I love Civilization Revolution. Managing resources, having an objective, building your civilization, and - if all goes well - a form of world domination. That is in the nice computerized version of society - it doesn't take into account free loaders, shadow markets, illegal markets and when-people-just-don't-get-along.
Occupy Wall Street is learning some of these lessons.
Recently there has been a spate of people -both homeless and apparently just a little bit off- showing up at Occupy Wall Street, getting a free meal, some clothes and other OWS resources and then, low and behold, not contributing anything. Simultaneously there have been several assaults on occupiers by...other occupiers. One that started as an attempted drug sale, morphed into an assault on three people and days later ended up with a group of thugs threatening to kill the woman who reported the initial assault. There continues to be not enough bathrooms and not enough garbage pickup - both problems that have doomed city growth - though admittedly only when one tries to grow crops instead of receiving donations.
OWS itself had an issue where too much drumming was upsetting the locals an agreement was reached where they would STOP drumming and the people in the drum circle saying they should DRUM more. And they WOULD drum more. Disagreement isn't bad. It is part of life.
These are the growing pains of any society. Usually one of the first dwellings a society builds is a jail. Mostly so the morphing into general anarchy - and there are a few who would love anarchy - thereby necessitating actual rules and consequences.
OWS is handling it about as well as one could expect. They aren't claiming to be some sort of utopia. They aren't even claiming to try and be a city actually. Though in a strange way there are indicative of social media and the new society. Arrive, sit, and THEN figure out what to do.
Really though. You usually don't get to see a small city pop up in a major city and OWS will continue to learn its lessons.
Wayne
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
When a Protest Meets Politics
I have watched with amusement as Occupy Wall Street has gotten enough attention (it only took 20+ days) for Democrats and Republicans to finally look across the aisle at each other and...
...take completely opposite stances!
More than anything else the Occupy Wall Street leaders - if they existed, which like Santa Claus they do not - would take this as having reached main street consciousness. Yes, there are Occupy Wall Street support protests in many other states; however the press has been remarkably quiet on the entire issue until the last few days.
Seriously. Other than being told there are protests and nobody knows why Occupy Wall Street exists - the simple common sense answer being people want jobs seems too bleeding obvious for most people to comprehend - had anyone really been reporting on anything other sensationalized reports of a topless dancer, no list of demands, and pepper spray.
This all ends as Democrats and Republicans have figured out which side of the position each side is on and more importantly, how to position themselves properly for each base. I'll give the elevator pitch version: for Democrats Occupy Wall Street is the left wing Tea Party and for the Republicans Occupy Wall Street is a bunch of anti-American anarchists.
Glad that is out of the way. Oh, and Al Sharpton is heading down to Wall Street today. Maybe THAT makes everything mainstream official now.
Either way look for protests to continue and much like religions fail to point out we're all children of Abraham, look for all sides to fail to point out everyone just wants a job.
Wayne
...take completely opposite stances!
More than anything else the Occupy Wall Street leaders - if they existed, which like Santa Claus they do not - would take this as having reached main street consciousness. Yes, there are Occupy Wall Street support protests in many other states; however the press has been remarkably quiet on the entire issue until the last few days.
Seriously. Other than being told there are protests and nobody knows why Occupy Wall Street exists - the simple common sense answer being people want jobs seems too bleeding obvious for most people to comprehend - had anyone really been reporting on anything other sensationalized reports of a topless dancer, no list of demands, and pepper spray.
This all ends as Democrats and Republicans have figured out which side of the position each side is on and more importantly, how to position themselves properly for each base. I'll give the elevator pitch version: for Democrats Occupy Wall Street is the left wing Tea Party and for the Republicans Occupy Wall Street is a bunch of anti-American anarchists.
Glad that is out of the way. Oh, and Al Sharpton is heading down to Wall Street today. Maybe THAT makes everything mainstream official now.
Either way look for protests to continue and much like religions fail to point out we're all children of Abraham, look for all sides to fail to point out everyone just wants a job.
Wayne
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Lessons of Dangers at a Softball Field & What to Teach My Daughter
"This is our fucking field!"
