Forum Post: The Educate Occupy! Protestors Movement : To Improve All Protestor's Ability To Present Their Arguments Eloquently And Back Up Their Statements Factually

First, I am so very proud of everyone here on the Forum, at Zuccotti Park, Occupy Movements all over the world, and all human beings who are finding their way to push for a world free of domination by the power-obsessed and corrupt (often this means wealthy people, but let's not forget those middlemen/women who pander to the corrupt, nor the wealthy who do give a damn).

Now, on to the point of my post.

I avidly listen to Podcasts. As I am going about my day, doing errands and whathaveyou, I always have earbuds plugged into my canals, eagerly absorbing as much information as I can from the exceptional assortment of educational & informative Podcasts I listen to.

Some of my favorite Podcasts are : " Democracy Now! " (Amy Goodman ftw!), " APM's Marketplace " (Economics and World Politics blended together to make a smooth half hour of seeing the indivisible connections between money and global decision making), "APM's Freakonomics " (funny first, with thought provoking a close second. Economic theory applied to understanding almost anything), BBC Podcasts, CBC Podcasts, Best Of The Left (EPIC remix of commentary from Liberal media across the progressive spectrum), KCRW's Left, Right, and Center (3 respected journalists, 3 political orientations, 30 minutes of excellent insights into different points of view), KQED's Forum (the host, Michael Krasny, does an amazing job of bringing in experts from all sorts of fields to have a discussion, a forum if you will, about topics right out of the headlines).

I could go on, but this is a good, representative sample.

Occupy Wall Street comes up in these Podcasts ALL THE TIME! What does this mean? The movement has started the conversation and everyone's talking about it. Again, way to go guys/girls for all your efforts! Way to go everyone who is doing their thing, even if it's just thinking hard, to contribute to making the world a place where everyone is living a safe, respectful, comfortable life.

Now, what do I mean by education?

I'll give you an example. I was listening to KQED's Forum, in particular Friday Oct 21st's episode about Tax Reform. You've all heard about Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, and Perry's Flat Tax, and Obama's Tax on the Wealthy, and Occupy's Robin Hood tax on financial transactions. This Podcast discussed, in good detail, the gyst of all these tax approaches. When the show arrived to the call-in segment, many callers raised questions with a definite Occupy "feel" to them : that is, the callers wanted to know if these tax plans would change the wealthy on top, poor on bottom society we live in, or just continue to perpetuate the domination. I appreciated the caller's intentions, BUT, unfortunately, they worded their questions in a very pedestrian way, with effectively no examples, no research, no statistics, no clear proposals for improvements. I would like to propose that the callers, myself, and everyone in general, NEEDS, to become more educated about the workings of our world.

We're doing really well. We, the ones who want a world of peace, love, and equality for everyone. We're going to succeed, but, let's keep getting better. We all need to educate ourselves more about how this, admittedly, still very sick, and perverse world works. So, that we can more effectively fix it.

Having a general idea what you want is good, but, as any builder will tell you (whether a builder of structures, or societies) after the Eureka! moment of vision, details are needed to figure out how to put the vision together.

Those "details" come from education. By our needs, our details are an excellent understanding of :

• Economics
• Politics
• History
• The Military Industrial Complex (sigh...a sad subject, but if we don't understand it well, we can't dismantle it)
• Foreign Policy
• and other stuff I haven't thought of...truthfully speaking, all knowledge has its important place in being an empowered citizen of the world.

And so, in summary : I would encourage everyone to listen to educational and informative Podcasts (I use the Podkast Ap for Android on my HTC Desire). There is a LOT of great media out there sharing a balanced, thoughtful perspective on this world closing in on a healthy human existence.

I will post more in this thread forthcoming.