THE KILLOUGH CHRONICLES
by James Killough
Finally, protestors in America hit the streets to complain. The movement is gaining momentum, in part thanks to a thrust Susan Sarandon gave it in the media last week. Good for Susan.
Of course, the reasons behind the protests are far more nebulous than those, say, behind the murder of Troy Davis, institutionalized under the guise of capital punishment. That’s very cut and dry. Eric Baker summed up the reasons capital punishment is wrong better than I can in a previous post, but I would add to his list that leaving any human being to languish for years in doubt over whether the state will take him out back and whack him is the very definition of cruel and usual punishment. At least the death row inmate’s purported victims died more decisively and swiftly.
Dressing up as Wall Street zombies isn't exactly the way to be taken seriously. In fact, it's how to make a serious issue look silly and frivolous.
The problem is “corporate greed” is redundant, which makes it such a hard thing to protest against. Corporations are set up to make a profit, and the US is a mercantile nation. The real issue is regulation and the lack thereof. The Obama administration is being taken to task for implementing regulations at some un-right-wing rate, but what they are doing is trying to restore order after the fences were taken down by previous governments, and the ravenous wolves were allowed out to do what is in their nature, which is to slaughter the sheep and grow fat doing so.
