General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Zuccotti Park has been re-occupied [View all]Sirveri
(4,517 posts)If you say that you'll never use it then you have no leverage. Same shit in the banking world right now, too big to prosecute, so why the hell wouldn't the banks just keep doing what they're doing, pay a fine that's less than they made and pocket the difference. There is no incentive to change. If you want them to change, start throwing them in jail with 20 year sentences. Take all of their money and ruin their lives, they WILL change, and that IS a violent act, and it's deserved.
Think about it from the owners position. A bunch of guys come up and say that you're hurting us, please stop. Then when the owners ask what they're going to do about it, they say they'll do NOTHING. Why the hell would the owners change? You have no leverage to compel them to actually DO anything. Without some sort of threat of some form of violence, be it via political means of challenging the authorities at the ballot box, targeted financial boycotts, rioting and looting, kidnapping and assassination of the .1%, we have no leverage. Just like the Democrats need real liberals and progressives threatening to stay home to keep the democrats from being dragged to the right, we need at least the threat of violence (in the conceptual sense). It doesn't even need to happen, sometimes the threat is enough. So be it if that works, but without that we have no leverage, and levers are how you can move the pillars of the system.