‘Occutantrum’: Are Protesting Students From Elite Universities Guilty of ‘Rampant Hypocrisy?’
- Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:19pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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BOSTON (The Blaze/AP) — With the Occupy Wall Street movement closing in on its second full month, some of the nation’s most elite universities have been front and center in protesting perceived corporate greed and decrying the capitalist system.
But that’s a contradiction when the same schools boast huge annual tuitions, multibillion-dollar endowments and long lists of powerful graduates working on Wall Street and in Washington. Still, their students are joining in.
“We just want this university to be a better citizen, whether that’s in Cambridge or the whole country, in which Harvard graduates are such prominent people,” said Rossen Djagalov, a teaching assistant in history and literature at Harvard University, which costs around $50,000 a year to attend.
At Duke University in Durham, N.C., a small group of students has camped out for three weeks. On Wednesday night at the University of California at Berkeley, dozens were arrested during demonstrations against financial policies they blamed for causing deep cuts in higher education spending.
And in Harvard Yard on Wednesday, protesters gathered in front of the statue of school namesake John Harvard, calling for “a university for the 99 percent.” A few dozen students then set up tents and stayed overnight, though police stopped any non-students from joining them.
Students urged a fair contract for custodial workers at Harvard, argued that it played a role in the financial crisis because of its influence, and should be socially responsible in its endowment investments. At $32 billion, Harvard’s endowment is the largest in the country.
“Harvard should reconsider its status as the training ground for the people who make our political and economic systems less democratic,” said Joe Hodgkin, a senior who has led meditation sessions at Occupy Boston.
The actions have drawn plenty of skeptics, even at the schools themselves. On Wednesday, Harvard students in nearby dorms yelled derisively at the protesters, while another said the yard into which police had locked students was “the richest prison in America.”
Over at Pajamas Media, Zombie put it this way:
A clique of privileged U.C. Berkeley students, upset that they’re the top 1% of elite students in the state and thus disqualified from participating in the Occupy movement, could no longer contain their frustration on Wednesday and threw an Occutantrum, attempting to “occupy” a few square yards of the 1,200-acre campus. The police dutifully played their roles in the street theater performance, showing up in riot gear and looking scary so the privileged students could shout at them and feel properly revolutionary, as instructed by their professors. Following the script, the police repeatedly removed the handful of occupation tents so that the students could feel sufficiently wronged by authority figures and thereby earn their “Berkeley protest stripes,” which have been a requirement for graduation since 1964.
The group tantrum also gave the students a chance to test their fluency in Occupese, a new language which they have all been studying since the semester began on September 17.
The students, comprising the top 1% of high school graduates in the state (the top 12.5% are guaranteed admittance to the University of California’s 11 campuses statewide; of those, U.C. Berkeley is the most sought-after and thus the most selective) twice tried to set up tents in front of Sproul Hall on Wednesday, and twice the U.C. police moved in to dismantle them, as they had announced they would do.
Students at U.C. Berkeley attempted to set up an "Occupy" encampment on campus and clashed with police last week. (Image source: Pajamas Media/Zombie)
For more photos from the U.C. Berkeley campus, click here.
It makes no sense for students at such wealthy schools to be part of a movement against elites, said Ron Meyer, spokesman for the Young America’s Foundation, a national conservative organization focused on college campuses.
“There’s rampant hypocrisy spread throughout it, of course,” he said.
“It‘s a sense of guilt and sense of wanting to sort of be a part of a movement that’s against the system,” he said. “It’s sort of like a hipster movement, basically.”
Students at top schools say that it’s wrong to assume they all come from wealth, or that those with privileged backgrounds — in the so-called “1 percent” — don’t have a stake in a movement targeting societal inequity.
“Even those who don’t fall in the numbers game of the 99 percent can recognize why this sort of economic inequality is dangerous to all of us,” said Yale senior Alexandra Brodsky.
Police in riot gear clashed with student activists on the University of California at Berkeley campus Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. after students tried to set up an "Occupy Cal" encampment. (AP)
Duke senior Shreyan Sen, who’s been camping out with Occupy Duke, said fellow students have accused him of protesting a system he’s part of. Sen said that acknowledging he’s part of that system, and has benefited from it, doesn‘t mean he can’t speak against it.
