Forum Post: OWS Pigeon holed into Class Warfare-Help REDIRECT our attention
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 23, 2011, 4 p.m. EST by amethystestark
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While I'm not occupying in my city, I have been helping from the side lines, spreading the word, sending food and clothing, etc.
I live in a conversative household and we have been having many debates and discussions about the developing movement. I have a great concern that only those of you occupying can help solve.
They are calling us whiny, entitled spoiled children. They are saying we can socialists or communists-that we have a robin hood syndrome. The 99-to-1 is a statistic and symbol. Class Warfare begins at the top with a small percentage holding power, pushing the rest of the population further down into poverty.
I feel the OWS protests need to stay somewhat more focused on the fact that "our" government has taken our tax dollars to bail out their friends (in a supposed free market economy) ---meanwhile, they're STILL cutting our jobs, forcing us into unemployment and "our" government is cutting our social workers, our teachers, closing our state parks, infrustructures in small towns are beginning to crumble. Our youth is being told the only success is through college-and they do as they're told but find they're also unemployed and in great debt immediately into adult life.
The problem is the most powerful in our nation takes and takes and gives to the corporation leaving our small businesses to collapse. The small businesses that made this country to begin with.
We need to RE-focus on the GOVERNMENT cutting our needs in favor of the wealthy corporations. And if those corporations fail-it's their own fault in a free market!
"Our youth is being told the only success is through college-and they do as they're told but find they're also unemployed and in great debt immediately into adult life."
Touche. In fact, we might have had these protests sooner if America's young people weren't deferred into 4-8+ years of uselessly sitting in colleges chasing economically worthless degrees.
Higher education has become nothing more than a racket. It's basically a giant student loan harvesting operation, and college administrators are feeding off this system like fat cats. Increasingly, more and more people who work for colleges are newly created administrative positions who don't teach... don't type... and don't clean the toilets. This is what you're throwing your money at.
"Education is everything," goes the cry. So America's young people have been brainwashed and fed into this debt hopper like so many cattle going off to slaughter. It's not like you actually learn anything at college that you can't learn by reading books or being intellectually inquisitive. The higher ed administrators are desperate to keep up this gravy train and who benefits? The banks (and the higher ed administrators, of course). Who pays? The students. Forever (with non dischargeable loans).
You're so right. And now you hear politicians saying things like 'well we need the people to do the lower work' but meanwhile they're constantly feeding us "Live the american dream! Go to college and we'll all be ceo's!" And Trust me I have been totally brain washed by the master status of going to college. I'm 28 years old, $50,000 in debt already and BACK in school on scholarships because there is some itching need that I have to do this.
Your conservative family is toeing the party line. Not all conservatives make personal assumptions about the character of those with opposing view points, assuming them whiny and spoiled, nor about demographics, assuming them children, without bothering to check, but most do. Odd, since last I looked the whiny spoiled children they're talking about includes grandmothers, soldiers, housewives, construction workers, priests, and a whole lot of folks (along with the college students I assume the reference is about, who will be paying off loans for 10 to 20 years at least for the privilege of being spoiled).
They really have their heads up their asses, my apologies to speak that way about your family, but, considering they don't need to know much to give their opinions, guess they'll need to live with mine.
Why should we change for them exactly? Have you seen the nut jobs they and their ilk are trying to put at the helm of our ship? Their opinion is as consequential as a fart, yeah it stinks like some more useful gasses, but ultimately it's hot air and ain't gonna sell.
Great points Panda. Actually my family tends to be in favor of what occupy is trying to do but I hear them echoing the sentiments you mentioned. It isn't that they agree but they are telling me what they hear. I have to remind them often that people of all ages are protesting. I become worried that these conservative outlets are going to divide the nation even more with false reporting when really even conservative citizens would likely agree with OWS and could build power in numbers. I feel both medias are trying to divide all of us- the conservative saying you are with us or against and the liberal media trying to claim the movement. I really don't want to see it happen when we are all in this together.
That's why I think transparency in all areas of the public sphere and meant to serve the public interest is something we the people need to insist on, either as a natural extension of the current protests, or as the next issue on the agenda once some of the unfair practices and rigged playing fields at the root of the economic crisis have been attended to and once the money influence has been removed from the political process.
I am a big believer in the concept of the open marketplace of ideas-- when we have an engaged public with access to non-deceptive and transparent media coverage of events and ideas, fair and simplified access to the information, events, and elected officials of all three branches of the government, and finally transparency and fair access in the election process....Then the best ideas on all sides can duke it out on individual merit instead of each citizen being required to accept an entire narrow ideology in order to support an idea. I feel that party affiliation and narrow ideologies act like locks and chains that keep us from deciding what the best ideas from all players are, and that keep them from even having a chance to gain broad support.
When we can all bring our tastiest ideas to the kitchen and put together what works for us all buffet style instead of having a menu shoved in our hands and being told it's chicken or fish, what a feast we shall share together!! Until then, I guess individuals like us must create what limited transparency we can, encouraging the people we know on both sides of the aisle to recognize and begin with those commonalities we share until we can create a system that's fair and open to all participants.
You can't think of this movement or the problems we are trying to fix from a political party stand point. Political parties of today are just another example of how the government has taken what our founding fathers created and twisted it for there own gain. Its one of the many ways that our government keeps us divided and blind to what they are doing. We would be much better off without Political parties. It would stop us from fighting against one another so we can come together and fight against the real enemy.
As the old saying goes: "United we stand, divided we fall."
It's both. It's an unholy alliance of mega-corps, banking & govt, colluding to give benefits to the top 1% while the rest of us go hungry/fend for ourselves/lack representation in govt.
I'd say read Matt Taibbi's articles at RollingStone.com, he focuses on some very concrete issues of fraud & govt/banking collusion.
See this post too, looks like some good videos here:
http://occupywallst.org/forum/why-occupy-wall-street-vids-from-as-far-back-as-20/
Thanks for the links!