And a short musical inspiration if you choose: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Wos-dDxpJlQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I don't think they're just protesting the banks, there's a lot of clowns down there but the whole system appears to be the object of most peoples protest - as well it should. We have a culture/system in which power has aggregated at the top, thanks to many things (globalization, tax cuts, etc) and in which those at the top have set up a system in which only monied interests determine the winners (themselves) and the losers (everybody else)....it's heads I win, tails-you-lose, encapsulated perfectly by the metaphorical wall street and its magic finance factory of the last 25 years which found a way to pay itself vast sums of money for services of questionable value, in the paradoxical name of "efficiency". Occupy Wall Street is a bit of a misnomer, it should really be occupy Wall Street, (or really Park Avenue, where finance actually is...), K-Street, Koch Industries, ADM, City of London, ECB, Coca Cola, Great Hall of the "People" etc etc etc.
I agree. But protesting Wall St isn't going to change anything. The system is what is broken. It's like protesting burglars asking them to stop, when it is the idle cops just watching and not doing their jobs that they should be protesting. The burglars are just going to sit there and laugh. The only place to change the system is Washington.
Pretty much. People who take the words "Wall Street" literally and think that the protesters are only bothering with banks and financial institutions located at Wall Street are misunderstanding what this is all about. Hell, "Wall Street" isn't even located at Wall Street any more. I keep on hearing some people saying that "OWS shouldn't attack banks because Fannie Mae, Federal Government, universities, etc. are also ****ed up." My response: OK, assuming this is true, (1) it doesn't mean banks/financial institutions are not ****ed up or woth protesting, and (2) why don't you go do something about these other things that bother you... nobody is stopping you from occupying whatever it is that bugs you or take whatever action that you deem appropriate.
And there are protesters in Washington, too, and plenty of people working on other avenues of change (electoral, legislative, judicial, etc.). I don't see having some folks hang out in Zucotti Park prevents the other stuff being done.
They can protest there, sure. All I am saying is, some of the things coming out of OWS, their "talking points", are misguided. I'd be on board with the "other avenues of change".
The pressure has to be everywhere, over a long time. It's only 'mass' of the masses that counters the concentrated power of money/lawyers/ad agencies/PAC's/and their politicians. And clowns are an essential part of any show. Le Cirque has all these amazing people that can do things you can't believe, but the clowns pace the show for two hours. Occupiers aren't "half-naked Communists aiming to bring down the American economic system." This isn't the "Project Mayhem" of Chuck Palahniuk novels -- we're talking about a movement that's spurring people to move their money from "too big to fail" banks into credit unions. That's not exactly "smash the system." That's more like a group of people seeking out a means to maximize their power within the system, or using consumer choice to preserve, enhance and improve the best parts of the system. As Matt Taibbi notes in a fitting companion piece to Kristof's, "These people aren't protesting money. They're not protesting banking. They're protesting corruption on Wall Street." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/occupy-wall-street-isnt-h_n_1035988.html
Financial institutions, and everyone else operating under the system, are all out to make the best of what they can under the established system. The fact that those with means can actual change the system to their favor is a fundamental flaw in the system itself. Changing this can only happen where the law is written. You can protests the robbers all you want for them to stop robbing you, it will be a waste of time. You need to be protesting the law that allows them to rob you in the first place. Because like most people who are not on the streets protesting, even though I know there are fundamental problems with the country, there is someone stopping me: my boss, at my job. So since there is already a mob out there seeking change, I'd rather they direct it at the source of the problem, so that there might actually be a chance of a resolution, instead of wasting the opportunity of this movement.
what are your symptoms? i'm assuming dizziness and tinnitus? here's something i read recently that might provide some hope for the latter: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-tinnitus-discovery-ways.html
Thanks bud, I'm all over this... way informed. It's just not well understood and the symptoms could be from basically anything, including that time in 1971 when I took LSD and drove from Carlsbad Caverns to Hoover Dam all night in headphones with a repeating cassette of Rio Grande Mudd. Steroids! Give a dead man enough of them and he will walk again.
Here's the thing: It is unreasistic to expect every damn hippy at OWS to be a policy wonk and conduct sophisticated analysis of the problem. Would be cool if they could do that, but, until that happens, I prefer having somewha misguided protesters to no protesters. Misguided protesters => conversation about employment, income mobility/distribution, etc. No protesters => political conversation dominated by Koch Bros. bull ****.
If Obama isn't re-elected, America is doomed. Just when I thought the GOP agenda couldn't become more radical, they go an one up themselves. http://www.cnbc.com/id/45063296
Come on, Dakota. Are you joking. They are not protesting rich people. They think rich people should pay the percentage of taxes they paid in the bad old days before 1980. More importantly they believe that rich people especially bankers and Wall Street types should not be allowed to control politicians to the point where they change the laws, make the financial system unstable, force millions to lose their homes and pensions and 401(k) and then be made whole by the government with tax payer money from the folks they ruined.
These folks have done more to change the narrative than hundreds of left wing policy wonks with the fledging left wing media outlets contested by hundreds of right wing policy wonks backed by Fox and the powerful right wing echo chamber. This is not a time to nitpick if you care about actual policy changes to help the 99%. Eventually specifics will emerge and the policy wonks can battle it out-- hopefully without 100 to 1 money bet against any changes that would redistribute money and political power back to the lower 99% even to the extent we had it in the 1960's or 70's.
