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I'm far removed from any OWS activities where I live, but I've been asking folks I know across the country about the Occupy movement in their areas occasionally since it all began.
The comments that I get from them is pretty much the same stuff I'm reading here. It's mostly a lot of confusion about what the movement is all about. I think that's natural, especially right now, when everything is seen in such stark and divisive terms so much.
But from the few friends of mine that have been out on the streets, talking to the people first hand, the reports are different from those who have just viewed it from afar. There seems to be a non-partisan element to their protest- they don't care which party says what, they just want jobs and more equality between the working folks and the ultra rich. Some of them just want their houses back. Others want their pensions back, and some want all of it.
The groups can vary a lot, from what I've gathered- some mostly consist of blue collar workers, who are married and older, some are mostly college kids who feel like they've been conned into believing a degree will land them a good job, and down in the Tampa area, a buddy there said most of the bunch were older folks who were worried about their IRA's and other benefits.
I'm a history buff. It has been over 80 years since America has seen movements like this. The Occupy movement is actually the real old-style way we used to protest, starting way back in the early 1800's with the Whiskey Rebellion. The most recent was the Veteran's occupation of the Mall in Washington D.C. in 1932, when Congress reneged on paying the vets of World War I the bonus they promised when the vets enlisted for the war. That camp-out lasted for many months, and finally ended only when Gen. McArthur was ordered to break it up. He got it done with bayonets and bulldozers, and it played a big part in Hoover's defeat in the '34 election.
It looks to me that the current tactics won't last. But that's not to say other tactics won't be tried. The Arab Spring showed that a day-long gathering in the streets, week after week, worked. Military intervention just brought out larger crowds. I can see something like this happening all winter long, and I can see a lot of unemployed vets joining in eventually.
Party promises and rhetoric aren't going to change these guys. Only action will do, and I think that the various goals that are vague right now could sharpen and narrow in focus.
If the movement hangs together until spring, I think it's a real possibility that Tea Partiers who feel like they've been sold down the river by their outfit may be joining them. For sure, it's not all kids, hippies, and left-wingers. Anyone who has lost their job or whose job is threatened could become a member. Anyone who is having problems getting their mortgage adjusted or is about to lose their home could become a member.
The movement could morph into something very different from what it is now on Wall Street. This is already the case in cities where it is just starting, and for sure, the movement is still spreading country-wide. Each place could have a different bunch of folks, with many different demands coming from all over.
Who knows for certain? We all think everything changes fast these days, but that's not true. Few of us are as prepared for a long slog like our ancestors were, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. There is nothing that says it will go on just as it is, either- we could see entirely different actions taking place as things develop. The Viet Nam protests were like that- they were all different, and the movement wasn't any more organized than this one.
But from the few friends of mine that have been out on the streets, talking to the people first hand, the reports are different from those who have just viewed it from afar. There seems to be a non-partisan element to their protest- they don't care which party says what, they just want jobs and more equality between the working folks and the ultra rich. Some of them just want their houses back. Others want their pensions back, and some want all of it.
If that is what they want they should go and start their own businesses and pay their own employees whatever they wish.
I can't believe the egos on these people. To think they should tell my employer what to pay me. That's my business and my employer's. If I don't like it I can rectify the situation myself. Trashing some parks and talking economic nonsense will not get me a raise.
What gets me about their gimme gimme I want free education is that they see so little of themselves that they dont trust enough in themselves to make the educational investment to themselves. Already says they are high risk. To make money you need to spend money & invest in future.
No, it won't. You're wrong. If OWS was not having an positive impact in terms of directing the focus of attention on to the people and corporations who are robbing us blind, the "authorities" would not be cracking down on them and forcing them to leave their areas of protest.
When are you guys going to get it that you will never be part of the 1% and that eventually the hard times are going to affect you, too. You do not live in a vacuum. You cannot maintain your "wealth" all by yourself. Eventually, the negative economy is going to touch you too. And those richest 1% will not give you the time of day. They will be protected in their compounds in this country and throughout the world. What happens when the company you work for is gone and what happens when the public does not have money to buy your products and/or services because all the money has shifted to the top 1%?
Sure they will. They'll give you the time of day. What you need to ask yourself is if you're going to make yourself reliant on them? Are you going to continue to buy their products and hand your money to them hand over fist.
As it sits, you (the public) have been handing your money over to them hand over fist and then you turn around and complain because they have piles and piles of cash.
They are cementing the opinion that many people have of Liberals. Unfocused, unkempt, ill mannered, illogical, rude and destructive.
They are the heart of the liberal left.Obama has said that they are the reason he ran for office. So, disrupt, break and burn things and create widespread chaos seem to be the focal point of the agenda.
If they can come full circle with the Saul Alinsky process of anarchism and follow the Cloward/Piven strategy of collapsing the economy in order to rebuild it (two theories Obama believes in strongly), they believe that they will be able to reorganize society in a liberal socialistic order controlled at all levels by government.
While they have no clearly stated direction, the leftists in the media like to spin it as being angry with Wall Street power and corruption. However when it comes to the power and corruption within the government they have no complaint. Silence speaks volumes. So I would assume that insider trading by elected representatives is OK. Yet, somehow the guys they are trading with are bad.
The argument doesn't square when the side they support can break the rules with immunity.
Which is the reason for the OWS movement, "the public" is making a statement and "the public" is tired of it. Have you seen the movie "Inside Job"? OWS movement has urged local buying, etc., and changing bank accounts from big banks to credit unions and small local banks.
This small percentage doesn't speak for the rest of the public. They aren't spokesmen and women for the 99% regardless of the nonsense they spew.
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