Occupy Wall Street could also be called Occupy Minds…the minds of Americans and forward thinking inhabitants of this world that is. Class warfare, political disobedience? Possibly but I believe that this movement is more about being heard and the voice of the people.
What I have gotten from the dozen or so articles I have read and videos I have watched is that Occupy Wall Street has achieved its goal: to be heard. No one can quite agree on what main topic is and some people have brought very random topics to the table but all in all America and I am sure the world (who loves when Americans go crazy in large scale) knows that these so called 99% are unhappy.
I have a political heart and I wish to believe that one person or in this case 100s can make a difference. I am not convinced, however, that this movement will make a difference. I believe that the participants will go home unhappy and unfulfilled. While it is refreshing to see a movement which allows every participant to voice their own concerns a movement such as this is bond to die out before any goals are achieved.
Staying with the theme of our class I must admit that the protestors see class as a fight against corporate elitist who are sucking the life out of the underlings of society versus themselves. It is hard to buy this as a fully owned feeling, however, when protestors support multi-million dollar companies with the items they own. As well most Occupy Wall Street “residents” came from outside of the city meaning that they had to use some sort of public or private transportation supported or paid for by federal funds. At times like these I wonder if some of these protestors are jumping on the band wagon without knowing where the wagon is supposed to be going regardless of it gets there.
I do not believe that there is any foolproof solution to the issues that the protestors have with the current government. I believe that France has shown that no matter how many times you re-make your republic you cannot find the correct solution unless you re-work society as a whole. This being said America will not find what it is looking for in a park in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, or any other area of the United States. I believe that now that their voice has been heard these protestors should go home, run for elections, break our two party system and really make a difference by bringing debate and challenge to our main system of control in this country. If this were to be done America could have change on an unheard of scale. If this were to be done the protestors would eventually have a solution to their grievances instead of saying I was once where someone was trying to do something but no one ever knew what that was.
P.S. The Human Microphone reminds me of the game telephone and only moves this protest closer to its failure.
Yes, I agree that one goal is being heard and recognized. I'm not sure that has happened yet but there certainly is more public recognition. But what is the public seeing? After the demo on Saturday in Providence, I overhead some people say 'they can say whatever they want, they're just students from brown."
ReplyDeleteI disagree that this is a fully-owned belief system. I don't believe that participating in our corporate world undermines their commitment to the OWS movement. I'd suggest it is almost next to impossible to live in our world, do our jobs, take care of our kids, without in some way participating. We can certainly make choices about how and where we spend our money [independent retail over corporate stores, independent restaurants over franchise, a small bank credit card over B of America] but it can't always be outside of corporate America. For some things - like flying on airplanes and taking out credit - dont' give us much option.
I would encourage you to look into more things on horizontal or direct democracy. Proper sources would show you that this takes time, and that many of the solutions you are raising are solutions that have been proposed by others working more regularly with the movement. The goal of the Occupy Movement is not simply to be heard, there are many goals, and many proposed answers, and as with any intricated problem there are unforseen difficulties. People of the movement want transparency of government, accountability of facets of the economy, a re-evaluation of spending (in some cases more for education less for wars) and basic human rights. A lof of occupiers want the government given back to the people. In many ways they are helping to protect your Constitutional rights. (Look up the first ammendment conversations and police brutality articles popping up)No one is saying that you must Occupy, after all you can occupy your couch at home and continue to feel as though everything is alright. That doesnt mean that calling for the rest of us to pack up and go home is acceptable. I highly recommend heading to camp, there are lots of things to see, you might be surprised.
ReplyDeleteIn solidarity with the 99%,
Chris