Forum Post: Some Recommendations from an Educated Cynic on the Sidelines

As a New York resident, for months I have been watching the Occupy Wall St. protest and trying to keep up to date on its happenings. In its early days I even felt a twinge of excitement at the potential such a movement could have and the possibility for our first taste of hope for change in decades. However, as the months have gone by, and the movement has materialized into its more permanent, ‘organized’ form, I am left with disappointment and immitigable frustration. Occupy Wall St. has taken a rare opportunity, the perfect mélange of socioeconomic circumstances and political climate, and wasted it by turning this movement into yet another display of naïve, plaid-cloaked hipsters tapping away on bongos and toting cleverly-quipped, but irrelevant written displays of their ‘demands’.

Having given this much thought and research, it is my belief that the crux of the situation lies with two fatal flaws. The first flaw is an embarrassing lack of rational planning and organization. The second, and far more unforgivable of the two, is a gross lack of knowledge and understanding of not only the political system, but of the historical context of protests, which I can only attribute to an excessive amount of youthful arrogance and immaturity. While you may disagree with my critique, there is no denying that the movement’s current methods are flawed, as they have failed to garner any substantial success despite people’s efforts. Therefore, I implore you to listen to my criticisms and fairly consider my recommendations that follow, if for no other reason than because I am an individual outside the movement, living amongst the common people you are trying so desperately to convince and whose support you require in order to succeed in your efforts. Simply convincing a few thousand students, whilst the majority of the ‘99%’ go about their daily lives will not achieve change. Hopefully, by hearing one more opinion, one of the many 99-percenters who has not come out to occupy, you may be able to see a different perspective and implement new ideas and methods into your movement, or rather the movement that purports to represent the interests of all 99% of us.

While the first flaw of the movement is a lack of organization, I would like to focus on the far more critical second error of the movement both because of its greater importance and that I truly believe that if the second condition is met, the first one will work itself out, as more knowledge often does improve the situation. The canker on the otherwise friendly, wayfarer-decked face of Occupy Wall St is the blatant lack of knowledge or at least complete disregard for the historical role of protests and the form in which the American political process operates. From its conception, the idea of utilizing a protest to affect massive economic change is erroneous and those who truly believe this is possible are at minimum foolishly misguided and at worst horrifyingly ignorant. The idea is absurd. If you require proof, study history. Find me the protest, and at that a peaceful one that occurred in the last 200 hundred years, that has EVER wished, let alone succeeded in overhauling what is essentially our entire economic system (and if you haven’t yet realized that the demand for socioeconomic equality and an end to plutocratic rule requires a complete revitalization and renovation of our current economic system-a system by the way that has weathered no significant change in over a century-then once again, you need to pick up a book, and this time try opening it and getting past the illustration on the cover).

Now before you shout out answers like the Arab Spring, or the popular Western European labor protests, allow me to further specify the criteria required to find a comparable historical example as proof. Find a nonviolent protest that involved essentially doing nothing but holding signs, playing music, and periodically occupying abandoned buildings under which squatters’ rights would already have protected you and avoided all extreme demonstrations of intent. In addition, and this is most critical, find a protest that demanded and resulted in a change of the economic system WITHOUT also requesting or resulting in a change in political leadership, constitutional framework, foreign policy, trade relations, social welfare provisions, and/or new geographical border demarcation. If you find that task too daunting or you’re too busy chanting with your bongos downtown, then allow me to save you the effort and spoil the ending for you, you won’t find any. You will find countries that have overthrown leaders and instituted new economic systems (ala Asian Tigers). You will find countries that have successfully implemented better labor laws through protest, whilst maintaining the current political leaders. Yet none have had the audacity, or rather the stupidity, to politely request that the wealthiest Americans, who for centuries have knowingly and unabashedly exploited the world’s poor and middle classes to fatten their already corpulent wallets, would please stop doing that and ask for the support of the American government in this venture, who by now many of you have realized has not only been aware of this occurrence but has perpetuated the elite’s exploitation to keep their own lifeboat afloat.

The reason you will not find any examples in history is because they all realized what you all have not, business as usual has gone on unchanged for centuries, and if you wish to change it, you must try something far out of the realm of ‘usual’ and significantly impede the continuation of their business. To offer a more tangible comparison, right now you are a tiny splinter in one very-calloused foot, at this point the wealthy elite barely notice you, let alone be bothered by your pitiful attempts to hurt them. To enact change you must become a blockage in the airway of the elite, completely obstruct their methods until their gasping for more money and will be desperate to acquiesce. If you want to enact change you must study how change has been done in the past, study what needs to changed in this country’s framework in order for your demands to be met, and you must reorganize and re-conceptualize your plan of attack. There are only two ways in which the 99% can be effective and both come down to our one and only power over the wealthy-our greater numbers. The first way is in the voting booth, through public pressure for and election of better candidates who will rise above plutocratic bribery and actually represent our interests. The second way is through EXTREME action, carrying a few signs or even forming a human chain whilst the employees of those buildings still get by to work and the CEOs stare down from the 70th floor laughing is not going to do anything but make the movement look childish, ineffective, and poorly-planned. This method will not only fail to get the 1% to take you seriously, it will also result in the far more grievous error of losing the respect and much-needed support of the rest of the 99%, because in case you didn’t notice, less than 15% of the 99% is actually ‘occupying’ anything.

Hear me when I say, you need the rest of the 99% to stand with you, if this movement is going to have any hope. You need us, and unless you change your actions you’re not going to get us. There are many of us who do not fully agree with you, nor do we fully disagree. A great number are swaying in the middle waiting to be baited by a more appealing offer, one that more accurately represents our interests and more realistically offers a chance at having them realized. Whilst I will always side with the left, I can not say that for the majority of the country, who have become the vulnerable prey for conservative propagandists. This is your moment. This is our moment to finally honestly represent our ideas and our hopes for the future of this country and its people. This is our last chance. If we lose this battle, we will lose the American people, we’ll lose any opportunity we have now to change the ignorant, bigoted ideas that were embedded in the minds of so many forefathers and have mangled so many family trees and our nation’s history as they’re passed down from generation to generation. Don’t fuck this up. Don’t waste this opportunity by being anything less than 100% prepared, serious, organized, educated, and determined not to back down until real change is implemented.