A high school kid in a football uniform was glaring at me beneath the not-so-very-bright lights of Col Jacobs Field in Harlem, as I stood out in left-center field of our softball game, and was nearly plowed over by a sweep.
The kid, backed up by oh about 40 High School players to his immediate right and to his immediate left was another 40 pint-sized mini players of the elementary school size, had the tell tale smirk of enjoying the fact that the practice was taking place IN our softball game.
Hey, at that age I would have smirked too. Permits be damned or not. I also would have been smacked by my coach at that point.
I pictured the headline for the news story: Softball player shot over field dispute in Harlem. I pictured my own reaction if I read such a headline: Idiots.
Yes, I walked away - and bit my tongue because man, I had some verbal gold that I wanted to unleash. I have actually seen this situation before at a softball game. A young kid ran onto a field and the outfielder yelled at him - the kid then came back with a bunch of uncles and friends ("Yo, these are my Uncles!") and it took a fast talking Umpire to cool the situation down. The Umpire calmly said after, "Which is good because they were all packing."
I'm not saying everyone in Harlem packs a gun. I'm just saying that nothing good could have possibly come out of the situation.
What was interesting - I won't even say astounding, or surprising, or even that it did anything more than annoyed me - was that the coaches supervising the practices seemed to be encouraging the behavior.
Okay, I can't even saying encouraging, the female umpire in out game went to talk with the Coaches at one point and in the words of our left fielder, "They basically told her to fuck herself."
This isn't a big social post here. In downtown New York people are being arrested over similar fundamental issues. People just ain't sharing the wealth, or the field, or the piece of candy in a pocket.
I'm not advocating a socialist society - the field really was a microcosm - they had more people, were better protected, and had the field. Yep football coaches on the field - teach the kids they don't have to listen to anyone and to just keep practicing.
Still. Hopefully I'll be able to teach Sienna to share a softball field. Or at least move far enough away if the other people have a permit. Mostly though, I'll probably teach her that sometimes the actual argument with the people ain't worth it and it's more fun to blog about it later.
Wayne
A high school kid in a football uniform was glaring at me beneath the not-so-very-bright lights of Col Jacobs Field in Harlem, as I stood out in left-center field of our softball game, and was nearly plowed over by a sweep.
The kid, backed up by oh about 40 High School players to his immediate right and to his immediate left was another 40 pint-sized mini players of the elementary school size, had the tell tale smirk of enjoying the fact that the practice was taking place IN our softball game.
Hey, at that age I would have smirked too. Permits be damned or not. I also would have been smacked by my coach at that point.
I pictured the headline for the news story: Softball player shot over field dispute in Harlem. I pictured my own reaction if I read such a headline: Idiots.
Yes, I walked away - and bit my tongue because man, I had some verbal gold that I wanted to unleash. I have actually seen this situation before at a softball game. A young kid ran onto a field and the outfielder yelled at him - the kid then came back with a bunch of uncles and friends ("Yo, these are my Uncles!") and it took a fast talking Umpire to cool the situation down. The Umpire calmly said after, "Which is good because they were all packing."
I'm not saying everyone in Harlem packs a gun. I'm just saying that nothing good could have possibly come out of the situation.
What was interesting - I won't even say astounding, or surprising, or even that it did anything more than annoyed me - was that the coaches supervising the practices seemed to be encouraging the behavior.
Okay, I can't even saying encouraging, the female umpire in out game went to talk with the Coaches at one point and in the words of our left fielder, "They basically told her to fuck herself."
This isn't a big social post here. In downtown New York people are being arrested over similar fundamental issues. People just ain't sharing the wealth, or the field, or the piece of candy in a pocket.
I'm not advocating a socialist society - the field really was a microcosm - they had more people, were better protected, and had the field. Yep football coaches on the field - teach the kids they don't have to listen to anyone and to just keep practicing.
Still. Hopefully I'll be able to teach Sienna to share a softball field. Or at least move far enough away if the other people have a permit. Mostly though, I'll probably teach her that sometimes the actual argument with the people ain't worth it and it's more fun to blog about it later.
Wayne
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