A Demonstration

I ended in Wiesbaden this morning, for a project or two, and there around noon.....there was this demonstration held in the center of town....near the Rothaus (town-hall).

Basically, you had four individuals up on poles....about 30 feet in the air, on a hype about the negativity of capitalism.  In particular, there was some company who'd come into the area and was buying up farmland, for commercial situations.  The acreage I would guess....amounted to around 80 acres. 

The audience?  Well....there might have been sixty to eighty folks (mostly retirees or folks shopping downtown).  Then we had about thirty police standing there.  Full-gear.....armed....mostly in this wait-and-see type situation.

This area affected was roped off, but this was a marginal 1 meter border from the four individuals and as security goes.....this was mostly a one-star effort.

Over on the corner, I noticed a stand up and operating....by supporters of the four anti-capitalists....selling cake.  It bothered me to some degree....anti-capitalists all the way, but selling cake?  Wasn't that capitalism?

Eventually, the cops came over to the cake stand and asked some questions.  It is market day downtown, and if you have a license on the square.....it's ok to sell stuff like this.  But I suspect they lacked the license.  A minute or two of chat....resulted in the two ladies being directed to shutdown the anti-capitalist cake stand.

My general problem with anti-capitalists....after you've been around them for three minutes, you start to look at their clothing, the backpacks, and the boots (they always have nifty-looking $100 to $150 heavy duty boots).  It's supposed to send some kind of wilderness message I guess.  But it was capitalism that delivered the clothing, the backpack and in particular.....the boots.

As much as anti-capitalists claim some moral high ground, they seem to demonstrate lousy values.  How did they get to the middle of town?  Probably by a car, which is another indicator of capitalism.

The cops were clearly being wasted there on this security deal, and I kept wondering....what exactly are they guarding?  If I'd been the mayor, I would have dismissed the cops......taken a water-hose and just started spraying the four until they had enough and climbed down.  Luckily, I'm not a mayor.