Direct action

Across the street from the office where I work, the entire urban park is taken over by tents erected by the “Occupy Seattle” group. I understand that they have a bone to pick with the distribution of wealth and power in this country. So in order to bring about societal change, they’ve elected to occupy the park where many local office workers, retirees and others take their lunch.  I’m so impressed, I thought I’d let them occupy the Briarpatch this evening.

I’m glad that the spirit of community action lives on and even that it is expressed in the willingness of these folks to put themselves out there to make their point. Well, perhaps “out there” doesn’t quite describe their action, since the park looks like nothing so much as an up-scale campground. I wish I had the cash to obtain some of the camping gear I saw out there.

I admit I was a bit taken aback to have a young woman shouting obscenities at us “blood suckers” riding the bus home from work today. I’m not sure what socio-economic strata she believes uses public transit in Seattle, but whatever else we are, those of us on aboard the  bus this afternoon – the elderly Asian lady, the young girl with Down Syndrome, me, the high school kids behind me – are all economic vampires. Or so she would have us believe.

I guess occupying our little park will serve some aim but I’m hard pressed to determine just what it is. Surely, there are people who work in these office buildings in the downtown core who make what I would consider big bucks. I don’t know any of them, but I’m sure that somewhere twenty or more floors above my workspace, with windows facing the water, there might well be a few blood-suckers.  Maybe.

But I have to believe that those fortunate folks spend most lunch breaks in more rarified atmosphere than may be found in the vicinity of the hot dog stand in Westlake Park.  And I’m also pretty sure that the guys I see playing sidewalk chess in the Park everyday are average Joes. I don’t recall seeing any millionaires plying knight-strong gambits. On the other hand, how would I know?

I don’t know who’s wealthy and who’s not. In Seattle of all places, the wealthy and the schlubs like me don’t seem to dress much differently. So how did the protesters choose this workaday park as the venue for their well-equipped but ill-defined camp-in?

Certainly, they didn’t choose this location on the basis of targeting the moguls and power brokers they claim to resent. There aren’t any to be seen in Westlake Park, and certainly not when people waving signs are taking up all the formerly free space.

I suspect they chose this particular venue specifically because it would inconvenience regular working folks, who don’t have friends on the City Council who can be counted on to send in the gendarmes. And face it, at Westlake Park, the well-appointed protestor has access to water, restrooms, plenty of space to set up all their REI gear. And of course, Starbucks within two blocks in any direction.

I agree that the concentration of wealth in this country has reached levels that would have made even Pareto shake his head. And I am dismayed as are many reasonable people to acknowledge that the power brokers have moved farther and farther away from the reality of everyday life for most citizens of this country. I would even go so far as to applaud direct action. But that’s not what this is.

These people aren’t serious, not really. If they were, the protest would be located at the Rainier Club or the Bellevue Athletic Club or perhaps some other venue of the rich and fatuous. They’d get plenty of coverage and they’d actually be inconveniencing people who have money and power.

Of course, there’s no good campground available at the Rainier Club. There’s not a lot of extra parking for the desired news vans.  No drinking fountains, the restrooms are decidedly un-public and there’s very little foot traffic to provide ready-made crowds of spectators for the evening news.

Face it, they chose to be where they are because they can be comfortable while inconveniencing those of us who have to be there. It has nothing at all to do with moral outrage or risking all for a principle. It’s designer activism, as transparent as the crocodile tears of the powerful that they claim to resent.

I’d love to see them make a difference. But due to their choices, their big accomplishment will be that a lot of working class people like me will have to walk an extra block to avoid them on the way to work in the morning.

Whatever…