, it seemed all but certain that the protesters would succeed in annoying everybody right before fading out of view.

The authorities have ruined any such luck. Instead of ignoring or even laughing at the way the protesters were carrying on, they decided to try to evict them, arrest them, pepper spray them, and otherwise be abusive to them. Instead of fading away, it now appears that the protesters have strengthened their resolve and will stick out any abuse.

In the face of idiotic violence, one doesn't need a platform, ideology, or aims. One's stance can be nothing more than to stop idiotic violence, which is a pretty persuasive advocacy.

Camping out in front of public buildings, in parks, or elsewhere is annoying. It's also a strange way to go about changing policies. But to pepper spray and abuse the annoying occupiers will only empower them.

When violence is used, power and authority evaporate. The modern mind tends to equate power and authority with violence because those in power are the only ones allowed to use violence, but this distorts the relationship. When a person's parents tell them not to stick their hand in the electrical socket, the child obeys not because the parent beats them but because the child trusts that the parent knows what they're talking about. A child who is abused eventually loses faith in that knowledge and will stick its hand in the socket when no one is around.

We overlook the fact that the best leadership strategies in the West have been those that mimic the divine. A solemn, quiet, stern force that commands obedience by virtue of being more powerful and intelligent than anything else around it is what we identify real legitimate authority as. The Biblical narrative always qualifies God's violence with love (Old Testament) and overt forgiveness (New Testament). When leaders engage in pointless shows of violence, they undermine their legitimacy and empower the opposition. OWS might have just been given its legitimacy by its opposition.

Mark Tully is the primary contributor to Restorus.org, a conservative blog. He has authored numerous articles on politics and religion such as one on John Locke's Letter of Toleration and a biblical study on how old the earth is.

View article source