[lbo-talk] Occupy as Ritual Suicide Cult

Joshua Morey amvojo at gmail.com
Thu Nov 17 22:41:02 PST 2011


On October 9, 2011 Nicholas Roberts wrote:

---BEGIN QUOTE---

can I just make a general swing at the keyboard intellectuals.

get of your arses and get down the places where people are gathering and get involved in the process

its real easy to sit at home and read the amatuer, naive, often foolish media that comes out of these media events and spectacles

even easier to type-up scathing nihilist critiques about the failure of the Left, the faults of the young, the weakness of the institutions etc etc etc etc etc

there is plenty of material, and its been done, too much

now is a time, to actually do something, and its time to be an organic intellectual and participate in the messy, smelly, noisy, uncomfortable realities of these kinds of democratic actions

soon enough it will dissipate, and you can go back to eating the shit sandwhich of Amercian life

but today, and for the next few days, there is something happening worth participating in

take your intellect, your knowledge, your experience and GO HELP

---END QUOTE---

Nicholas - You seem repelled by the "messy, smelly, noisy, uncomfortable realities" you admonished us to engage. Indeed, your posts on the Occupy Movement appear to be the most "scathing, nihilist critiques" (at least the most pessimistic) on the list about what many of us - even those who have been critical - embrace as one of the most promising developments in leftist potential in decades. Certainly the Occupy Movement needs critique, theory, debate, but you seem tempted to write off the movement because it doesn't fit your cookie cutter.

I don't know who you're referring to by the expression "keyboard intellectuals" - certainly such an epithet does not apply to me - but I will happily return to my shit sandwich if it means I miss another condescending effort to write an epitaph for this movement.

Okay, that was harsh, but seriously...

Anyway, good luck out there.



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