I am quite surprised at the sustaining power of the Occupy Wall Street movement. After being a small part of the sputtering, then dwindling, anti-war movement during the Bush II years, and after watching in astonishment as the whole world seemed ready to deify Barack Obama, I honestly didn’t think America had enough awareness and spunk to maintain this kind of challenge to the staus quo. Granted, I’m not quite sure what it is that everyone expects, or why some of those people are even there. And, given my own political leanings, I probably disagree with the ultimate aims of many of them. However, I not only support their right to protest, I hope and even feel optimistic that they might actually accomplish some real positive changes. Finally it seems the people have some sort of voice.
I consider myself a traditional capitalist. However, the economic system we have in the US is far from capitalistic. And it’s not so much the taxes and regulations that hinder. It’s the cronyism, the Mercantilsim, the corporate/congressional alliance that turns it into the nasty monster we call capitalism in the US. So, really, who can blame the occupiers? Who can blame any of us? For some 30 +/- years now Americans have been using 401K plans for retirement savings, which has resulted in a tremendous increase in stock market participation. The result has been a boom in legalized gambling with other people’s money. Then, when the proverbial stuff hit the fan, the gamblers got the government to bail them out–with other people’s money. But since that time the only people who seem to have benefited from the bailout were the bankers themselves. All the other people (the rest of us) have been screwed. So, what does that say about our social-economic-governmental system? It sound a lot like National Socialism to me. And it stinks.
I don’t read newspapers or watch broadcast news anymore. And I surely don’t listen to AM talk radio, but I expect by now the fat cats have gotten their conservative supporters in the media to balkanize this thing, to turn it into an ‘us against them’, to vilify the dirty hippies clogging up progress. At the same time, I see Barack Obama has already tried to claim the movement as his own by promising to erase student debt (another stupid idea that needs an entry all its own). But in the meantime, the occupiers have support from recent war vets and militia members, which really puts an interesting twist to this movement. They are starting to look like us, maybe because they are us, or at least they are representing us. This thing may turn stupid and or ugly before it’s over. Only time will tell. Hopefully it will not only bring about change, but will be the beginning of a new era of empowerment. One can only hope. Now, how is that for hope and change you can believe in?
