Never mind the bad press, snotty media commentators and opportunistic municipal politicians: Canadians are stubbornly refusing to abandon the #Occupy movement.
It’s almost enjoyable to see how that brute fact has been sending the media chatterati into a tizzy. Gary Mason, a Globe & Mail columnist, was confidently predicting last week that the @Occupy movement was fizzling for want of a manifesto and a leadership structure. But this morning he hints that force may be required to help that along:
No one knows for certain where the Occupy movement is going. It seems inconceivable that camps will still be up in the new year. Then again, with most politicians trying to wish the situation away, they could still be standing months from now.
At some point, however, the public’s patience will run out. And generally when that happens, politicians find courage they didn’t have before.
Try reading that in a grumpy-old-man voice, and imagine him shaking his cane.
Then there’s Margaret Wente, so pressed by deadlines, it seems, that she actually had to invent an #Occupy protester who wasn’t. A correspondent, Larry Kazdan, sums up her overall position succinctly:
Not everyone has Margaret Wente’s courage to afflict the afflicted and comfort the comfortable. Blame not the greedy Wall Street bankers, but the unemployed sociology majors with two kids who got an education, hoping they could improve the world. What were they thinking?
Despite winter and riot cops in the wings, there are no signs that the #Occupy movement is about to slink away, “their point having being made” as the 1%-supporting media hacks and other serviceable footmen and chambermaids have been putting it. Folks are supposed to make a token protest under the careful scrutiny of the authorities, and then return home so that ordinary life may resume. We wouldn’t want them to “outstay their welcome.” And heaven forbid that they actually have an effect.
The Occupiers don’t see things that way, thank goodness. And so far a majority of the public are standing with them. No wonder Mark Carney and others have been suing for peace, almost from the start.
Democracy is a tricky thing when it actually falls into the hands of the people. That’s why France and Germany were up in arms when the Greek government wanted to let its citizens vote on yet another one of those “austerity programs” that the 1% like to levy on everybody else. (I find myself in complete agreement with Preston Manning on this, which is mildly alarming, but no matter.) The vote was cancelled and the Prime Minister was driven from office, but you can bet that the streets of Athens will fill up yet again. One way or another, an aroused populace is going to be heard.
Democracy of that sort appears to have come to Canada, and, judging from the panicky reaction of the corporate media, it may be here to stay. Hang in there, #Occupy folks. If you can get through a Canadian winter, changing society will be child’s play.
