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Explaining Occupy Wall Street...
Since the Occupy movement began, I've heard many, many different explanations of what they're protesting and what they're trying to accomplish. I've had people call me every name in the book because I haven't researched their movement to figure out what the actual objectives are.
So I posted a video asking members of the Occupy Wall Street (and everywhere else) movement to use the comments area to explain to the rest of us: 1) What exactly the Occupy movement is protesting against, and 2) what exactly they're trying to accomplish.
Now that it's been up for a few days, check out the comment section. There were a few thoughtful responses, but as I expected, nobody seems to have a clear vision what they're specifically trying to accomplish. Thankfully the movement is over, and when they hit the parks again next summer, maybe they'll have a realistic, articulated set of objectives...
Posts
The protest is against the greed of the heads of corporations. When thousands of people lose their jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars given to financial corporations, and the top executives give them selves multi-million dollar bonuses - there's something very wrong with our system. That's what the protest is about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, 90% of people are stupid, so to expect Dakota and her hipster friend - who are spoiled rich kids with poor friends, which makes them cool -to show an level of thoughtfulness or logical consistency is just completely off base.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteI don't think the OWS are packing up and going home...they are moving to another venue: foreclosed homes. In a recent AP article on the internet, I saw a picture of a pair of electric meters on a house that are covered with graffiti from members of an Occupy Seattle group. The article says they are following tactics by OWS groups in Seattle, Portland, and Oakland, whose protesters are staging "Occupy Homes" actions nationally to try to stop foreclosures.
One meter has "Free Power For All" on it. Again: they want to be able to use something but not pay for it! It should be free to them but not for those they feel are rich.
I am really glad there are very few foreclosed homes in my area because it would really tick me off if these freeloaders started drifting into my community. These knuckleheads can't see that if they do this crap, it make the housing problem WORSE, not better.
Why the facade of pretending to understand the Occupy Movement? Your condescending attitude has blinded you to finding any truth...that is if you had any real intention of finding an answer to your question.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of corporate greed and the concentration of wealth is not difficult to understand. The imbalance of wealth is an negative indicator on the health of a country. What countries have maintained their power in the world while the gap between the rich and poor has grown?
Corporations have one purpose..to make money at any expense. Nothing else matters. The challenge is to balance that greed with a set of societal values. That is where we are failing.
Hi Matt,
ReplyDeleteI hope you take the time to respond to this post. I'm an employed engineer at a big company and I still support this movement. I was lucky enough to get a good education because my parents had enough money to send me to a good high school and pay for my higher education. Because of my education I've been able to learn critical thinking and can now do work that provides substantive value. Not everyone is this fortunate.
Most people receive lousy education and are not prepared to compete in a global economy. When they are in between jobs, they either cannot afford health insurance or are denied insurance if they really need it. Oil and other natural resource companies are pillaging the earth at an unsustainable rate. Financial institutions are gambling with people's savings and creating boom bust cycles of speculation at the expense of tax payer dollars. The media outlets are consolidated and owned by megacorporations who try to preoccupy us with brainless garbage instead of focusing on the real issues. America's economic power is slowly declining as globalization expands and the top 1% of Americans are ensuring that for us to maintain the American way of life, they should not have to pay an extra cent but instead, the money should come from cutting basic social services to the low and middle classes.
There are a lot of things that are wrong with our government yet we are powerless against the abuse. Our two party system is rigged and no matter who we vote for, real change will not come because of the corrupting influence of money in politics.
These are our just some of our grievances and they are not naive or malinformed. Our congress is broken. They have been unable to pass substantive and much needed legislation for a few decades now because they are in the pocket of the special interests. Have you ever taken a look at the manure that comes out the other end of a legislative session when it lands on the president's desk? Our government is no longer of the people for the people.
Please try to refute this.
Unknown: a little late but I'll try to refute your arguments.
DeleteNobody is denying that there is some sort of broken system in the US that needs to be fixed. But the media is largely liberal--that's the brainless garbage because all points of view are not well represented.
As for your congress comment...it sounds like your main problem is with government. That's also the main problem with these idiotic movements. These movements are protesting the wrong place. Protesting Wall Street and following children to school chanting "follow the children" and scaring them isn't going to do anything. Wall Street is only taking advantage of the loopholes given to them by the government through over regulation. So these people then should be protesting the Senate, the White House, etc in Washington, D.C.
As for your "critical thinking" bit...that starts at the level of the individual, which starts at the home and in grade school. If you hand the kid everything when they start to cry, or when mommy and daddy march into the principal's office declaring that their child is "special" and that the teacher doesn't "understand them", well what is the point of thinking for themselves then? After all, everything will be handed to them when they throw a tantrum. Just like these Occupy people are doing. Because they are of those generations.
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