Forum Post: Honda and the 99%ers

Fifty years ago, Honda began selling motorcycles in the U.S. People who rode motorcycles back then were seen as leather-clad, reckless, hairy, foul-mouthed slobs who roared around in packs on big noisy Harleys terrorizing motorists and small dogs. Honda wanted to expand the market to more closely align with Asian and European riders who used motorcycles and motorbikes as an inexpensive, fun form of basic transportation. So they created a legendary ad campaign that showed clean cut, well dressed men and women riding Hondas. The tagline said, “You meet the nicest people on a Honda.” They went on to explain how 99% of Honda owners were just ordinary hard working folks looking for an alternative and reliable means of transportation. This, by the way, is how the big bad biker dudes came to call themselves the one-percenters. I was thinking about this while watching and reading about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. The demonstrators, who identify themselves as 99 percenters, seem to have scared the crap out of the one percenters. They are being characterized as noisy, unruly, unwashed, hairy and scary by some in Wall Street, government and the media. The one-percenters are disconcerted by the sight of topless women, odd-ball costumes, bongo drums and ZOMBIES!! (ooooooooh, zommmmbies!) But they seem most baffled by the range of issues being expressed by OWS. They see and hear people with signs chanting about the environment, corporate greed, government corruption and gridlock, income disparity, a lop-sided tax system, powerful lobbyists, unemployment, unaffordable health care insurance, underwater mortgages, foreclosures, shredded safety nets, non-existent energy policy, unpunished abuses by banks, brokers and bureaucrats, union-busting, shrinking savings, poor schools, crummy public transit, falling food standards, crowded prisons, the death penalty, gay bashing, religious bigotry and racism. How can one movement have so many grievances, they ask. They accuse the demonstrators of lacking focus, having no clear agenda except to advance anti-establishment anarchy. The message being missed by the one-percenters is that most Americans have been desperately trying to communicate our view on all these issues for a very, very long time. We have tried to make our feelings known by civil, reasonable, democratic means. But we have gone unheard. Our government doesn’t listen, Wall Street ignores us, corporations treat us as revenue streams instead of as customers (“you’re call is important to us...please hold until you die”), and the media is always chasing the most titillating story in the 24 hour news cycle. Breaking News!! Michael Jackson was a zommmbie. The only avenue left was to take it to the street. In this way, OWS is following in the footsteps of another very successful movement—the Tea Party activists. It may be this fact that scares the one-percenters more than anything else. They have seen just how effective the Tea Party movement has been. What if OWS has similar results—what then? Of course OWS has a long way to go. It needs to pull together many disparate interests into a cohesive organization. It needs to deliver a coherent message. It took some time for the Tea Party to beome a strong brew. So too will Occupy Wall Street. That is what the establishment fears most. The establishment knows that if this organization succeeds even partially as well as the Tea Party, then a major new force will have emerged in American politics. The establishment also knows that this new movement has the potential to far surpass the power and strength of the Tea Party conservatives because it is coming from a much bigger base. Indeed, it even has the potential to incorporate many Tea Party values. Its grass roots are deeper and broader. And its passion is strongest when directed at issues having to do with the economy. America is hurting and the movement has tapped into that pain. It may be an idea whose time has come.

Glenn Ossiander
Pacific Palisades, CA

10/11/2011