It must be said that you don’t see these folks toting guns. And you don’t see race-baiting or talk about Jews and ovens or faces of Obama superimposed on fascist uniforms. There are no screaming claims of sodomy or socialism or jokes about Obama rhyming with Osama or pokes at having Hussein as a middle name. There was a sign that read “Not So Fast You Greedy Bastards” which I suppose has an air of meanness about it. Still, this isn’t a movement rooted in hatred.
It’s a movement built of people who are just tired of the way the game is rigged for those at the top, and they are trying to say they’ve had enough.
I confess, I’m an engineer, and I see the world in terms of well defined problems to be solved by specific solutions. And so my instinct is to wonder where the problem definitions are. Where are the proposed solutions? What are their demands?
But to ask those questions is to get ahead of where we really need to be. The first step is admitting you have a problem. And this is my take on what to make of all of this. We have a very big problem, and we have to admit it before we can do anything about it.
This, as I see it, is why the Occupy movement is important. Before we argue about specific demands, before we craft specific legislation, before we call for specific regulations, before all that, we need to see into the heart of this broken wreck.
occupyaustin frames the problem like this:
1. Our democracy is broken. Corporate influence in the guise of corporate personhood and the role of lobbying and money our political process is stifling the voice of the people. This movement is about democracy.
2. Our economy is broken. Four words: too big to fail. This movement is about economic security.
3. There are no consequences for financial recklessness. There need to be repercussions for corporations and financial institutions who bring this nation to its knees. This movement is about corporate responsibility.
4. The rich get richer while the gilded age returns. Corporations and the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes. This movement is about financial fairness.
occupygeorge frames the problem like this:
These are broad terms that can pull together many people. The 99%. With a critical mass of people behind an acknowledgment like this of the problems our system faces, perhaps then the elite and powerful can turn their attention to steering a system that runs consistently with the principles our republic was founded on.
Clearly if they don’t get slapped in the face with the farce that is the current game, they don’t plan to do anything other than what they have been doing all along.
Occupy is that slap.