Forum Post: Sell it to me.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 14, 2011, 11:08 a.m. EST by TheSouthAfricanGinger
(2)
from Roodepoort, GP
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I cant see how you want change if you dont even have any demands set in stone. Sell this movement to me, because I dont see the point.
Speculators on Wall Street cause food and fuel prices to fluctuate impacting the poor and middle class.
Corporations use lobbyists to influence our political system to their benefit and to the detriment of the freedoms of individual citizens and to create virtual monopolies making true competition impossible.
Financial institutions use deceitful and amoral practices to make profits and swindle people out of their money.
Our government spends billions on warfare and the military, yet our people struggle to get the basic necessities of survival, first and foremost perhaps being affordable health care.
Our criminal justice system imprisons a greater percentage of the population for NON-VIOLENT offenses than any industrialized nation in the world.
The wealth divide is widening so that the poor are becoming poorer, the rich are becoming rich and the middle class is disappearing, yet certain members of Congress continue to refuse to fairly tax the rich for the profits they've made while benefiting from our laws, our infrastructure, our protections and our economic system as a whole.
Drug companies block the use of generic drugs that would be more affordable and keep a strangle hold on patents that would allow other companies to make desperately needed medications.
International trade agreements prevent our own government from taking the necessary steps to revitalize our manufacturing industry and create jobs here while destroying industries in places like Mexico where their agricultural sector could not compete with our subsidized corn.
Now, what part of that do you not get?
Read the declaration if you want an idea of it all.If you want to know the root of it all ask the descendants of the Rothschild family.
These are all valid points. I can't say any of you are wrong in any way, but I assume that you all are from the States. And the movement did wash over to the South African shores. And over here corruption is a God given right, so to speak. You will not turn on the tv or radio and not hear about corruption every single day. My main concern about this movement is that it doesnt work in situations. For me personally, if you are able to use the Internet, then you are part of the one percent. Not because everyone who has access and the education to use the internet are corrupt and greedy, but it is because you have access and the education to use mediums like the internet. So you have the money to afford the education and the technology. Some thing that is not wide spread over here. Here we struggle with education, housing, basic services and tons of stuff. And blaming big corporate's for everything surely cant be right same as we over here cant say that all our ministers are corrupt.
My point is why not instead of picketing out side at Liberty Square, for a political party. become the driving force inside government.
Am I wrong in thinking like that?
I won't lie to you: the movement, right now, is still newborn. The specific demands and the underlying philosophy have not yet been clarified.
Even though I can't speak for the movement as a whole, I will tell you what I think is the point.
The point is that the world is increasingly adopting the profit motive as its only priority - at the expense of all other priorities. Even - and most dangerously - at the highest levels of government, there is no concern for anything but profit. There is no concern for human suffering, for environmental damage, for moral or ethical behavior, for justice or peace; everything is being subjugated to profit.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the profit motive. But there is something deeply wrong with it being the only motive.
We are at the point where the profit motive has suborned our governmental structure - now only those who champion profit-at-any-cost have a voice in our government. I will not speak for anyone else, but I vehemently reject this. I consider it an injustice. I consider it destructive.
The foundation - in fact, the raison d'etre - of a representative democracy is to give proportional voice to all the people who are governed by the system. This foundation has been eroded. The proof is in this movement - not only in its numbers within America, but also in its global appeal. The problem is we feel we have no voice. The problem is we are being governed by a system that demands we prioritize profit at any cost, and we reject this. We reject it, but our government does not. Therefore, our government does not represent us. If representing its people is the foundation of our government, then in its current state it has lost legitimacy. We want to restore it, by restoring the government to the people, by breaking the monopoly on power, governance, and rule of law that is currently held by the profit motive.
This problem is not localized. There is a generation - across the world - that rejects this. I don't want to "sell" you anything, but I want to ask if you see the same thing I see. What you decide to accept and to reject, to work for or to fight against, is up to you.
Once we make solid demands we're pigeon-holed and ignored by the media. The main point is this: we're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
Nobody's oblivious to the issues of inequity, and the complete corruption of what's become an unrepresentative government, that spawned this movement. Some may pretend they are, but the nation gets it.
This is a mass vote of no confidence in our leadership and our system as it currently stands.
The "point", if indeed there is one - a somewhat questionable proposition in itself - is for there to be a more reasonable, more fair, more equitable distribution of the national wealth to all levels and members of society.
I think in a nutshell that would best articulate the various positions.
There can't really be from that position many other elements "set in stone", because there is no agreement on how to achieve that basic goal. This is the start of a collective public conversation on the problem, not advocating any particular solution(s), I think.
This
http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resources/collapsenet-public-access/item/4392-we-are-legion
See, again Anonymous is thrown in front of me. And its just not enough. Why not become the so called 1% and influence the other "1%" to change to 2% and then that 2% to 4% and that 4% to 8%... Why protest and go stand on the grass rather than working from the inside out. If this "1%" control the universe, like some "activists" think, what's stopping them from shooting everyone els down? You can stand and shout at a rock as much as you want but it wont get up and break a window by it self. You have to pick it up and use a little power.
I see Anonymous as just another group in support of the OWS movement. They may have their own ideas as a whole, but they also agree with OWS's ideals.
I really like your analogy and agree with it wholeheartedly. As of now, I see the growing protest as the country building up this "power". And it would be long before we have enough of it to throw this rock and make a revolutionary change.