“If you realize you’re part of something bigger that you think is unfair, there’s two things you can do: You can either go to the woods, like Thoreau, or you can say, ‘All right, I realize something is wrong, I’m going to now start to protest, I’m going to work against this,’” Sen said.
Last year, Harvard said it distributed $166 million in financial aid, indicating that plenty of students aren’t from wealthy households, and president Drew Faust has emphasized public service careers.
Still, plenty of Harvard grads head into the financial sector that the Occupy movement has bashed. The numbers have dropped in recent years, but a survey of post-graduation plans by the Harvard Crimson in 2009 put the number at about 1 in 9 graduates.
Yale’s Brodsky said people aligned with the Occupy movement have a duty to try to stop fellow students from entering finance, or force the people who may eventually be in the 1 percent to face the “moral repercussions of their decisions.”
Brown University junior Lily Goodspeed said a key part of the Occupy movement on her campus is getting today‘s students thinking differently about what they have and how they’ll chose to use it.
“I think this is first time people are forcing Brown students to look at what they have, and what are the responsibilities that come with those privileges,” she said.
Still, some collegians are rejecting the movement, whose critics say suffers from incoherence and hasn’t offered specific remedies to income equality.
“As a pretty well-read Harvard student, I still am confused about what the message is,” he said.
Sophomore Will Poff-Webster mocked the crowd gathered in Harvard Yard this week, saying, “I’ve never been prouder to be a student of Harvard than tonight. I know some people here today are courageous and prepared to get arrested, but unfortunately, I have a Spanish quiz tomorrow.”
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Comments (89)
kevininflyovercountry
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:49pmhey gang! Lets all chip in and send em a dump truck load of rocks! spring has sprung in greece and the middle east!!! Oh how i enjoy watching the rock throwers !!! Hell with waiting until 55 to retire!! i want what i want when i want it!!! me me me me me me me me…etc
Report Post »Founding Father2
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 8:08pmGOP DEBATE HAS JUST STARTED: http://www.thedailycandidate.com/video/2011/nov/gop_presidential_debate_10.html
Report Post »ishka4me
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 11:13pmit was easy to understand the occupiers at first; they were against corruption in politics and business and both of them corrupting each other. The occupiers are very diverse in all their agendas now that their original message is lost in political correctness and extreme progressive platforms. It is officially over. In boston they are more for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights then anything else. Won’t be long to where cities have multiple camps, each with their own agenda
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 8:21amWe already have a University for the 99%…it’s called the University of Hard Knocks. I went to conventional college for a year and a semester, but I graduated from the University of Hard Knocks. I think if I had continued with a conventional college, I’d be one of those protesters (thank you God, for bringing that Navy recruiter to my car on the cruising strip). I was an art major with emphasis on commercial art, with a minor in journalism. For each of my 3 semesters, I carried 17-18 hours.
Report Post »INOGAWD
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 8:43amRaising nice Little Commie Kids…Mexifornia SUCKS !!!!
Report Post »Tea Party Animal
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:38pm$50,000 for an education and they can’t even spell organized (look at sign in first photo….“organised crime”)
What a shame….
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:43pmEnglish (british) spelling very very trendy.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 4:34pmHaving lived in England… they made fun of my American spelling… and I find myself occasionally using the English form. Any way… I do not ever recall being Graded upon Spelling at U’s.
Report Post »CelticOne
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 5:15pmuneducated “k”ollege rich kids protesting the accomplishments of former “k”ollege rich kids – neither one learned history, ethics or morality.
Report Post »artistskeptic
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 10:38pmHarvard’s Rossen Djagolov, teaching assistant in history and literature wants “the university to be a better citizen” is so admirable. Unfortunately that history and literature major is not qualified to flip burgers in the real world. We have far too many of such intellectuals, perhaps he should learn how repair plumbing or apply paint, then maybe he would be worth the powder it would take to blow his brains out.
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 6:25am@ CELTICONE – Great analysis of these protestors – wish I had thought of it
OMG
Report Post »INOGAWD
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 8:49amAn education, NAAAA !! I’m just trying to find myself !!
