So Occupy Wall Street has protesters marching Wall Street, which have since launched similar Occupy protests all around the globe (except in countries where protests are illegal). Originally, the protest was about citizens in outrage of "the man" and the 1% (of the general population) rich corporate giants who were squandering tax dollars from them. It also attracted a bunch of minority and extremist groups which briefly turned Occupy into an antiestablishmentarianistic protest. Although, now the Occupy protest is now mainly about its original purpose, and have One Demand... well, a list of One Demands.
While the protest itself is organized, the purpose is not. I don't see the effectiveness of these protests. Usually effective protests include some sort of boycott or some sort of aggression against, in this case, the banks. Instead, protesters are being just as effective as being outdoor campers. It is as if they think that just their presence against corporations, whose goal is to make money even if it meant ruining the economy and other peoples' lives, will somehow have a change of heart and then... do what?
There is one thing Occupy has shown, and that is all over the world people are angry. Yes, they are angry, but what do they expect to come out of their anger? Every protester clearly hates the current financial system, but they have different opinions on what should be done or what should be changed.
Even if Occupy "wins" protesting against corporations, what are they going to do? Magically throw their money at everyone? An instant change in economical and political structure to a utopia? These protests can last forever, but unless they specify what they really want changed these protests are in a stalemate of pointlessness caused by themselves.
The "establishment" can't figure out what will make Occupy to go away either. Since Occupy is at the moment feeling like a "raising awareness" campaign, there is no ultimatum for either side to follow through, there is no quick ending to the Occupy protests. I don't see how Occupy, with this level of organization and widespread influence that has somehow formed in the early stages, is going to fade out anytime soon. Maybe everyone will get bored after a few months, or the economy somehow picks itself up, like a miracle. And miracles don't make themselves.
The way I see it, the US economy is heading towards a steep cliff where it will collapse, if people keep thinking we can sustain this current level of consumerism anytime longer. The occupy protests will keep going aimlessly until someone wants someone dead.
What do you think the outcome of the Occupy saga will be?
6 comments:
Minus the organization of the protestors I agree, I honestly don’t know where the future of this movement is going. Causes are clear—massive stimulus bills and the Obamacare leading to TEA party party demonstrations, but I’m starting to think that the protesters are more about the protest than about actually getting results; in fact in many aspects I see it as nothing more than a bunch of alternative groups, each advocating for their own problems—only without specificity or common theme. If I were them, I’d focus on what I want fixed and the precise solutions instead of the “Occupy,” occupying various places is not going to solve anything if there aren’t solutions.
In my opinion, I do not necessarily think that the protest is aimless, but on the contrary it can cause people to realize how everybody else is feeling about the economy and can encourage more action to fix the problems. The protest is just a backlash against the rich and the big companies that people feel are getting all the benefits and have not been affected at all by the economy plight. I understand that there are mad and want some change, but they should organize efficiently in order to get their demands meet. I don’t blame them protesting if after all it does seem like the rich is only getting richer and the poor is not getting anywhere.
I believe that they do know what they want to change they just do not know how to get people to change other than by protesting. These people are protesting for against political corruption, education system under assault, layoffs and employee benefit cuts by profitable corporations, worsening foreclosure crisis and lack of affordable housing, and refusal to seriously address global warming and economic injustice.
While protesting does draw the attention of the media and citizens, the protestor do not seem to be going anywhere. Instead the police are already using OC spray against these protestors and people protesting are only getting hurt.
The protest was bound to happen since many of the rich do not want to pay higher taxes and it seems that all the hardships are going to be experience by the middle class. The people who protest are people full of anger since they are the one who feel like they are getting screwed over by the rich. And who can blame them?
I agree, the occupy protest do not seem to be directly having any affect on the economy that they so desperately want to change. However, I think that in getting the attention of the world, it could help to influence more government officials to begin changing legislation to appease the protestors. If the protests gain enough support, officials will be forced to give some attention to the issue if they want to be reelected and I think that is what the main purpose of the protests is. Protestors want to gain the attention and support of people around the world so that governments will finally begin to change the economic situation.
I agree with the idea that the Occupy protesters' demands are too scattered, but I think that there is another problem with this whole Occupy situation. Last Saturday, I ventured down to San Francisco and was on the Embarcadero and happened to pass by the Occupy San Francisco group in Justin Herman Plaza. What I found was that most of the protesters were not protesters, rather homeless people. This may be a tangent, but I think that with all the hype of Occupy, a safe haven for the homeless has been born. I feel that this weakens the overall message that the Occupy group is trying to convey (whatever that is) because most of the people there are not protesters but people looking for a home. Another unintended effect of Occupy that is obvious in San Francisco seems to be that it is hurting the local businesses that work out of Justin Herman Plaza because it is a real turn off to tourists who usually go to those little shops to buy merchandise to see makeshift tents and people lying around right next to them.
First of all, there is a distinct difference between a boycott and a simple protest. A boycott targets specific companies; meanwhile a protest's main goal is to attract media attention.
I think the occupy wall street protests have been overwhelmingly effective in that respect. They are in fact still appearing in the media. The fact that cities are cracking down on the protests just goes to further give them media attention. Perhaps there has not been one clear message behind the protesters; however, there has been a very basic and consistent message sent: The people of America believe that the economic inequality in this country is unjust.
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