On the third Saturday in September, the Occupy Wall Street movement began in Zuccotti Park in New York City. The basic goal was to, via mass protests, bring attention and hopefully fundamental change to how the financial industry, with its political mistresses of all ideological stripes does business.
The protests grew over the coming weeks, with some impressive numbers in various marches/encampments all around the Country. There's also been some participation in several cities around the world. The abuses of Wall Street and the buffoonish behavior of politicians and Presidents in dealing with said abuses leaves many of us feeling exploited, wronged and to some degree, generally screwed over.
The growing income disparity is real, not imagined and should be a topic for serious discussion and policy work.
The core issues are worthy of serious thought. The organisation or lack of it with these protests are leading to its failure. The sideshows of civil disobedience, outright law breaking and anti-social behavior are hurting the Occupy cause much more than helping it. All Occupy encampments should close up shop immediately, clean up your areas to match or exceed how they looked before you took those spaces over. While I certainly don't believe everything I see or read about the off the chain behavior of a few whack-jobs, someone in this movement needs to realize your message has been tainted terribly by the images and reports regarding many of these Occupy sites.
I say scrap the occupation mentality totally and come back next time with something a little smarter, a little more reasonable and a lot more accessible for most Americans to understand, support and condone.
Want to know why the Tea Party protests have been mostly without controversy and arrests? (No, its not Fox News and the Koch Brothers.) Its because, perhaps because of the ages involved, the Tea Party people didn't "take over" anything or anyplace for more than a few hours at a time. Usually, they left it looking in terrific shape. While I disagree with their politics, you can't blow that off as the wrong way to handle things. They were organised, they were civil, they were responsible, etc. I'm pretty sure if they'd misbehaved the way so many have at these Occupy locations, it would have been all over the "lame stream, liberal media," right? There were a few incidences here and there, but nothing approaching the levels we see with Occupy.
I think most people in mainstream America think the Occupiers are mostly young people in their 20's, hippies, vagrants, some union activists and troublemakers. While not fully or even mostly accurate, I think its what a lot of people think. You have to own that, too. Its a shame really, because if you'd not taken this approach, but perhaps something less invasive, I think the message would've resonated much more effectively.
It doesn't do the movement any good if people think those people behind the movement are the undersirables. Perception in this case isn't really reality, but for a lot of folks, it is. Most people aren't going to investigate to see for themselves. They're going to watch a 5 minute clip on the TV each night and make their opinions from that.
As I said, the cause and goals are very worthy. The tactics and strategies employed so far are creating a dangerous diversion to securing credibility and progress on the issues that need to be addressed. My progressive friends may feel I've assumed a traitorous stance, but I have not. I want there to be change at the intersection of politics and Wall Street. This just isn't how I feel it should be pursued.
Clean up, go home and figure out a different tact to use. You'll probably get one more kick at the can, but it better be a different looking, sounding and behaving effort. If it is, you may get the traction you want and need with mainstream America. If it isn't, you'll be written off as a bunch of whiny clowns.
Seems...... well.... reasonable
ReplyDelete