The View From Occupy

I went to an Occupy movement this weekend. I can’t speak for the movements in other places, but the people I saw were not primarily the homeless (who are sometimes discarded mental patients or troubled veterans—a whole other issue—in addition to the millions displaced by corporate neo-feudalism) or the supposed “weirdos” that the corporatized media seems to try to find to “represent” the movement. What I found were pretty articulate citizens—of all ages—with social consciences disturbed to a point of protest. They are upset and want change in a system they see as sick and corrupted to its core. Their immediate goal is not anything specific or short-term (and so not potentially easily twistable or bought off, and in any case, it’s not as if our forefathers drew up a Constitution before they started protesting the British). Their general goal is to first raise awareness, to get the majority that are in denial or delusion to wake up to the reality of the common plight of the 99%. Sure, they have all sorts of various things they want to see: community gardens and filling unused space with food growing; health care that does not focus on pills, surgery, or chemical cell killing; more of communities and mutual support and less of stressful individualism; placing relationships ahead of other things in life; more social justice and less consumerism and materialism; universal right of non-violent assembly; rescinding laws that are restricting the middle class in so many things; re-implementation of Glass-Steagall; more regulators of Wall Street; repeal of Citizens United; returning corporations to mere business entities with little or no legal exclusions or influence over politics; stopping endless outsourcing and bringing back jobs to America instead, etc., just to name a few that I wrote down. And they consider Democrats PART of the problem. They are also aware of how they are perceived. A middle-aged fellow was holding up a sign that said “Took a bath, got a job, still pissed”—an obviously reply to the right-wing talk radio jab.

With middle class wages stagnant or falling for so long, and with jobs outlook so bleak, they want people to see that more of the past 30-40 years is only going to drag us into the abyss. If tax cuts for the rich are the path to prosperity, why hasn’t it happened? Because “tax cuts bring prosperity” is an ideological mantra, a continuous brainwashing barrage that our very own eyes and experiences show us is not true—actually worse than that, it has had the opposite effect. The Occupy protesters just want us to disconnect from the dysfunctionality of it all.

Yes, yes, I know, it's more complicated than just that. One piece at a time.