Forum Post: Summarize What Occupy Is All About
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 9, 2011, 12:01 a.m. EST by tackyjan
(46)
from San Diego, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Can someone please summarize what the objectives are with OccupyWallStreet in a few short sentences. Thank you!
The following is my opinion. The only thing that unites Occupiers is that they agree that corporate greed and the excesses of Wall St are bad. The Occupation movement is non-partisan. There are republicans, democrats, independents and people who have never voted. I have met all of these at my local Occupation movement, although a sizeable majority, at this point, anyway, could be described as democrats, even if they have never voted or are registered independents. Mostly people are angry. Lots of people are angry about corporations and Wall St, andeveryone I've met is also angry that our political leaders aren't doing what they are supposed to be doing - that the corporations give them money and the politicians create laws that favor whoever gave them money. Now, most of the Occupiers feel that we should all unite around these common grievances & express our anger non-violently as the 99% (who are basically being screwed). This group feels that it is our job to identify the problem and it is the government's job to look at various solutions, debate and compromise and come up with a way to fix it. A sizeable minority feels differently - that we should develop demands - and happily, they know exactly what those demands should be (but each person's is slightly-or not so slightly-different.) I myself fall in the first group. I see little benefit in making demands--that would just give the media, the politicians, the trolls a sound bite. They already try to define us as "the democratic tea party", and get really frustrated when they find out that the Occupation rejects that label (as well it should with republicans in the movement. Sorry this is so long. No sound bites from me either, I guess. I encourage you to find an Occupation near you and just go and talk to people.
Easiest answer that I have found to work for everyone.
It's about DEMOCRACY. It's about the WE THE PEOPLE, not THEY THE CORPORATIONS. It's about people who are tired of the lies and greed and corruption.
Why is there no leadership? why do we not make demands? If we had a leader, we could be corrupted. How can we have demands when we're not all here yet?
To me, everyone seems quite organized, and so long as the big media never understands what is actually happening, they will never... NEVER be able to mount a reasonable offensive. It's why they resort to name calling and sad mockery.
From the assemblies I've watched online and attended, I see democracy at its finest. Actual people participating in their communities again. Instead of shutting in and watching the next big tv farce, people are out helping each other and working to better their community.
Most important of all, I see democracy being brought to our people using NON VIOLENCE and TALKING instead of tanks and bombs.
Occupy Wall Street seems to be a convention of American people who are upset with the situation that Corporations, the 1% of the richest people in America, and the Government has put the nation in.
On the other side, it seems to be a congregation of people just hanging out and complaining without an actual focus.
I got into 100k in debt for majoring in something useless, now I can't find a job so please bail me out,
I made a bunch of bad deals that caused the american economy to take a dump and now our banks are going to fail, now I won't be able to sail my Yacht through this river of pure money so please bail me out. ^^^ this is what you sound like.
.......for ultra rich folk who are screwing us to quit being assholes, and show a little compassion to their fellow human.
1.) National Wi-Fi (Access to information, it will also circulate the millions paid for the service into the economy.) 2.) Green Energy, Water and Resource Act. ( Aimed at reducing water, and electricity bills to Free. A one time product purchase to power houses ) 3.) High Speed Rail System (To connect the cities and create jobs) 4.) Technology Grant (For every person over 18 only redeemable to purchase computer device made by an American company) 5.) Electric Car Act (Mass production of a single electric car standard) Model T... 6.) Land Act. (Owner laws of unoccupied land must be examined in aim of selling land to people for reasonable prices to develop green communities that grow their own food) 7.) Wholistic Healthcare Reform Act (approach medicine from all angles including preventive and natural remedies while also focusing on reducing cost. ) 8.) Education Reform (School Age Change, Three Year Old Pre K Four Year Old School Age. Early Focus on Math and Sciences.) 9.) Small Business Investment Act (Give small business a chance to rebuild the nation, big business has seemed to fail) 10.) Increase In Global PR (Let us stop spending more money on war than we do on humanitarian campaigns)
Here is a list of demands that will change our economy, our lives, and the world. More details into these Acts and demands coming soon but for now this is what we need, not what we want.
sounds like a x-mas wish list, why not demand for our freedom back instead of depending on them to make the changes we so desperately need
getting freedom back
Occupy Wall Street is about repealing the Bush-era Tax Cuts for the rich.
It is about repealing the law that allows businesses to contribute to political campaigns as if they were people.
It is finally about making lobbying an illegal activity.
That's it. We'll tackle everything else later.
