(Also published at Firedoglake and Daily Kos)
All of the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing.
- Moliere
OK, so calling Michael Bloomberg the Worst Person in the World © might be a bit overcooked. After all, without Bloomberg’s epic overreaction in clearing Occupy Wall Street out of Zuccotti Park, OWS would still be a flagging movement close to being on life support. With the onset of winter and the risk of a fading national attention span, OWS was running the very real risk of disintegrating into something close to irrelevance. Bloomberg’s heavy-handed loosing of the NYPD on the protesters in Zuccotti Park (along with similar assaults nationwide, including here in Portland, OR) has revitalized OWS. If Mayor Bloomberg thinks he had a problem on his hands before, I think he’s going to be surprised at the size, commitment, and organization of the monster he’s helped to galvanize into action.
You can’t stop OWS; you can’t even hope to contain it (apologies to Dan Patrick).
It turns out that OWS is not a movement designed around squatting in parks and other public areas. It’s evolving into a nimble and agile movement willing and able to take their message and protests wherever might be most effective on a particular day. That metamorphosis is due in large part to the heavy-handed miscalculation of Mayor Bloomberg. Possessed of a mindset which believes that leadership requires action, Bloomberg made what appears to be exactly the wrong decision. By ordering NYPD to violently take down the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park, Bloomberg has energized the OWS movement and given it new life.
Sometimes. leadership means knowing when to let dissent burn itself out. It appeared OWS was headed in that direction…until Bloomberg decided that decisive leadership required decisive action. Smooth move, Ace….
Mayor Bloomberg is not your typical zealous, intolerant, brain-dead Worst Person in the World ©- far from it- but he’s certainly the MVP of Occupy Wall Street. Now there’s some inspired leadership, eh??
