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[FyreWulff]

Compete lack of leadership and nobody's willingness to truly sacrifice their comfort.

 

[The Horror the horror]

I believe it failed because the type of institutional change they were demanding has never happened in this country without the use of violence or the threat of force. The kids were soft as hell, believing their empty screams and friendly protests alone were enough to shake the foundation of financial institutions. Money talks; bullshit walks. You want a revolution; you want to rise against your masters? You better be willing to pick up the pitchfork and bleed for this type of cause, because your targets happen to be the people who run shit; otherwise, clear the streets and sidewalks for those people who are actually trying to make a difference in their lives.

 

[Mecha]

Aung San Suu Kyi?


I want to believe in peaceful change. I think the wests problem is that too many people are spell-bound and addicted to their comfortable lives to really do something. The average person is totally de-synthesized. "privileged" to the point where they cannot understand how good they have it compared to many other places in the world. Many people are not engaged in the political process. This causes bad things to happen, and here we are. Being led by a lot of greedy and corrupt politicians who are in it for power and money.

The Burmese government out of no known reason made the country a democracy, but they also rigged the system to allow themselves to have an upper hand. Aung San Suu Kyi can't become president thanks to the constitution, and the old military dictatorship still has overreaching power. Logically the old dictatorship wouldn't just step down, I have a feeling this whole election is a facade.

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

If you think OWS unreservedly "failed," you must have missed the degree to which it has changed political rhetoric and even policy prescriptions in recent years. The language of "the 1%" and "the 99%" is everywhere now, and even Republican presidential candidates are squabbling over how best to placate voters furious over systemic inequalities — even if their analysis and prescriptions are batshit.

Yep.

The idea that the whole thing was a failure is coming from the people who want everyone to think it was a failure. It's really disappointing reading this thread and realizing it worked.

 

[apocalidiot]

I believe it failed because the type of institutional change they were demanding has never happened in this country without the use of violence or the threat of force. The kids were soft as hell, believing their empty screams and friendly protests alone were enough to shake the foundation of financial institutions. Money talks; bullshit walks. You want a revolution; you want to rise against your masters? You better be willing to pick up the pitchfork and bleed for this type of cause, because your targets happen to be the people who run shit; otherwise, clear the streets and sidewalks for those people who are actually trying to make a difference in their lives.

This post makes me uncomfortable. Especially the last sentence. Give me a fucking break dude

 

[sphagnum]

So much for standing up against a corrupt establishment that ruined a nation then.
"We are here! We are angry! But we also of course wanna respect the local laws given by a police force who have over the recent years shown signs of corruption so lets keep it down a notch okay?" Not that it seemed to make any difference, they were creating just as much noise through their drum circles and human microphone as one guy with a megaphone would.

I agree. They were not radical enough.

 

[thiscoldblack]

Because people weren't actually willing to lose anything.

.

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

If you think OWS unreservedly "failed," you must have missed the degree to which it has changed political rhetoric and even policy prescriptions in recent years. The language of "the 1%" and "the 99%" is everywhere now, and even Republican presidential candidates are squabbling over how best to placate voters furious over systemic inequalities — even if their analysis and prescriptions are batshit.

So politicians are giving lip service? Yeah, that sounds like an unmitigated success.

 

[Acerac]

Did it fail, or was it crushed? I see a lot of blame placed on the movement itself, but not much on the massive state and corporate crackdown. There were over 7000 arrests.

From a Naomi Wolf article:

This seems like it may have had some effect on the movement...

...

Nah, the failure of the movement was entirely the kids' fault.

 

[NimbusD]

Yep.

The idea that the whole thing was a failure is coming from the people who want everyone to think it was a failure. It's really disappointing reading this thread and realizing it worked.

Seriously, this post confuses me. What would have been 'winning' for OWS? Having an OWS based person in congress or the white house?

Does anyone remember ever even saying '1%' in regards to the people who own all the wealth in this country before OWS? I doubt it, since not a whole lot of people were talking about it.

Obviously people will, and do, have whatever view they want negative or positive of the OWS protests, but they can't factually say they didn't help steer the political narrative in this country.

 

[TwoDurans]

I lived down by Wall Street during OWA (Rector and Broadway if anyone's curious) and I can tell you two things killed this movement. Apathy and Cold.

There were nightly marches at 5pm that while inconvenient, didn't do anything. The folks that worked at the big firms watched from their balconies. I took side streets to get home so I could skip it. They were a nuisance, but not enough to actually get what they wanted. No one cared that a bunch of hippies were blocking a road for a half hour.

That particular winter was one of the worst on record. Every night it got down to the teens, and there was nearly a foot of snow at one point. No tent in the world can protect you from that, and eventually even the most dedicated OWA member left to keep from... well dying.

 

[Zophar]

Pro-weed, Fed-conspiracy libertarians got in and drowned the movement in their iedological idiocy.