Forum Post: So NOW OWS is an enviornmental movement too. One word....INCOHERENT
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 20, 2011, 6:04 p.m. EST by SmallBizGuy
(378)
from Savannah, GA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I saw the headlines (and copy) on the OccupyWallStreet front page. I was in support of this movement (see my previous posts); However, this movement has become ridiculous. First it's OWS against the richest 1%. Then it's OWS against political corruption. Then it's OWS against the NY police....blah...blah...blah. NOW it's OWS against the Spectra Pipeline....OH....and fracking too. This is a movement doomed to fail. With such an incoherent message, no one will be able to support the movement.
If this were a marketing campaign, I would have no idea what product the company was selling.
Yeah, this is, unfortunately, how it goes.
You sign up for one issue, and the next thing you know, you are being sold the whole progressive issue consensus, and people are angrily informing you that there's no way you can be against economic injustice without also supporting transgender rights and nuking the whales.
I've had this experience over and over in my adventures, and it hasn't been easy, because really I'm kinda conservative in many ways.
I'm hoping this doesn't turn out the same way.
why just hope? you make the sign you want to carry, and take inspiration from the spirit and commitment of others
I am the same way. I support Herman Cain's 999 plan; However, I also support gay marriage. My support for the OWS group is strictly based on their enthusiasm, and legitimate concerns. At some point I have to know what they "stand for". At that point, I will determine if I will continue to support them or not. If they never get to "that point", I will be forced to withdraw my support by default.
Ya know what is sad? That is how much is WRONG with America!
Some people like things to be over simplified. You can't pigeonhole 99%
I agree with the original poster. Personally I am against fracking, however it is a heavily polarized issue. This movement is supposed to be about encouraging cooperation and productive discussion by the majority of Americans in the middle.
Once the movement starts choosing sides on political issues it will die out. We are all angry at the 1%. For me 1% isn't about wealth or income. It is about the 1% of political extremists that are preventing the rest of us from having a rational discussion
Well said.
but we arent selling anything. this movement is large enough to encompass the concerns of all of us, and as we work on the issues which we find most important to us, we will all find that we are working toward a common future .. i don't know how else to put it, but apathy and cynicism never solved anything
There is no need for a coherent message, atm. The movement is evolutionary and growing. The movement has already demonstrated two very important things. The first is that Americans of all walks of life can unify around ending Corporate corruption, Wall Street criminality and joblessness. Name one other movement where a Jewish MBA, like me, would be found talking to radical left wing Liberals, Republicans, professors, teachers, Union members, soldiers, police, even racists, sexists, anti-Semites and anything and everything in between?
All these different kinds of Americans, many ordinarily hostile to one another, drawn to this movement, to this unofficial website, if not a part of OWS, at least utterly transfixed by it. Even the people this movement rejects, like the racists, the sexist and the anti-Semites are magnetized. Megan Kelly disagrees with me? Well the Baghdad Bob of Fox News can say what she wants, but there is no skirt short enough to distract the elite from the fact that the most unlikely and motley crew, perhaps ever assembled, in the USA, has lasted a month. This movement lasted one month and it can last one million months, just taking things one day at a time.
The second big accomplishment is that the OWS movement has created uncertainty. The Executives are hiring additional security because they are scared of the unknown. Behind closed doors, big business is chatting, wondering, pondering, what will this movement turn into?What will it do? What can it accomplish? How will it affect their monopoly on power? For the first time, in a very long time, the Elite of the USA don't have it all figured out and wrapped up in a Globalist bow.
I think you are a bit puffed up with illusions of importance. In my paper today the only news about the protests was about the protest organizers suggesting sexual assault victims not go to the authorities. I haven't seen one article in the paper other than that in days. Your incoherent mish-mash of messages is already rending you irrelevant. I seriously doubt big business gives you more than a passing thought.
A newspaper, owned by a Global Corporation, did not publicize that the corruption and criminality of the elite of the United States is being challenged by an enduring grassroots movement, attracting disparate members of US Society, unified in ending Corporate corruption, Wall Street criminality and mass joblessness? To think that a voice box of the established order will not play a part in the peaceful dismantling of the established order....[smile]
lol. Whatever. Pick a direction. Choose a cause. Otherwise it is nothing more than a bunch of self-righteous, overly serious blowhards engaging in mutual mental masterbation. You have a bit of power now. Use it for something. Don't let it slip away in a haze of happy talk without a plan. This movement could be important but I predict come winter it will end up just another left wing web site.
The overly serious blowhards would be the Execs and I-Bankers, now hiding behind paramilitary security personnel and police barricades. Can you believe that they thought they were going to be masters of a, "New World Order," a "New Normal," where they would be the rulers of a boarder-less empire, held together by I -Banks, $4000 a hour prostitutes and bad haircuts? A rule, by a few I-Bankers and Corporate Execs, over the whole of the World.Talk about overly serious blowhards and illusions of importance! Sheesh...
