30 Tons of Occupied Social Justice

By Tony Katz
Thursday, December 01, 2011

As reported by the LA Times, the remains of Occupy LA were hauled off to the city dump, by the city, at the taxpayers’ expense. The amount of trash? Approximately 30 tons:

Sanitation officials said Wednesday that they expect to haul away 30 tons of debris from the Occupy L.A. encampment...Andrea Alarcon, president of the city Public Works board, said workers already have removed 25 tons of belongings from the City Hall park, all of it heading straight to a landfill

Sanitation crews also have vacuumed up about 3,000 gallons of water that had washed into a catch basin in recent days and are testing it for hazardous materials, she said.

As a headline, it's enough to make one shake their head in disgust. For the intellectually honest, it's enough to make one say—out loud!—"How in the world could anyone compare the Occupy movement to the Tea Party? The Tea Party would never leave a location looking like this!" But move past the headline, and a new, more accurate story (if, indeed, unintentional by the author) emerges:

The sheer volume of personal belongings left behind after the early morning Los Angeles Police Department raid has astonished city workers: books and CDs, luggage and boom boxes, mattresses and dining chairs, cellphones, electric razors, a small red guitar with its neck snapped –- all surrounded by dozens of collapsed and empty tents.

First, it requires a deep understanding of how rich the United States is as a nation, and how incredibly wonderful that is. Yes, a wealthy nation is a blessing, and a tribute to our people, our culture and our values. The Occupiers call themselves part of the 99 percent, and portray themselves as the downtrodden, the left out, the left behind, the jobless, the poor. Yet, they left behind a treasure trove of CDs and cell phones and electric razors. ELECTRIC RAZORS! While one could (if being intellectually dishonest) rationalize the having of cell phones as a needed utility, and one could (again with the dishonesty) rationalize someone having a CD as a human need for music while discounting that it requires another piece of materialism to play said CD—both things, like the cell phone, being made by evil corporations—there is no way for even the intellectually dishonest to reason away an electric razor as anything but a "first world luxury."

But bigger than the realization of the falsehood of the Occupy meme (that they are poor people with electric razors!) is that they left all of this behind. Why? Because they do not value things... because they did not work for them.

No one who has worked for the things they have would ever willingly give them up. The thing, regardless of its utilitarian nature or luxurious appeal, has a value to the owner. It was purchased for a reason. The electric razor was purchased to keep their face smooth and whisker free. Shaving could have been done with a straight razor, but life is rarely like a 1940's gangster film. It could have been done with a safety razor, but the purchaser of the electric razor wanted the comfort and speed of the electric razor. That was the value they received from handing over their dollars and engaging in an open-market transaction.

The purchase of the CD. The purchase of the boom box. The purchase of the tent. All transactions based on their value to the purchaser, who exercises their free will (and freedom) in making such personal decisions.

But the Occupy LA crowd left 30 tons of garbage, much of which was so nice that it "astonished" the gainfully employed sanitation workers who immediately saw the value in the "trash" they were now cleaning up. The Occupiers saw no value in it, as they have no concept of value. Their message (if one can be gleaned) is that the rich have too much, that they have too little, and that "fairness" dictates that the rich must give to those who are not, the haves must give to the have-nots. Said differently, but first by Marx, "From each according to their measure; to each according to their need."

But the message, for all the mainstream media cheerleading and all of President Obama's support, never resonated with America, because the idea was, and is, uniquely un-American. In the 30 tons of "trash" left by the Occupiers in LA, lies all the proof of how right the American people were in discounting the Occupiers. For what is the need of the person who can "afford" to leave behind their electric razors, CDs books and other possessions, other than sloth, hate and contempt?

The Occupiers do not value anything, because their answer when something goes missing is that you should replace it. That you should provide it. That you should give it. That the police (which they regard as an instrument of the so-called 1 percent) should be an instrument for their salvation, forcing you to provide the things that they will also not care about and will leave on the streets. And then, they will demand that you provide it again and again and again.

They do not value personal property, and, as evidenced by their continual in-kind donation from the National Lawyers' Guild, they do not value personal property rights. Therefore, they do not value your right to engage your values, your free will. They do not value your right to be free, to live free, to act independently. They value the lies of Marx, now repackaged in the term "social justice," a key Occupy talking point and a clever way to openly discuss wealth redistribution.

But we have seen what comes from wealth redistribution; that it will end up in a landfill in Los Angeles, or anywhere the Occupiers—the Believers in the Great Lie of Social Justice—roam.