St. Paul was a tent-maker.
St. Paul's Cathedral, in the heart of the City of London, is currently surrounded by tents occupied by protesters opposed to capitalism and the greedy excesses of capitalism which the City now represents.
"Greed is good," said the (fictional) icon, Gordon Gekko, in a movie made in the '80s.
It seems otherwise now, as Western capitalism starts to collapse in upon itself like a dying star.
The cathedral has been closed "for health and safety reasons" for the last week. The police are about to be called in to evict the tent-dwellers by force.
It is sad, says the Canon Chancellor of St. Paul's, who has resigned from his post on this issue, that the protesters "came to occupy the Stock Exchange but ended by closing a cathedral."
But what do the protesters want? What are their demands? What answers do they propose?
"Answers?" wrote an anonymous commentator on the Guardian's internet column. "They barely have questions."
"Why should they have all the answers," retorted another, "There is no such thing as all the answers."
"It's pretty obvious what people want first off," wrote a third. "To show how damn angry and frustrated they are with the status quo and how much they want change. It will take a long time, longer even than a winter's camping on St. Paul's cobbles, but this is as good a place to start as any."
(Sources: Guardian 29th. October, G2 p. 15 and main section interview.)
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