Forum Post: Late Night/ Early Morning Ramble on Occupy (pt.2)

1. "Go get a (job, worthwhile degree, life, etc.)" : Alright, this is where I get a little personal. Without going into more details than needed (because this is the Internet), I am a couple months away from getting a degree in Business Management with a minor in Chemistry. I was born into a upper-middle class family mainly because my father worked a ton of overtime (over 80 hours a week on a few occasions), my mom has a part-time job that she might lose soon due to public education cuts, and I've worked 3 jobs myself, whenever they were willing to work around my school schedule. Thanks to that hard work, I will have no debt coming out of college. Thanks to that hard work and a dash of luck, I might be getting into a management position in about a year for a highly-profitable technical company. Who knows, maybe in a few years I'll be in the 1%. Point is, I'm certain there are probably thousands out there like me in this movement. They worked, paid their dues, and have solid jobs. This movement isn't about individual people. This is about ALL people. Just because you are successful doesn't mean that you shouldn't help others be. I've seen stories by people against this movement who had it far worse than I and achieved far more, and I applauded them, but always wondered, "Yes, but if you lose it all, do you want to have to fight from that bottom rung again? Do you want your descendants to fight from that bottom rung again?" We have in our hands at this very moment the ability to, as a species, fix so much that is wrong in this society and in this world, if we could just set aside our own struggles for dominance for a short while. Ok, that last bit got a little preachy, feel free to disregard that. What I'm trying to say is that I'm willing to wager (I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not), that these people want to succeed at life, they just need a little boost. I know I had one in the form of my parents, I'm sure many of those against this protest had at least one too, even if they don't recognize it or if it was a small one.

So, those are the main points I've been thinking about, and now I return to my original question: Why not? Why not let them protest? I, for one, do not support them strongly enough to go join the protest at my nearest rally, but I find myself understanding many of their common points and find little reason to oppose them outside of knee-jerk reactions and misplaced fear. There are those in the protest whom I'm sure would go against everything I've asserted above, but in a large enough sampling of this population there will always be those on the extremes. The majority, from what I've seen, make good points and should at least be truly considered. If you disagree with them, discuss it with them and try to see it from their point of view.

Final note: The last sentence goes for those in the protest too. It would probably help the movement more if you engaged in intelligent discussion with those that oppose you, rather than get involved in flamewars or their equivalent. I've seen plenty of supporters do that, and it's turned me off more than anything else I've seen or read. Be polite. Clarify facts. Research their view as well as yours. They might be right, and getting the facts is one of the main goals of this movement, from what I understand. Most of all, if it seems they're trying to aggravate you, remain calm. They're angry because they don't see things the way you do, and attacking them will only close their mind more.

So there you go. I am sorry that this was so long, and I hope that I stated my views clearly. At least I will be able to sleep now. May or may not be back in the future, but feel free to comment and/or ask questions. Hope everyone, and I do mean everyone, has a good day.

Thoughts of a Fool