The Occupy Movement

[sinewav]

teen, you should post your school report.

[Lucifer]

Actually, the Occupy Wall Street movement is kin to the open source movement. We have the same goals: break corporate control over our lives, make our lives better by empowering individuals to do so, etc. We have similar methods: grassroots participation, each giving what they have to give. We have similar philosophies: everybody has certain rights, particularly in regard to their lives and living them their own way.

The OWS movement is all about breaking corporate control over the economy, in particular that 1% of people that control most of the big corporations in the country. All over the country, small businesses are being run out of business (which is nothing new, but the scale at which its happening is) and huge chains are coming into their places. In that environment, you get a situation where most jobs you can get ultimately answer to a very small percentage of the population. So working conditions drop in spite of government regulation, and where are you going to go? When all the jobs are owned by an oligarchy, where do you go to get something better?

You don't.

And then they go and basically **** over the country with their gambling addiction, and still whine for more tax breaks, less unemployment insurance (virtually none), etc. We all get ****** and they continue making money hand over fist.

Yes, sinewav, as a matter of fact, our democracy is at stake here. Corporations control so much of your life, you can't even post a simple status update on facebook without someone who works with you looking at it and judging whether or not to give you a raise/promotion/continuing employment based on it. I've got tons of status updates that would make me un-hirable, except that I've locked the whole world out of my wall. Yeah, there have been some court cases deciding in our favor, but the fight is mostly kept out of the public view.

When corporations exert that much control over our lives, the government is virtually helpless. OWS isn't about demands, it's about getting people to realize how they're being ****** over. It's a revolution.

[Word]

it's not like you're forced to give all your personal info to facebook...and it's not like employing thousands of workers is a bad thing imo.

[Lucifer]

it's not like you're forced to give all your personal info to facebook...and it's not like employing thousands of workers is a bad thing imo.

First: Irrelevant.

Second: We're talking 80% of the workforce employed by the same small 1% of the population. Does that strike you as capitalism?

[Mecca]

I have no problem with people expressing their concerns, or just wanting to be "part of history", or whatever; but if you have food to eat, a roof over your head, and clothes to wear, you're a lot better off than a lot of people.

then there are a bunch of university graduates/students who picked a stupid course and are whining about it not paying off in the end.

I wonder why some students go through their entire undergrad program, and not think about what kind of job they want to get, and the demand for that job (sorry, worded poorly). I feel that some of them just want to study something uncommon so they can say "look at me! I'm different and require some attention!".

[sinewav]

I'm trying to not get upset with some of the past (and future) responses here because I know this forum is populated by a lot of children, most who have never experienced hardship.

... but if you have food to eat, a roof over your head, and clothes to wear, you're a lot better off than a lot of people.

Yes, be happy with what you have. But that doesn't mean get stepped on either. At least here in the US, 1/3 of the population work their asses off to afford low-quality food, unsafe housing, and barely adequate clothing. And they do this living check to check hoping they won't get sick because it will all unravel. Is this the sign of healthy system? No. Should they simply work harder? Can they work harder?

Opportunities just aren't there. Even citizens in the upper tax brackets, those who own successful businesses are in danger of losing entire franchises because a relatively small number of corporations and banks manipulate the government to create laws in their favor and not yours, to steer lucrative contracts to their interests, not yours.

It's not just rich kids and homeless people who are unhappy. I'm neither and I'm unhappy. My friend, the CPA with a MBA in finance who's been making 6 figures at a telecom company for the last dozen years is unhappy. My friends who are successful lawyers, the ones who see bogus legislation pass through our system on a daily basis, are unhappy. We all support the movement and we come from different political ideologies. (It's actually pretty cool we can all agree on it.)

I don't understand the sympathy people against OWS give to corporations and banks who manipulate the system to work against them. There is a lack of honesty that needs to be addressed.

[sinewav]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/high-i ... -mi,26639/

http://www.theonion.com/articles/jar-of ... -nu,26683/

[scene]

Nice, obviously doctored pic, scene. More bigotry from you; shocker.

Unnecessary comment and attack. It was a satirical hyperbole simply. Moving on...

[sinewav]

It was a satirical hyperbole simply.

Certainly didn't look that way.

[Mecca]

...

Of course! There are those who are at the lower end of the spectrum that barely have shelter, food, and clothing; but reminding yourself that there are people who are less fortunate than yourself is a good way to keep things in proper perspective. I am in no way saying that people don't have a right to be unhappy.

[þsy]

At least here in the US, 1/3 of the population work their asses off to afford low-quality food, unsafe housing, and barely adequate clothing.

Not only that, but 1/3 of America's wealth is owned by just 400 people... !

There is no denying that a lot of the Occupy people are there for the wrong reasons, but that is always going to be inevitable. Many who are camping out really believe in a different and better future for us

Check out this camper, for example:


84 year old Dorli Rainey, after being hit with pepper spray during a protest in Seattle. Described as the Occupy 'martyr'

Doesn't it make you feel sick?

[Phytotron]

Teen is full of it. Reverse virtually every claim he made, and you get the truth. Indeed, I would almost suspect he was satirizing right-wing radio.

comparing the Wall Street 'movement' to their fight for democracy is simply insulting to everyone suffering around the world under oppressive learders.

It said inspired by, not compared to. As in, "If they can do that—if they can overthrow repressive, violent dictatorships using predominantly nonviolent, popular means—then surely we can do this!" And in case you didn't notice, they did (and in places like Syria and Yemen, continue to) do a lot of "standing around in a park or in front of a building," as you put it. Remember the occupation of Tahrir Square?

By the way, at the core of the Arab Spring isn't the desire for democracy, but for simple human dignity. Democracy arises from that.

That said, what's at stake, globally, is arguably more significant.

Also, America HAS democracy, but nobody has the brains to run a third party campaign, or support anyone else apart from lobby-representatives. If things are bad enough, you would elect someone else.

You clearly don't know enough about the system over here.

I am simply not sure how the Occupy movement really relates to doing anything about it

Then perhaps you need to learn a little history about social movements.

We're only in the nascent stages here. Talk about the microwave, instant-gratification, short attention span generation. It's only been a month and you kids are already expecting and demanding it be said and done with its accomplishments.

having a stratified population is the natural order of things.

So, you're a believer in social darwinism, then?

And, from the 'random videos' thread: So, you sympathise with UKIP as well?


Note, I oppose both anarchic/corporatist capitalism as well as communism. Concentrated wealth and power is a BAD THING, whatever its domain. As Cicero said, freedom is participation in power. We live in a corporate serfdom, a neo-Gilded Age (v.2.0 in modern parlance, I suppose). What I said about learning some history? Read up on that.


EDIT: Just a little elaboration on the inspiration of the Arab Spring.

[Lucifer]

We live in a corporate serfdom

I've been saying that for years. Nobody listens to me, I'm a crackpot. Great.

[apparition]

I think the ideas that inspired the movement are genuinely relevant, important, and necessary. The bandwagon of followers who are treating this like Occupy Woodstock and the newscasters who are showing me pictures and video of them in order to disinform me are getting on my nerves

[compguygene]

We live in a corporate serfdom

I've been saying that for years. Nobody listens to me, I'm a crackpot. Great.

I have been saying that also.

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.

Anybody else noticed the merge of state and corporate power in the U.S.A.?