Today, tens of thousands all over the globe joined in the Occupy protests, rallying against corruption, poverty, corporate domination, government inaction, among numerous other issues.While most protests were quite peaceful, the one in Rome got violent. An anarchist group self-dubbed as the "Black Bloc", donning ski masks, were particularly violent. They torched nearby cars, threw objects at people, shattered windows, and clashed with the police. A total of seventy people were injured (40 of whom are policemen). Of these cases, two men lost their hands due to car explosions. United for Global Change, the main organization behind these protests, said that 951 countries in 82 different countries took part in demonstrations, impelled by the recent OWS protests.
I really hope the worldwide cry for change will motivate governments or corporations to do something about the ever-growing social and economic inequalities, corporate greed, corruption in government, and other similar issues. It's really time for some changes to be made around here.
2 comments:
You know, I agree that greed and corruption are messing up our world and all, but I'm not entirely sure the governments really can do anything. I mean, for one thing, greed and corruption are sort of concepts of the human mind, which the means to fight involves changing people's beliefs either through propaganda or biased schooling, which I think could be accused of being 'indoctrination,' and opposed by people that want freedom. I also think greed is sort of the driving force of capitalism...
Anyway, what I think we need more of is the "enlightened self interest" idea - companies are going to be greedy whatever happens, but if the protesters were to specifically damage the companies that they don't like (by pressuring unions or factories or something), they might at least get the companies to act less greedy to protect their money or something (like what happened in the late 1800s with unions)
Yeah... I always have lots to say at 3am. I wonder how coherent it is.
I somewhat agree with you, Michelle, and I somewhat agree with Brian.
While I think that the growing inequality is terrible and quite unfair, I don't know if it's completely 100% bad. A lot of people are supporting these rallies, but many of them don't seem to think about the fact that capitalism does run on greed & the not-always-nice incentives our country has to offer (as Brian said). Then again, I come from an upper middle class family and I haven't had to suffer through many difficult times.
This being said, I'm still for economic freedom over strict security. I think if there is a way to balance out the equality a bit, that would be nice, but I think there still needs to be an upper, middle & lower class - otherwise the incentives go right out the door and capitalism fails. Hopefully we can find a nice balance between the two extremes.
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