I was absolutely intrigued by Sophie Mirabella’s attack on the growing “Occupy Wall Street” movement yesterday. In case you missed it, she basically dismissed these peaceful protesters as nothing more than a bunch of angry, anti-capitalist losers, looking to place the cost of their own failings into the hands of others:
Take THAT. Pic: AFP
“…There’s a strange dichotomy about this movement. These “occupiers” want other people to earn less, while presumably they are supported by the Government or benevolent families so they can spend their days creating sanitation problems in the street rather than earning a living themselves.
“They want other people to pay for their “free” college education. They want to hold others to account for the way they believe the world has failed them. There is an underlying sense of entitlement that just jars with the “other people are greedy bastards” protest.
“The real bottom line is that “Greed is over” is not a policy. It’s not going to create one job, it’s not going to provide the funds needed to build hospitals or schools, and despite the hokey sentiment it’s not going to build local communities.”
Sure, I have had a bit of a tongue-in-cheek dig at the Occupy Wall Street protests myself, but what got me so intrigued about yesterday’s piece was that it had more than a faint whiff of hypocrisy about it.
Indeed, just two months ago, here on this very same website, Mirabella was in fact vigorously defending “the right to peaceful public assembly”.
And, back then, she was aghast at the way attendees at the anti-carbon tax rally in Canberra were picked on by journalists, labelling it an attack on freedom of speech:
The determination to find an offensive placard, to photograph someone looking unhinged, to find fault with the tone of the event should be a little concerning for those who champion free speech and peaceful public assembly as tenets of democracy.
So, she’s more than eager to tell one group of people to “maintain the rage”, but then turns around and tells another, more softly-spoken group of people to shut the hell up and not bother.
Forget the famous line (dubiously attributed to Voltaire), “I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.
No, for Mirabella, it’s a simple case of “I will defend to the death your right to say the things I agree with…. And, PS, the carbon tax is the worst thing OF ALL TIME.”
Now, let’s make this absolutely clear. I am the furthest things from a spokesperson for the Occupy Wall Street protests.
In fact, I have no plans at all to attend any of their rallies here in Australia because I’m too busy working and looking after my family. Besides, the biggest change needs to happen in Wall Street itself, not Federation Square.
But, unlike Sophie Mirabella, I actually believe in free speech, and therefore encourage protests which might start a larger debate about social inequity, and the human right to “a fair go”.
I don’t have a “sense of entitlement” and am not a communist, but I think we really should stop every once in a while and think about whether capitalism left unchecked is actually good for society as a whole.
Even if it all comes to nothing, I’d prefer to be personally associated with signs with “meaningless” slogans like “people not profits”, rather than ones that say things like this.
So, in that sense, I really am the 99 per cent.
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