If you read my earlier posts, I started with a supportive attitude toward Occupy Wall Street. Then I criticized their PR tactics. Now I am disgusted. And I see the evolution of this so-called movement turning very ugly very soon – violence, rioting. It seems inevitable.
I gave up on this movement when I saw a guy with a sign that said, “$25,000 school loans for $15/hour slave labor.”
Really? Slavery? That’s a slap to any American whose ancestors who suffered through actual slavery.
$15 per hour is more than $30,000 a year. Many household breadwinners who have lost their jobs would love to work for $15 to feed their family and provide them with a place to live. They might take two such jobs if needed to make ends meet, and be glad to have it.
That’s when I became disgusted.
The Occupy “movement” does not deserve to be called a movement. The Civil Rights movement had a purpose and achieved great things. The “women’s movement” similarly changed our culture. What “movement” have these grungy campers achieved?
Answer:
None. No movement at all. I have seen more productive bowel movements.
Yeah, I said it.
I have not seen anyone point out the ironies. Only about 15% of protesters are unemployed. They are not likely to find a job camping in a park marching with a cardboard sign. How about shaving, taking a shower, and knocking on some doors for interviews!
As for the rest, they must be affluent enough to afford spending all their time campaign and marching for….some cause I have still not been able to identify. That affluence comes from the “enemy” – companies. They are protesting companies and corporations, not realizing that ALL money is generated by companies and corporations. Even government money; it all stems from companies producing product, employing people, making profits, paying taxes.
Now that police have busted up the camps, the protesters will grow increasingly restless. Their aimless sense of frustration will percolate. They will increasingly inconvenience innocent citizens, as they did today in marches across the country.
Violence is the next phase of this movement. Confrontation, run-ins with police, rioting. It’s bound to happen. And it’s such a shame, such a wasted opportunity.
What if all these protesters, rather than poking harmless jabs at the top 1 percent, spent their time either working or volunteering to serve the “bottom 1 percent,” to lift them up out of abject poverty. People who don’t sleep in tents for the novelty of it, but who sleep in cardboard boxes because they have no other choice.
How about that? Seems like that could work!
Steve Cebalt
