Forum Post: Occupy 'Wall Street' where you are now!

Here are some thoughts about the occupy movement. What is 'Wall Street'? In the context of the occupy movement it seems clear that 'Wall Street' is not just a place, but is the corporatist system. What 'Wall Street' represents to people is what people are protesting, and this is many things, but most obviously it is the subversion of the democratic process by an elite few. The judicial system, the systems of public representation, the mass media, systems of education, what laws get enforced, and the tactics of enforcement used have all been infiltrated by one particular special interest group. The special interest group that is behind almost all corruption and misinformation is the ruling elite. It is said that 'we' are the 99%. I have also heard it said that even in the 1% who are the richest and most powerful only one tenth of that 1% are the actual ruling elite. So the actual people that are most directly to blame for political corruption are very few. The rest of us are people who, to some extent, have had our lives and decisions infiltrated by the manipulative, coercive, and misleading actions of the ruling elite. So, when I see a headline that says something like, “ex-occupier now works for Wall Street”, the tone of it, which feels to me to be dismissive, is misleading. So what!, that an ex-occupier, now works for Wall Street. To some extent we all work for 'Wall Street', because 'Wall Street', in the context of the occupy movement, seems to me to mean the ruling elite, and the whole corrupt system that the ruling elite have propped up. This brings me to my main point. What is 'Wall Street'? And, where is 'Wall Street'? If the answer to, “What is 'Wall Street'?”, is “The whole corrupt system propped up by the ruling elite”, then the answer to, “Where is 'Wall Street'?”, is “'Wall Street' is nearly everywhere!” Nearly every aspect of my life has been infiltrated by 'Wall Street'. I want to occupy 'Wall Street', because I am protesting being occupied by 'Wall Street'. It is not hard really to discern what is 'Wall Street' and what is not. 'Wall Street' can be thought of as anything that serves the selfish interests of the ruling elite, to the detriment of all other people. In this regard then I can see 'Wall Street' even in my very thoughts and fears. Thoughts and fears that separate me from other people serve the selfish interests of the ruling elite. It is not just part of nature to have thoughts and fears which separate me from other people. These thoughts and fears have been placed inside of me from the very beginning of my life and on. They come at me in the form of commercial advertisements which suggest that I must fit into a specific prescribed way of being, or else I will suffer mock, and ridicule. They come at me from people who have taken on these thoughts and fears, and feel they must continue disseminating them and enforcing them, or else themselves suffer mock and ridicule. These thoughts and fears come at me in the form of news stories which misrepresent the people, and show me people who protest or resist the presence of 'Wall Street' anywhere in there lives being subjected to mistreatment and torture by police and military. I, in a very real sense, occupy 'Wall Street' when ever I reclaim any area of my life as dedicated to the good of humanity rather then the selfish interests of the ruling elite. We do not have to go to a place to occupy 'Wall Street'. It is good, and an essential part of the whole struggle, to gather in places, but we can also gather within ideas and values which reclaim inner space from 'Wall Street', and dedicate that space to the service of humanity rather then the ruling elite. So I would like to challenge myself and other people to look hard at the thoughts and fears that separate us from one another. I am challenging myself to reclaim those inner spaces and let my freak flag fly so to speak. I say to all people and myself, “Let your freak flag fly as if lives are depending on it!”, because many lives truly are depending on all of us reclaiming, for the good of humanity, all places where 'Wall Street' is.