I\u2019ve been thinking about the \u201cOccupy Wall Street\u201d movement a lot over the last few months, watching how things played out. I\u2019ve been particularly interested since the movement was happening a scant 30 miles to my east (not quite \u201cin my backyard,\u201d but close enough).<\/p>\n
At first it started with curiosity \u2013 “will this movement grow large enough to get any attention?” But then it moved to sympathy and finally to understanding.<\/p>\n
I watched as TV and Internet news outlets complained that Occupy Wall Street had no \u201cclear message\u201d or \u201cdemands,\u201d and at first I wondered if this really was a problem \u2013 but then I realized that the people complaining about \u201cno message\u201d were completely missing the point.<\/strong><\/p>\n The message of Occupy Wall Street isn\u2019t going to be found on any sign, or really in anything that any one person says. Instead, the message is the fact that the movement exists at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n That a very large group of people have managed to organize mass protests \u2013 both here in New York City as well as around the world \u2013 is more of a message than any sign, banner, or chant you might hear at any one particular movement site.<\/p>\n These people \u2013 the ordinary, everyday people who showed up to the Occupy movement for days or even weeks and months \u2013 are very, very, very<\/em> frustrated and angry. They are protesting like this because they think this is their only choice, the only option they have left, since all of the more normal and regular options one might use (voting, writing to Congress, etc.) have proven to be ineffective. More specifically, the other options these people have to express and influence social\/political ideas have not just become ineffective, they have been totally subverted<\/em>.<\/p>\n To many of these people, the current political climate must feel like a bad dream, one of those awful nightmares where you are in trouble and screaming for help but your voice isn\u2019t working and no one can hear you.<\/p>\n This is why they\u2019ve turned to protests like this. This is what I think Occupy Wall Street is all about. The many different things you\u2019ll see on protest signs & so forth at any given \u201cOccupy\u201d movement site are just the symptoms of a bigger underlying problem. It\u2019s not the things themselves, but the fact that these things were allowed to happen that is the problem. It\u2019s the disconnect between ordinary people (e.g., the middle class) and politics that is the problem.<\/p>\n So if you\u2019re a politician looking for some \u201caction items\u201d to take away from the Occupy Wall Street protests, let me offer this: listen<\/strong> to your constituents \u2013 I mean really<\/em> listen \u2013 and remember that laws need to not just be<\/em> fair, they need to feel<\/em> fair \u2013 because when they aren\u2019t, people really<\/em> get mad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thinking about what the “Occupy Wall Street” movement REALLY means… at least, in my opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,2],"tags":[304,100,392],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-opinion","category-politics","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-opinion","tag-society","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-Yi","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3182,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2010\/10\/16\/traveling-around-the-southeast\/","url_meta":{"origin":3738,"position":0},"title":"Traveling around the Southeast","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Not as photogenic as the southwest, but still pretty fun!","rel":"","context":"In "My Life"","block_context":{"text":"My Life","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/my-life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"mother alligator","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4090\/5062889043_ef82919144.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":882,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/05\/08\/street-fighter-the-later-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":3738,"position":1},"title":"Street Fighter: The Later Years","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 8, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Some folks got together and made these videos of the Street Fighter characters as if they were out of work years after their games were popular.","rel":"","context":"In "fun stuff"","block_context":{"text":"fun stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3364,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2011\/02\/16\/confusion-misunderstandings-and-net-neutrality\/","url_meta":{"origin":3738,"position":2},"title":"Confusion, Misunderstandings, and Net Neutrality","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Trying to clear up some of the confusion and common misunderstandings regarding the concept commonly named as \"Net Neutrality.\"","rel":"","context":"In "Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Internet","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/technology\/internet-technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":510,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/31\/the-downing-street-memo\/","url_meta":{"origin":3738,"position":3},"title":"The Downing Street Memo","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently this is being kept out of the mainstream media - and that in itself is disturbing. I wonder what the truth of all this is? It certainly does not look good, at least not for Bush & Co.","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1016,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/01\/03\/long-term-away-messages\/","url_meta":{"origin":3738,"position":4},"title":"Long-term Away Messages","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, I've started using Instant Messaging software again after a long hiatus. I stopped using it (for a variety of reasons) shortly after I left college (back in 2001). Now that I'm back \"on IM,\" there's some things I've noticed \u2013 some of which I used to do myself, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Rants"","block_context":{"text":"Rants","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/rants\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":889,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/05\/28\/a-long-time-ago-in-a-dorm-room-far-far-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":3738,"position":5},"title":"A Long Time Ago, in a Dorm Room Far, Far Away…","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Lately I've \"re-discovered\" a lot of old photos I had squirreled away on my hard drive from long, long before I started organizing them in any sensible manner.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}