Occupy Wall Street: Phase 2

Oh, you thought it was over? Not so fast.

The New Yorker is running a profile on Kalle Lasn, the man credited with starting this "youth of America movement" known as Occupy Wall Street.

Lasn is sixty-nine years old and lives with his wife on a five-acre farm outside Vancouver. He has thinning white hair and the small eyes of a bulldog. In a lilting voice, he speaks of “a dark age coming for humanity” and of “killing capitalism,” alternating gusts of passion with gentle laughter. He has learned not to let premonitions of apocalypse spoil his good mood.

So, the guy behind this "youthful" and "American" movement is old and Canadian? Here are his thoughts on Bloomberg evicting his useful idiots last week:

The police had established a strict media cordon, blocking access from nearby streets. “It was a military-style operation,” he said. These words made Lasn think of the bloody uprising in Syria. He quickly decided that the apparent end of Zuccotti was not a tragedy but the latest in a series of crisis-driven opportunities, what he calls “revolutionary moments,” akin to the slapping of a Tunisian fruit vender. “I just can’t believe how stupid Bloomberg can be!” he said to me later that day. “This means escalation. A raising of the stakes. It’s one step closer to, you know, a revolution.”

I sure hope this revolution isn't violent and bloody. They're radical leftists, so we should be fine.

Lasn and White quickly hammered out a post-Zuccotti plan. White would draft a new memorandum, suggesting that Phase I—signs, meetings, camps, marches—was now over. Phase II would involve a swarming strategy of “surprise attacks against business as usual,” with the potential to be “more intense and visceral, depending on how the Bloombergs of the world react.” White could hear the excitement in Lasn’s voice. Even as Lasn vented about the morning’s counterrevolution, he was doing what he could not to splash.

Kill capitalism. Revolutionary moments. Escalation. Surprise attacks. More intense. Visceral.

We're not out of the woods yet, folks.

Update (from Slublog): Their next plan of attack -- Occupy Black Friday.

The website encourages occupation or simple boycotting of retailers. The group cites a connection between fourth quarter profits for retailers, credit card usage and the stock market as being the source for the protests on the Friday after Thanksgiving. …

In addition to encouraging site visitors to not spend money on Friday, the website encourages occupation, and “Occupy” protesters typically have featured sit-ins, on-site camping, slogan cheering and sign-waving as their modes of protest.

Disrupting holiday shopping oughta win them some converts.

posted by JohnE. at 03:46 PM

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