Report Post »some of these Bimbos couldn’t their AZZ with both hands..
oldschoolgreen
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:35pmWas at a public golf course yesterday.There was a wedding.People were playing golf.ather was teaching his daughter how to putt.A plane flew over head with a banner saying ‘Will you marry me Marie’An old couple was having lunch.Wait staff were laughing and goofing around.Two guys in the bar were arguing about a sports team.Old guy out back was smoking a cigar.Point of all this?Nobody cares about OWS.Life is moving forward,people are doing what they do.OWS is just a distraction. Something else is brewing.
Report Post »artistskeptic
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 10:53pmSpacebar please, spacebar!!
Report Post »NOBAMA201258
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 10:04amI bet obama is going to make a move to forgive student loan debt just in time for 2012 election and the chris matthews types will heap all praise and glory upon the pandering POS!
Report Post »nobull14
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:34pmOccupy , The land of the PIMPLE HEADS.
Report Post »CottonMPG
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:33pmIf these spoiled kids had been beaten properly by their parents they would not have gotton beaten by the cops! Bad company corrupts good morals!
Report Post »bullcrapbuster
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:28pmThese greedy pinheads want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Report Post »Al J Zira
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:27pmThis just proves that none of this has anything to do with college tuition. This is about dismantling the US into some type of marxist/ socialist form of government that the professors of these toilets espouse and students suck up like a sponge from the indoctrination.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:24pmTo feel GUILTY for being from a Wealthy Family… having attended a Well Known School… being above Average… describes most of Obama’s friends… and the hidden leaders and supporters of OWS… plus many of the Students.
Report Post »The Problem is… how do you remove their SIN… so that they can participate in Society? They seem to think, collectively, that Destruction of Society provides the only Scourge (so they must really Hate their Parents)!
Komponist-ZAH
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:09pm“‘Even those who don’t fall in the numbers game of the 99 percent can recognize why this sort of economic inequality is dangerous to all of us,’ said Yale senior Alexandra Brodsky.”
“[N]umbers game”?? So she admits it’s meaningless–just a “numbers game”–, but then turns around and talks like it’s something serious? She was right in the first half of the sentence.
And am I the only one here who can’t recognize how economic inequality–the natural result of inequality of talent, ability, will-power, etc., in a word: individuality (and if you don’t like that, take it up with God)–is “dangerous to all of us”?
Report Post »TurboCat
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 5:45amYou are not the only one. I have never heard of this much nonsense from any group of people ever. These absurdities that they spout and spew are just laughable.
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:09pmHey I have another idea. ROTC leaves you with little to no student debt and a GUARANTEED job!
Report Post »NOBAMA201258
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 10:09amYeah right like these whiney little maggots would ever serve anything but themselves! I like your idea though!
Report Post »Popp40
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:06pmDuke senior Shreyan Sen, who’s been camping out with Occupy Duke, said fellow students have accused him of protesting a system he’s part of. Sen said that acknowledging he’s part of that system, and has benefited from it, doesn‘t mean he can’t speak against it.
—————————–
So basically he is saying that he got his but now he wants to close the door for anyone that follows him.
Report Post »Komponist-ZAH
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:40pmExactly.
Report Post »NOBALONEY
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:02pmThe 99% want free education & the right to housing. With these new rights & free stuff. Why bother? You see there’s the difference. Incentive is lost, along with individual freedoms.
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on November 13, 2011 at 6:34amSo True. Look at the welfare families, people who have never worked and think that recieving a government check (or ATM card) every month is normal. Cheap, government sponsored housing, food stamps, free cell phones and computers. They don’t know what it is to work, but they qualify for large tax returns by claiming earned income credit. The more kids the bigger the check so they have several children by several fathers.
OMG
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:00pmBerkeley is good for creating communists and subversives and nothing else.These protesters have no concept of capitalism because their professors are communist heathen.
Report Post »sissykatz
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:56pmI think the whole movement was planned and set up and is Van
Report Post »Jones’ proudest moments. The whole thing is ridiculous.
steveh931
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 6:48pmYour right, but it’s not just Van Jones. Here’s the short list:
George Soros, President Obama, Van Jones, Francis Fox Piven, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn
Ed Schultz, Grover Norquist, Ann Hess, Victor Sanchez, Christina Hallenbeck, moveon.org, Jobs with Justice, american dream movement, new bottom line, center for community change, opportunity aganda, new organizing institute, energy action, leadership conference, afge, sierra club, campus progress, progressive majority, people for american way, hip hop caucus, a.f.l.c.i.o, change to win federation, democracy for american, progressnow.org, us actions, working family parties, campaign for america’s future, peaceactions, rebuild the dream, progressive congress.org, s.e.i.u. the communist party, nazi’s, muslim brotherhood, anarchists, etc.
