Sipping the Contrarian TEA

 Professor J,

I'm back and can't resist an addendum to my previous post.

My three TEA Party experiences were a good example of what bothers me. The first one I attended had a real grass roots feeling about it. The crowd was diverse. Liberal, conservative, libertarian, objectivist, Atheist, Christian...It was comfortable, fun even. People had discussions, talked about the Constitution, made allowances for differences in thinking. However, I don't get the silly hat thing and have no idea why the people at these rallies seem incapable of spelling. But that event had a certain hopeful energy. 

A mere seven weeks later I attended the next one. Also outdoors, also lots of silly hats, but the crowd had narrowed and my heart sank as I saw that the Republicans had set up a tent to register voters. I instantly realized there would be no real positive change. Either the party was going to take over the  movement or the movement was going to co-opt the party. I'd hoped for a third party. This event had signs with ugly slogans and t-shirt vendors likening President Obama to a Soviet comrade. Something had shifted.

Of course now we know that the Koch brothers bankrolled the movement and directed things from behind the curtain as time went on.

I gave it one more chance. The third event a couple of  months later was basically a corporate one, hosted by Fox News and publicized heavily by local right wing talk show hosts. When the TEA Party Express rolled into town it was a celebrity-like event. But something had happened. This crowd was angrier. The mood was darker. I felt a real discomfort. I imagined how easy it might be to get this crowd to do something...I felt a tiny bit of fear which wasn't helped by the fact that this event was at night. Darkness, a mob, bullhorns, and floodlights... the atmosphere was disconcerting.  Everyone else seemed to be having a good time. But something was wrong and inside an uneasiness stirred. It was just too easy to conjure up images of I was seeing an inkling of, at some frightening points in history.

And that was that.

The Occupy movement speaks to my inner hippie but I may just be looking for a combination of unity and diversity that is nearly impossible to achieve. It takes large numbers and solidarity to bring about change. What's a contrarian to do?