You say you want a revolution?
FORTRESS PITTSBURGH: Day Two of the G-20 summit:
Another lull before who-knows-what. So far, it's gone exactly as I expected. Despite the dramatic scenes in the Strip District and elsewhere yesterday, that was nothing like the Battle in Seattle. That was a Punch-Up in Pittsburgh, a mere platoon action. It was sound and fury signifying nothing.
The anarchists seemed less like anarchists than anachronisms. With all their retro wailing about capitalism, they were a blast from the distant past, perhaps the 1930s. Even the name of the unauthorized march - People's Uprising - reeked of the vanity of living in the past.
And what was the point? What message are we supposed to take away from such acts as the overturning of dumpsters? Workers of the world unite - you have nothing to lose but your dumpsters?
What about the attacks on businesses like Boston Market? Are we to believe that if the world were rid of roast chicken dinners at a reasonable price, utopia would be here?
Breaking a door at a PNC bank and attacking an ATM machine were equally stupid. KDKA reported that a perpetrator ran across the road and told the owner of a Mom and Pop operation that it was safe - they only attack corporations. How very quaint. But I wonder where the Mom and Pop business takes its receipts? Probably across the street to the PNC.
As you can see, I have very little time for vandals posing as protesters. Their message was that they had no message - they were just there to act out because they were young and stupid, except for those few who were old and stupid and had no excuse.
The Thomas Merton Center is organizing a march Downtown later today. I am looking to them to behave better than yesterday's mob who were no more dedicated to peace than I am to chastity. So far, the only thing the far-left have achieved is to make conservative tea parties look like models of civility.
PS. (Written at 6.30 p.m.) As I also expected, the Thomas Merton Center folks did peaceably assemble -- and the thanks of the community go to them. As I write, the G-20 is just about history and we survived. Hurrah for us! I will resume this blog on Tuesday. After the hectic events of the last few days, I am going to take a rest. And have a beer.