Seriously? What in the world are you attempting to accomplish? Have you made any significant progress towards changing anything? How is this going to end? First of all, hell no. This definitely isn’t serious. If it were, we would have seen some progress being made by now. Second, nobody seems to know what your goals are. I don’t even think that you’ve managed to figure it out. As for the third question, see the answer to number one. It hasn’t been serious yet, so no progress. Last but not least, badly. I could be wrong, but I see four possible outcomes, with only one highly unlikely good one.
First outcome: Protesters are eventually broken up and driven away by authorities. Second outcome: Enough of the protesters get bored, start to starve, or are cut off from most conveniences for long enough that they give up. Third outcome: Protesters start responding to violence with violence, and then proceed to get their collective posterior kicked. Fourth outcome: Enough people actually get their crap together that the movement evolves into something worthwhile.
The only reason that Occupy Wall Street(OWS) is even getting attention at this point is because of the violence that’s been surrounding them. As a people, we love violence. It makes for interesting news, and that’s the only reason that people are still watching. Think about it, even the initial interest that the general public showed was spurred by disruptions and arrests during the first staged protests. Protesters have been arrested, pepper sprayed, tear gassed, beaten with batons, and evicted from public areas. People pay attention to these things, but there still hasn’t been a massive public outcry to stop the violence. Yeah, there are plenty of people who have spoken out against it, but not enough. Why? Nobody freaking cares! OWS hasn’t given people enough DIRECTED inspiration, determination, or outright gall to get that kind of support.
Let’s look at the so-called demographic of the OWS protesters. First of all, I haven’t been able to find a consistency between articles about what kind of people are out there. Some articles say that about 70% of the protesters are under age 35, middle class, are mostly white, mostly employed or in school, and don’t identify themselves specifically as democrats or republicans. Others say that there’s a great mix of all ages, races and political views. I’m honestly inclined to believe that most of the protesters are younger, middle class people who are unemployed and have nothing better to do. They don’t even come close to representing the whole of the general public. Just look at their behavior. They run the protests like a bunch of unorganized, sloppy party goers. In one update I even read that they go and celebrate their successes with pizza and dancing. Wow. When in the world did protesting become the equivalent of throwing a massive cookout? And how the hell, if they’re protesting all the time and not working, do they even afford to pay for their use of technology and massive pizza parties?
I do think that it’s interesting that OWS has managed to get last for as long as it has without a leader. In fact, I really like the idea of a movement that’s leaderless. It means that the whole thing can’t be killed by simply crushing it’s head. Unfortunately, it’s really not working out very well. There are plenty of discontented people and more than enough problems that need to be resolved, but there is no guidance to it. I would compare it to having a big pile of construction materials, plenty of workers, all the tools that are needed, solid ground to build on, and not one single, damn architect. If OWS finds a leader that can start building them up, it will be earth shattering. That leader may be targeted and removed, but even if they lay one block of the foundation, other people can step up and take it from there.
Alright, so let’s say that their demographic isn’t really that big an issue, that to succeed they really don’t need a specific lead, and that people should look at what their goals are instead of their behavior. Oh wait, that’s right. They don’t have any. At least not anything specific enough and organized enough to implement. They say that their goal is to end the corruption and negligence of the top 1% of the population and for those people to be held accountable for their past and current actions. That’s great. It’s a wonderful idea, one that a lot of people can agree with. They’ve also failed to implement any type of plan that even remotely accomplishes this. The protesters haven’t set one specific, narrow, achievable goal yet. They need to slowly build up to their main goal through small ones. Right now, it’s either all, or nothing. They’re trying to climb a cliff by running straight up the face of it instead of taking the time to find the handholds they need.
They’ve also managed to screw up their entire main goal COMPLETELY. If OWS really wanted to target the top one percent, and hold them accountable, they’d be called Occupy the Government. Yes, the bankers and the lawyers and big business are the ones who screwed everyone over, but the government let them. The government is the institution that we as a people depend upon to be the guide that keeps our country on track. At some point, probably before most of the protesters were even born, the government freaking derailed. Our country’s leadership is driving us towards a giant inferno of a crash and we’re letting them. Wall Street shouldn’t be the nation’s biggest concern, it should be fixing the government. If our leadership were doing their jobs correctly there would be no Occupy Wall Street. It would have already been fixed, or never been a problem. OWS is claiming that the only solution is world revolution. Go ahead, type “revolution definition” into google. The first result says that revolution is a FORCIBLE overthrow of a government or social order for a new system. OWS lacks the force necessary, and I believe that they’ve started in the wrong place. Government first, then fix whatever problems are left over. I can almost guarantee that Wall Street won’t be one of them.
I admit that initially I thought that OWS was going to be pretty awesome. I thought that maybe it would be the swift kick in the ass that this nation needs. I was wrong. Now I think of OWS as a bunch of idiots who don’t know what their doing and it looks like that’s unlikely to change. For those who jumped on the bandwagon thinking that it was going to turn into a massive world changing juggernaut, jump off now. The driver’s so blitzed he can’t keep it on the road, the navigator doesn’t know how to read a map, and the rest of the crowd has zoned out, swallowed up in the haze of a clambake. Right now, OWS is destined to crash and burn, and I think that it will ultimately do more harm than good to the people that they were trying to help.
So in conclusion… a few brief statements about how Occupy Wall Street can get its shit together: Quit treating protesting like a party, get serious! Find some freaking amazing leaders! Target the system that has the most power to change things first, the government! If you really want revolution, use more force (don’t say that this is unacceptable, there are non-violent ways to show force)! That’s it. Only four basic statements. Do these things, and even I might be tempted to join in.
