I've been reading tons of links off of occupy's reddit page. Lots of it seems pretty hyperbolic to me, but I really am questioning some of the things I thought I knew at this point. Here is an article that I found particularly hyperbolic but has caused me to question myself the most. I'd appreciate it if some people could read it (it's long) and discuss some of the material within it.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/?p=25234
You're right, it IS long. And while it goes on tangents and plays the blame game, it ultimately says the same thing:
We as a species perpetuate our society in all aspects and in all ways. Young adults and the elderly both see the same thing from different aspects, which explains why they are the loudest and most consistent supporters.
The elderly look at the world today and think "this isn't what I wanted when I embraced capitalism, this isn't what I was promised would happen to the world I left for the generations after me, this is fucking terrible".
And young adults are going "my parents made it sound like all you needed was to get an education and get a job and life would be your oyster... what a load of bullshit, I'm fighting for minimum wage jobs with people in university!"
It's that generation in between that got everything they ever wanted from society that have all the shit to say about how useless and tiresome the Occupy Movement is, the same generation that currently holds all the keys to power.
Yes, baby boomers, I'm taking a shit all over you right now.
But how can you blame them? From how they were raised to their current place in the world, it really IS theirs. Why would they have any reason to doubt that things will work out for them? They've been fed their free-market-or-bust pablum since birth.
The Occupy Movement and how it's structured is flawed. As is some of the ideas within it (that corporations, banks and government are ruining the world, etc.) are flawed as well.
We haven't been deceived, the information was right there for anyone to plainly see. We may be "numb" as the writer suggests, but it's no one's fault but
OURS.
If you don't like the way things are, don't rabble about it in angry finger-pointing protests while openly supporting what you hate... change yourself to reflect your beliefs.
Think banks are greedy motherfuckers? Don't use one. Credit unions are a good in-between solution, but I'm actually going back to a money-under-mattress solution. Money in banks and credit unions is money in the investment ecosystem which fuels the banks. Even credit unions invest your money into businesses that benefit the big banks. If I don't like how banks do business, instead of hating them, just stop giving them what they want - nay, what they NEED - to survive: MONEY.
Think corporations are ruining the world with pollution and wasteful behavior and a callous disregard for workers and the society they provide to? Re-think what you spend your money on recreationally and for necessity. I've stopped buying clothes, I have enough already. My toiletries (shampoo, toothpaste, etc) are all produced naturally and without by-products. No more cigarettes and booze, because they support the idea that business can separate itself from moral responsibility to society. I'm not buying games that don't offer full digital distribution (why the hell do we still need discs other than to placate retailers with better sales margins than console sales offer?)... so the next run of consoles better give me that option in lieu of a disc... if I even BUY any of the new consoles that are sure to come out in the next few years. No more new gadgets until something breaks completely. I don't need the newest and greatest thing, and when I bought my most recent computer, I bought it with longevity in mind, not just what I need right now at the cheapest price only to be rid of it later. Very simple things. And as many have pointed out, people in the Occupy movement sometimes fall into supporting these "evil" corporations that they lambast. Because we're indoctrinated into that type of culture. If you don't like what they're doing, don't give in to conspicuous consumption. Simple. Don't rant about it to Wall Street men who don't care what you say... they only care what you buy. And what you don't.
Don't like what government is doing? Vote for a 3rd-party. What the rest of the country you're in does is irrelevant. For Americans, we can now see that neither Democrats or Republicans want to change anything about the way the world works now, they just work within it ever so slightly different. For Canadians, neither Liberals or Conservatives really want to change things either, so stop making it a back-and-forth between them; let's see what an NDP government looks like, and if they don't want to change things, either, then find a different party to vote for. Partisanship is poison and just shows government that society WANTS the status quo, just merely in different varieties and shades of it.
You can never expect things to be better when we unknowingly feed into a broken system. So don't hate the people running the system as it is... your votes and your dollars gave them the impression that business as usual is A-OK. So no more protests, just be
conscious.