The problem with this movement's inability to articulate a direction is it reminds me so much of that Ten Years After song that goes "I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do, so I'll leave it up to you". If you recall, the same sort of amorphous movement back then resulted in 5 out of 6 of the next presidents being republican and foisted Nixon upon us. Do better this time. It is within your grasp. Don't let it slip away.
Consider that our Government will only really entertain lawful, reasonable, actionable requests, that will legitimately advance a constructive National interest or economic concern. They will also want to balance some things. For one thing, the political elite will want to ensure that there is little in the way of change in the make up of the political elite. Now, what really drives the protest movements interest in the power inequality? It is the stark, substantial and utter scarcity of career opportunities and the scarcity of resources. Now, is the US Government really going to let Wall Street and Corporate America destroy the USA, to make a quick buck and to turn China into a Super Power? No. Will the Government,as the protest movement grows, just mow everyone down and ensure that no one around the World moves to a sick-o country that would shoot its population? No. Will the US Government just let this movement continue to create mass ambiguity, as to the impact of it and its potential avenues of evolution? No.
In all likelihood, the US Government will realize that this is really not about power inequality, this is about people perceiving power inequality, in a time of tremendous scarcity. The Government will move to take action and will, through a combination of public and private initiatives, start to put to work, the two most highly educated and or skilled generations, this country has produced, in her entire history. The ideas of the movement will be reduced to but the minimum necessary to restore confidence and get people happy again. When will this happen?
Once the critical point is reached and the people are stirred up enough, the protest is big enough and angry enough, there will be massive investment in diverse commercial enterprise development and there will be high paying career creation. This Nation is not Egypt, not the Soviet Union and not the British Empire. This is the USA and we still have everything we need to be a domesticated, happy Super Power. This is ultimately what the US Government will pursue and what will emerge; a happy Super Power. We will be a Super Power that is finally, truly, a part of a Global economy, not merely torn apart by a Global economy.
Please leave Megan out of it. I like her short skirts. Oops...I digress.
I will agree that the movement has "ruffled" some feathers....and brought together an odd group of "bed fellows". That's probably why I find this whole movement fascinating. I have only posted 3 posts to my Facebook page in over 2 years. I have posted about 50 (maybe more) posts here. This place beats the shit out of Facebook.
Oh, believe me, she is a smart woman, an attorney and she is a stunning beauty, so it is very hard for me to dislike her. I would set you up with my cousin, if she were single, since she is a dead ringer for Megan Kelly. If she breaks up, I will send you an email! Thank you for cheering me up with the light humor about the skirt. I needed it! Best regards, MJ
Thanks for the thought on your cousin; However, I am very happily married with 3 kids and 5 dogs (all mutts from the Humane Society)....but....I do have some good buddies that I will forward the email to (with your permission...of course)
A great good, since you sound like a fine gentleman and I am sure that is true of the company you keep. Thank you for being a proper family man too, btw. Our Nation needs population growth, if we are to attract the investment, we will need. Oddly enough, of all the things an MBA can and can not do, to help shareholders, it is population growth, more so than anything else that impacts my ability to optimize shareholder value, over the long haul. Part of my future salary should probably go to you and your wife, for creating three wonderful children. I hope you don't tell that to the hippies or they will start to get ideas about my future paychecks! [Wink] Thank you again for cheering me up. With high regard, MJ
It's being sabotaged by those who want it shut down. Any idea who would do such a thing?
It ain't Muammar Qaddafi.....for sure.
Good one.
we are fighting for survival in a system at says that the basic needs of survival are but base desire to be sold. and lets not forget that money and objects are more important to them than our survival as a speices as a whole.
Patience. Patience. This will evolve into something unlike you've ever experienced. No one knows where this will go. It's only in its infancy.
Winter is coming. I am afraid that the bitter cold weather will set-in before reality does. I am a realist. The weather is going to cause a breakup of the physical crowd. I hope that it doesn't breakup the movement. One main "central" theme had better rise quickly. At this point, I have no idea what I am supporting.
don't worry, many of us are planning to occupy in shifts through the winter, remember valley forge
I don't "personally" remember Valley Forge (I'm old...but, not that old) LOL. I do get your point.
We have to keep the movement alive here and all around the world online. This is too big and has been building up steam for too long. I don't think it will diminish.
I think the central theme is clear. "They" - the politicians and corporate America - need to change and change fast, because we will be a force to reckon with for a long time. I don't know what will happen, but I know it will happen! :)
That's what I am afraid of.....that this movement will loose it's roots (Wall Street & Political Greed), and end up another arm of the Democrats. I know everyone, in the OWS movement, wants to think that they are all independent...but...I am beginning to question that NOW. This wasn't the case originally.
I am going to have to "pull back" a little, and see what happens.
We just have to hope that doesn't happen. If it does - oh well, it was worth a try! What we can't do is allow this unfair economic system to continue unabated.
Something good will come of this movement. Who knows....it may even end up creating several specialized movements. Either way, the politicians are taking notice...and "no comfort" in the movement. That's a good thing.