The great thing about technology being ubiquitous is that we can now access and share information on a whim. The troubling thing about technology being ubiquitous is that we may not like what we watch, read, hear or spontaneously receive. I experienced the latter this week, when my inbox contained a link to a video featured on Glenn Beck’s GBTV program. Of course given Beck’s reputation, I expected the content to be unapologetically biased. What I didn’t expect was that the video would be the handiwork of my good friend Ami Horowitz (you can check it out here). I usually don’t to respond to pieces like this, but given my relationship with its creator, and his unexpected position on the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, I felt compelled to answer back—even if this blog garners a mere fraction of the eyeballs that watched Ami’s video. If nothing else, I’ll consider this a cathartic exercise.
The video opens with Ami espousing positions held by the Tea Party and then compares these ideals to the vacuous rants of Zuccotti Park’s most outlandish occupiers. Ami is right however. In many respects OWS is indeed a mirror image of the Tea Party. To the Tea Party, government is the enemy. To OWS, huge corporations are the enemy. OWS wants to raise taxes on billionaires. The Tea Party wants to considerably reduce them. OWS wants to rebuild and strengthen the safety net. The Tea Party wants to weaken it. Of course, none of these comparisons were addressed in the video because apparently, a Marilyn Manson look-alike with a penchant slicing up his face with razor blades seemed like a competent enough spokesperson. Then, in an attempt to demonstrate his impartiality Ami compassionately informs us, “Ok, they weren’t all like that”, before cutting to an equally inarticulate girl who appeared to be on drugs. Nicely done my friend. The rest of the video is spent pretty much mocking the protesters, commenting on their lack of hygiene (I think I counted at least three deodorant jokes) and avoiding conversation with thoughtful, articulate protesters like this guy.
The OWS protesters may not be armed with Old Spice, but thankfully they’re not armed with guns either—unlike many of their Tea Party counterparts. But that’s neither here nor there. Perhaps most unnerving however, is the exchange between Beck and Ami. Beck dismissively labels the OWS folks, “useful idiots”. Ami ups the ante by dividing the protesters into three categories: 1. Commies and socialists 2. College grads with nothing better to do 3. Dirty, smelly hippies. Really? This accurately sums up the group and their agenda? This is how a movement spreads to more than 80 countries around the world, from Hong Kong to Fairbanks, from Miami to London, from Berlin to Sydney, and hundreds more cities large and small? I don’t think so.
Any documentarian willing to scratch the surface can find that the group essentially stands for more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics. These ideals are not held by a fringe group of Commies, smelly hippies or college deadbeats either. With income inequality the greatest it’s been since the great depression, a Washington Post/ABC poll found that 60 percent of Americans believe federal government should pursue policies to reduce the wealth gap. That, of course, is the essence of the Occupy movement, with protesters across country making, “We are the 99 percent” their call to arms, figuratively speaking.
There’s no way to deny that OWS stand for important issues, but there are several means of evading these issues, as Ami's documentary so deftly proves.