This might be something you might want to share with others after watching it.....A PETE MCGRAIN FILM IN ASSOCIATION WITH MEDIA FOR ACTION: Hosted by WOODY HARRELSON This powerful documentary examines the flaws in our systems, the mechanisms that work against Democracy, the environment, and society as a whole: From conflicts of interest in politics, the abuses of corporate power, to a news media that serves the interests of the few, leading to the destruction of our ecosystems, over consumption and warfare. This controversial documentary is in post production. Watch it free online here: http://www.ethosthemovie.com/filmdownload.html
Actually, I just finished watching it. I followed a link from one of your previous posts.
I found it interesting. I'll have to watch it again to get a better sense of it because I was in and out of paying attention, having been absorbed by other things.
Did you work on the film personally?
I did not work on the film but Pete Mc Grain is someone I know, I like him and I feel that the work he has done might give people some clarity of thought as to "The Terror of the Situation" for the 99% And facts they can use to counter the arguments of those that support the corporate greed that cares nothing about them. Also help form actions that can give Power to the People
Thanks to you then for spreading the word. I think it's paid off (certainly you caught my attention, and I can't be the only one).
Keep on fighting!
sure. we are asking for an end to corporate oligarchy and for the start of a genuine, rational, ethical, free market system inside of a genuine democracy.
to get serious requires a few things they don't have. like chat admins who aren't ego serving propaganda tools, a wiki, 1001 sub forums, an actual game plan, a straight up political platform... you know.. basic organizational things sane people do BEFORE protesting.. like figure out a diplomacy and logic centered metaprocess to give their chatadmins so that they don't really just drive out even more people than the trolls. Adminatrolla. trollaAdmin. Whats the difference to somebody whos got the truth facing a propaganda tool abusing admin powers to push their agenda? how can you prevent such a thing? Metaprocess. did i mention metaprocess? and science diplomacy science psychology science sociology and all those textbooks to read B4 protesting?
you can't have capitalism without a free(SLAVE) market. but you can have a free market without capitalism. And thats strangely the only way it CAN work.
Marketing 101 was fascinating. I admit thats a lot less than a bachelors but its sure more than enough to see whats really going on given the other things I know. Capitalism is not the problem since it does not exist. corporate oligarchy is the problem. capitalism has never been tried. I am a democracy guy. in order for real democracy to function a free market system is required. Thats not capitalism. thats a free market system. there is a subtle difference there which most people would miss. I will again repeat. Neither capitalism nor marxism nor communism nor socialism has ever existed. All of those governments were oligarchy pretending to be something as a con scam. Telling that simple truth gets one banned out of the Chat by either a capitalist or a socialist whos pissed you just said their pet ideology isn't real. It isn't. anybody who thinks that it is is accidentally playing for team corporate oligarchy as a tool. the ONLY system worth talking about is DEMOCRACY. how democracy HANDLES a FREE MARKET system is dynamic and interesting and NOT capitalism.
o. yes. no. yes. what? making change is not reliant on changing the money system one tenth as much as it is on changing the informational ecology. Going to a gold standard as an idea is a proof of ignorance, not a solution. Really the end game is we evolve out of money. To do that we evolve first new currencies and new economic strategies. this leads to economic singularity in about 50 years. If everyone is a millionaire how much you get depends on exactly the material valuation of that money. Which is to say that by the time money becomes obsolete everyone will live like the current millionaire. Tangible items to other tangible items? the real economy is about ideas, change the ideas and everything changes. the problem with the tangible economy is it does not change; its a static reality. you can't make a meaningful gold standard with only enough gold to represent on millionth of the economy. You can make a purely imaginal money system work; but it has to be subject to moral and ethical laws. This is about pinning down those moral and ethical laws and implementing them in new currencies; not trying to imagine a control freak impossible non solution because of the simplicity with which you go about thinking over the problem.
once again. there has never been a socialist or capitalist economy. in all instances such nations were oligarchies. using a mask and a con scam and telling their dupes and pwns that they were something other than oligarchy. the big hump to get over is that the USA oligarchy and the Soviet oligarchy are in on this lie against the rest of us TOGETHER. Neither of them was ever anything other than an oligarchy. both claimed some other system in order to have US fight over the ideals of THAT system while they secretly shafted us all playing a completely different game.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/stop-playing-the-devils-games/
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150343790359248&set=a.10150264906064248.348293.511989247&type=1&theater
Sorry bud I don't think you're going to get a reply, or at least one which is rational. But thanks for asking, I was just wondering the same question.