2011-11-02

Predict an End for the "Occupy" Mob

Mirroring my own thoughts on the issue, CBS news reports that there is no goal and no endpoint in sight for the various "Occupy" mob sit-ins.

While some may argue that I am unfairly dismissing the entire crowd as nothing more than socialists, I maintain that these mobs are the perfect example of a truly democratic socialism, in which decision-making is subjected to crowd consensus. If I am right about that, then the mobs will simply disperse when internal conflict inevitably discourages them from staying on any longer.

What I mean is: I predict that the "Occupy" mobs will implode from internal conflict and disperse naturally.

Why do I think so? The answer comes from the following Ludwig von Mises quote from Omnipotent Government (or any of a dozen other, similar quotes he made in other works):
If a man says socialism, or planning, he always has in view his own brand of socialism, his own plan. Thus planning does not in fact mean preparedness to cooperate peacefully. It means conflict.
 Think about that statement in light of the following quote from the CBS article I mentioned (emphasis mine):

As the protests continue, there's disagreement over what the long-term goals should be. Occupiers even disagree on whether there should be goals at all. 
That's in large part because members' ideas about what the movement should accomplish are as diverse as the members themselves.
 As we can see, there are really only two endpoints for the "Occupy" mob:
  1. The "movement" implodes as the inevitable result of internal conflict, as all socialist movements do.
  2. The "movement" somehow manages to endorse a single leader or group, who speaks for all of them.
Option number 2 here clearly rubs the Syndicalists and left-anarchists the wrong way, so it is unlikely that this will be how the story ends.

Therefore, I'm banking on option 1. What do you think? Discuss other possibilities in the comments section.

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