I’ll let others contribute if they want, God Bless.
Report Post »Komponist-ZAH
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:49pm“Occutantrum”
I love it! That’s exactly what it is.
Report Post »hightide
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:49pmOf course they are hypocrites. Why are they going to school unless thy want to make money? That’s the purpose of college. If they don’t want to earn money, go home and see how mom and dad feel about it.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:48pmThis is a different version of hypocrisy; it is selective blindness of events going on around them, such as the massive tuition raises and out of control education of the progressive socialists, combined with the indoctrination of progressive brainwashing.
Most of these students are so caught up in the problem, literally too close to it to see it fully, they are given another target of opposition and inquisition by their puppet masters of the Universities.
Watch for the university messages to change to one where they start to target the private schools and academies, along with anti semitism matters arising with speed and ferocity.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:46pmLOOK at them TAUNTING the police? OMG! HOW STUPID. You don’t CORNER POLICE and continue to advance? I wish they had used TAZERS on those idiots! They DESERVE whatever SMACKS they get and MORE.
Report Post »Shasta
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:52pmThe police have been set up by the left. It will get uglier.
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:06pmDon’t taze me bro!
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:44pmI know that they are hypocrites but they are also stupid and cannot send a consistent message. No one forced them to attend UC Berkeley and they knew exactly what the political agenda was. Now maybe they recognized that their professors are not as “down” with communism as they thought. They should be asking the faculty to take pay cuts to lower tuition to lower their potential debt. Another thing to think about is what is the percentage who graduate with a degree that they cannot get a job with or end up in a career that pays <$60,000.00 a year?
Report Post »steveh931
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:43pm“As a pretty well-read Harvard student, I still am confused about what the message is,” he said.
Here’s a clue. The protesters support the unions without even knowing it. The socialist unions want to overthrow your government and establish a New World Order by surrendering your Liberties and ******* all over the Constitution of the United States and everything your Founding Fathers and generations thereafter have fought to preserve. They want to live in a country like Venezuela.
Report Post »steveh931
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:55pml.o.l, I was edited.
Report Post »Jenny Lind
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:30pmIs it just me, or is this getting more stupid every day?
Report Post »82dAirborne
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:34pmThe correct term is either: stupider or stupiderer.And it would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:51pmIts about time these students and protesters get a massive reality check; suspension or jail time if they break the laws. And yes it is getting more and more stupid — the problem is though, there are among the protest groups people who are seeking to ratchet up the pressure, even with just the use of the medias propaganda movements.
Remember, it is not of absolute importance how many people get hurt in these riots; what matters for the puppet masters is HOW MANY see the pictures and hear the message.
It is the ultimate in spin and perception manipulation; they make it appear hyper worse than it really is so more and more people cry out for the madness to stop. Then the admin enters end game for the rest of us.
Report Post »hightide
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:00pmActually, “more stupid” is the correct term. As in “OWS protesters are more stupid than dirt”.
Report Post »Komponist-ZAH
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:26pmWell, certain…recreational chemicals do tend to erode the rational faculties…
Report Post »barber2
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 6:09pmHey, parents: time for a student recall. These brainwashed, “isn’t it now the fashion to protest and camp-out” kids need a reality check . Just because “all of your friends are doing this ” lecture time in order…
Report Post »mramise
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:26pmThis may be getting out hand
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:24pmI went to a small community college and loved it. No 100k+ debt for me!
Report Post »Shasta
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:49pmI went to a community college and then the local state university. No debt here either.
Report Post »dmerwin
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 3:08pmI graduated with no student debt and no parental assistance. It’s called work full time and school full time. Doesn’t leave much time for protesting though.
Report Post »mramise
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:23pmTesting new image
Report Post »mramise
Posted on November 12, 2011 at 2:23pmtest
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