Forum Post: This Must Be Our Objective

The following must become the clear, prime objective of this movement, and it must become so, quickly. Historically, ages similar to the one in which we're currently living have produced either extremely positive cultural innovation, or sweeping social oppression. (I am a student of Dr. Eugen Weber. He is now deceased, but his recorded history lectures remain.) OWS has the upper hand for the moment, but vacillation will ruin this momentum. And soon.

There is one issue which will coalesce the 99%, and one issue only, and that is the immediate creation of a banking alternative. Completely side-stepping the banks, making them utterly irrelevant is the ONLY thing which will stabilize the infrastructure of this movement, and will actually culminate in the creation of a financial force powerful enough to dominate the banking industry. We will never change the banking culture. That is an absurd premise. (ex: could they make me wear khaki and listen to Pat Boone? Fuck no. So why would they change for us? Won't happen. Ever. Never.) They must be replaced. This is our one chance. they know it. It's right under our and their noses. We have it! They see it. And they believe that we never will.

It's right there in our name. Occupy Wall Street. So we must occupy it. Not the street, I mean, yeah, that, but not just that, much, much more than that. Occupy the global meaning of Wall Street. It is OUR tiny little checking accounts which they rely upon. Feed upon. Fatten their personal accounts upon. And we are sitting in one place with all the talent we need to begin a public banking system.

Look, free commerce is good. But not ALL free commerce is good. To be able to start a business selling or trading a good thing for the time spent gathering the materials and the value added by talent or ingenuity is awesome. But fair is fair and there comes a point where taking advantage becomes a culture, and we have crossed that line many many decades ago.

History shows us that it takes a long time for public movements to reach a nothing-more-to-lose motivational point, and the VERY REAL point which is CRITICAL to remember is that we are placing the private banking system into a corner. Power structures throughout history have taken unexpected and overwhelming action to destroy movements, their leaders, and the safety of their individual members, thereby eliminating them. WE, the very 99%, are their only power. WE have THEM where WE want THEM.

I am James Pitt. My mother's parents both died by the time she was four. She came from a "good family", with an inheritance, but was raided and broke by the time she was sixteen, and eventually raised three kids with nothing but love and our Rambler. She scrubbed floors on her knees in the sixties to feed us. I am now 48, an actor, and actually make a decent living in Hollywood. I sat on a plane yesterday beside a banker who smugly told me that banking will never be replaced because the depositors will never have the personal motivation to realize they can go elsewhere, and that the banks will always loan them their own money, and the depositors will pay them handsomely for the "privilege". Sitting there in her Lazy-boy seat, eating her free bowtie pasta. If there weren't 250 people behind her on that plane sitting on the seating equivalent of planks and paying $10 for a sandwich, she wouldn't even have a plane on which to arrogantly insult them.

Well Ms. Banker? I'M motivated. And I realize what I can do. And I KNOW who you are. And I am the 99%.

Please. All we have to do is replace the banking system. LISTEN TO ME: THAT'S ALL WE HAVE TO DO. Jobs, healthcare, the lower-class's dependency upon the military for education, WILL ALL FALL IN PLACE AFTER WE TURN ON THE LIGHT.

I am not capable of designing the First Free Bank (That's what I think it should be called.), I know my limitations and have other gifts, but there are people among us who are good with accounting practices and can handle this. And we shuld start very small with just a few people who can deposit amounts small enough that we can lose it a few times as we learn to stabilize it. But we already have the beginnings. We will have all the control! We can do anything!

Please. please listen to me. We can do this. We ALREADY KIND OF ARE! Let's just take it all the way.

Don't change banking.

Replace it.

Dude, just like the iPhone, everybody will want it, because it will be better, and they will leave the bankers, and they will simply disappear, weakened and made defunct, like an atrophied limb. And we will all own it.

Ooo! Or maybe "iBank"!! Do it! LET'S DO IT!! We MUST do it! WE CAN!!!!

If this moment passes, we will have had it right in our hands all along.

-James Pitt

(Sorry for all the caps. But please, someone listen to me.)