Hey, “tyranny” was his word, not mine. Sid Ryan writes in the Guardian:
There have been some serious incidents at the camp in the last few months including: thefts, tents being slashed and minor assaults. These problems are not of Occupy’s making, but they’re happening on its watch. When anyone is challenged about people’s behaviour they’re quick to cry “persecution” and appeal to the founding principles of inclusion. If Occupy can’t solve the problem of behaviour on-site, a hostile media and the police will end the movement before it gets going.
Even people who aren’t aggressive or violent can derail the movement. The very nature of the general assembly (GA), whereby everyone can wield a veto, makes it inevitable. A block should be used only if the blocker feels so strongly that they would rather leave the movement than see it carried through, but it is rarely used as such and rarely with a full understanding of the issues at stake. Occupy proudly states that the GA is “real democracy”, in fact it is a tyranny that makes it possible to drown out a hundred rational voices with a single irrational one.
Schadenfreude aside, Mr Ryan’s article provides an interesting case study of an attempt at non-coercive organisation, a subject that interests many libertarians. Perhaps what stops it working for them is Original Sin. I refer to the sinful desire, shared by both the reformist and the revolutionary wings of Occupy, to coerce others.
Added later: Guardian commenter Forlornehope mentions the Seige of Münster. One hopes events will not come to such a pass that St Paul’s ends up being adorned in the manner of St Lambert’s Church:
Vigorous preparations were made, not only to hold what had been gained, but to proceed from Münster toward the conquest of the world. The city was being besieged by Franz von Waldeck, its expelled bishop. In April 1534 on Easter Sunday, Matthys, who had prophesied God’s judgment to come on the wicked on that day, made a sally with only thirty followers, believing that he was a second Gideon, and was cut off with his entire band. He was killed, his head severed and placed on a pole for all in the city to see, and his genitals nailed to the city gate. Bockelson, better known in history as John of Leiden, was subsequently installed as “king”.
Claiming to be the successor of David, he claimed royal honours and absolute power in the new “Zion”. He justified his actions by the authority of visions from heaven, as others have done in similar circumstances. He legalized polygamy, and himself took sixteen wives. (John is said to have beheaded one wife himself in the marketplace; this act might have been falsely attributed to him after his death.) Community of goods was also established. After obstinate resistance, the city was taken by the besiegers on June 24, 1535, and in January 1536 Bockelson and some of his more prominent followers, after being tortured, were executed in the marketplace. Their dead bodies were exhibited in cages, which hung from the steeple of St. Lambert’s Church; the cages still hang there, though the bones were removed later.
If it weren’t for the child endangerment issues, the sexual assaults, body count, etc., I would enjoy even more the antics of these envious, overgrown children’s ersatz parliaments. Moreso because I think they will be immensely helpful to the cause of removing Ear Leader from the White House nine months from now.
More helpful than the &0]]@^^ Republican primary candidates are being right now, at least.
A few words about the dilemma of protest:
I guess if someone wants to rape anyone and that person says no it is tyranny. That are the new Lefties.
The cages of Muster were seen by later the leaders of a modern version of the collectivist movement – the B-M gang (Marxist rather than anababtist – but “same difference” in practice).
However, they were not deterred by them.
Irritating – but then the war is eternal.
No matter how complex a developing civilization becomes the primitive (and savage) instincts of the hunter-gatherer pack remain in human beings.
False philosophy teaches that reason should be the slave of the passions – and the passions of human beings (the animal instincts) are those of the savage. Plunder, rape and murder.
And, sadly, force must be met with force – if civilization (ordered liberty – civil society itself) is to survive.
Of course, for most people most of the time, custom and tradition (rather than reasoning from first principles) are the basis of civilization.
But, contrary to Hayek and others, custom and tradition tend to prove weak reeds when attacked by the false philosophy.
“We have always done things in such and such a way” is not only not true (even the most ignorant person knows that civilization did not always exist and that things change over time), but it is also a fairly useless argument against people who promise Heaven on Earth – even though such people always deliver Hell on Earth.
The only good reply to false philosophy is true philosophy – reasoning from first principles, true principles and logical reasoning.