It's the Economy, Stupid...or is it?

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has inspired people all over the world, has had its critics. While the movement intended to join all of us together, well at least the 98 or 99% of us, I've noticed there seems to be a more even split, particularly in the US. I had seen a Fox News poll that included close to 400,000 Americans that said about 49% approved and supported the movement and about 47% disapproved of it. Granted, Fox News is certainly the most conservative main stream media outlet on TV, so those numbers would probably show even more support of the movement had the poll been taken on any other news outlet. But still, this shows that there are some divisive issues here.

It seems that no matter which "lame stream" media outlet you look at, there is little if any support of the movement. As a matter of fact, it took the media a long time before they even started reporting on it. This should tell you something about corporate media. The movement had to get going to the point that they, the media, couldn't ignore it. When the reporting finally started, there was a lot of downplaying, criticizing that there wasn't a clear message. They were being insulting that it was a movement of nothing but goofy drum-playing hippies without a purpose in life and nothing better to do. The protesters were threatening the very fabric of capitalism/society and pushing us towards Marxism and revolution. And I'm sure there are a few other criticisms I left out here, but you get the drift.

With regards to the movement's message, it has not been able to be put into a nice concise little 30-second sound bite, which the lame stream just love to eat up and then regurgitate at you through your TV screen. Yes, it is true there are a lot of issues that people are ticked about in the movement. But when it comes down to a simple message, I have yet to see a protest sign that says, "The economy sucks and I'm here to make it stop sucking!" That, my friends, would say it all and would give the media something to hang its hat on. Who could disagree with the fact that the economy is tanking with no end in sight? And all anyone hears these days is that sucking sound coming out of your purse or wallet.

While the movement has tried to separate the have's (1 or 2%) from the have not's (98 or 99%), the media has succeeded in manipulating almost half of the US population into believing they are better off not changing much of anything, except for maybe their representative in congress and/or the president. The folks that have been manipulated, tend to blame the government for the missteps in the economy, claiming that over regulation has suppressed corporations from creating jobs, providing loans, expanding infrastructure, etc. In reality, the exact opposite has been true. Not that government is not at any fault. But I think we all have to distinguish between the corrupter (corporations), and the corruptee (government). In other words, I tend to blame the initiator of the corruption more than the one who gets corrupted by accepting the monetary favor. Because as they say, everyone has their price.

The fact is, corporate deregulation has been happening since the Reagan administration with his, "trickle-down economics," and has been carried on throughout the Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and the Obama administrations. I've noticed that as corporations deregulate themselves through the government, our individual liberties start eroding away as well, but that's a whole other blog. The fact remains obvious that Reaganomics just doesn't work, but it's taken us 30 years to realize it. It's a system where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and the middle class disappears into the lower class. (Insert sucking sound here.)

So it baffles me as to why almost half of Americans refuse to include themselves in the 99%. Because if you look at their financial standing, they are definitely part of the 99%. I guess maybe they're holding onto faith that someday they'll be in the 1 or 2% if we keep going full-steam-ahead, business as usual. Or maybe they're just not "rock the boat," type of people. Or maybe they forgot that just 2 or 3 years ago the Tea Party was on the streets protesting about some of the exact same issues. Maybe they don't want to be affiliated with drumming hippies. Or maybe...just maybe they're in a total state of denial that our government system and our money system are broken and corrupt to the core! And if that is true, then we have to look at all the ways they/we have given our power away. Okay, maybe that last sentence could take me into yet another blog, so I'll spare you.

But now we're getting somewhere. It's very, very difficult to admit that the country, who's flag you have waved, pledged allegiance to, paid taxes to and fought for, has failed its citizens. The greatest country in the world is falling into an economic and political abyss. And the ones in denial are holding onto the last threads of the rope to try to keep it from tumbling anymore, as well as even trying to hoist it back up. But these systems are like old, beat up cars. You can only repair them for so long until its not cost effective anymore, and you end up having to get a new one. These failing systems no longer work for the people and are certainly not cost effective to save.

So the Occupy Wall Street movement understands this. All those "hippies" are not in denial. They know there needs to be a complete system replacement and not just an overhaul. They know that there needs to be a revolution to make that happen. They know that there's no other way it can happen. And they are willing to unplug the patriarchy.

I will leave you with two things. Here is a link to an article written by a multi-millionaire, Mike Dillard, who gave a pretty fair depiction about his experience at the Occupy Wall Street protest. Even though I disagree with some of his assessments, it is still insightful. Also I'd like to leave you with a timeless quote from Benjamin Franklin:
"The refusal of King George to allow the colonies to operate an honest monetary system, which freed the common man from the clutches of the money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the Revolution."