posted on Apr, 21 2012 @ 06:38 AM
In a recent thread, Kali was saying that she was trying to understand why a lot of the people on this forum seem to view Occupy as filthy hippies,
punk kids, domestic terrorists etc; whereas the police are defended and apologised for, more or less no matter what they do. It's as though Occupy
can literally do no right, and the police can do no wrong.
For a while, this seemed like a very puzzling paradox, but I've been thinking about it, and I think I might have figured it out. My theory on this
at the moment, at least, is that the police are viewed as authority figures. A lot of people on ATS seem to feel that they require police
intervention in their lives, in order to survive. I've seen any number of posts recently rationalising police brutality, as well as defending the
authorities when they set up checkpoints at bus stations and such.
A lot of the people around here mentally associate the police with protection and a feeling of security, I am starting to suspect. The police make
them feel safe. They also need to believe that the only job of the police is to make them feel safe, to the point where they are not willing to hear
a word against them; because after all, if the police can't act as your parental figure and protect you from all the terrorists and the other big,
dark scary monsters out there, who is going to?
So there is a determination and a craving to never view the police in a negative light, no matter what they do, because of the above. Occupy,
conversely, are viewed as a threat. They are attempting to act in violation of the sense of order and security that the police provide.
A lot of the people on this forum (and in Western society more broadly) do not want freedom at all. Freedom is seen as extremely threatening to them,
because it means that they would need to look after themselves, and define their own objectives, etc. Worst of all, freedom means open-ended
situations, which means lack of control. Freedom means chaos. Freedom means a scenario where they might encounter, however peripherally, their own
fear of death.
Said people will gladly give up every last freedom they have, and live in an extremely controlled society, as long as that means that they never have
to take any responsibility for anything themselves, and they can feel as though they have someone else looking after them.
Because of that, Occupy will never find much support from the majority of the American public, sad as it is to say. Occupy are trying to create
something which is the opposite of what the majority want. Occupy are attempting to encourage self-determination in people, which directly translates
to adulthood, and the American people largely do not want that.
They just want to be protected.
They want to be protected from the endless number of perceived threats which they have been trained to see everywhere. They want to be protected from
the terrorists, and the paedophiles, and disease, and sharp knives, and guns, and criminals, and "filthy hippies," and black people, and whichever
other group or thing that the government tells them to be afraid of.
I'm truthfully wondering, how long it will be, before police are expected, whenever they encounter civilians outside, (including physical, but not
psychological adults) to pick them up and put them in the back of a squad car, drive them home, put their bottle in a microwave, change their nappy,
give them their blankie, and put them to bed. I am aware that that is the scenario which all of the rationalisers, and the justifiers, and the police
apologists, and the people who beg for protection from the terrorists, really want.
They just want someone to put them back in their playpen.