Forum Post: What We Have Learned So Far

The Wall Street Occupation has revealed a most fundamental reality…you can only oppress people so far and then all hell breaks loose. More than two hundred cities are now “occupied” in the U.S. and all over the globe. The implications are huge. At home Americans are finally awakened to the reality that the rich and privileged are now powerful enough to undermine democracy, destroy the environment, and control the resources and wealth of the planet with no regard for what’s really good or makes sense. Corporate priorities are all about profiteering, controlling consumers and manipulating “public opinion.” And just when it looked like there was no opposition anymore to this global corporate takeover, a phenomenon of epic implication has arisen. The 99% of the human race has a new voice, a new reason to protest and a bold, fresh reassessment of what can and should happen from here on out. Our common humanity is demanding (with one voice) a new agenda…a new sense that populism, democracy and the common good are inexorably able to redefine history…and that wars of occupation and “nation building” will be forever exposed as a waste of wealth, manpower, and insane political reasoning. Like the war on drugs, which has failed on all counts to either control use or prevent distribution, we just don’t want to spend our time and resources on failed policies that produce only more misery, poverty and despotic regimes. Billions of human beings have real needs that need to be met every day…the Occupy Wall Street Movement evokes a new and progressive direction and a new, vibrant hope that it ain’t over til it’s over.

S.R. Lavin