“In a society based on exploitation and servitude human nature is degraded.”
-Peter Kropotkin
Finding truth in media is like finding honesty in politics – it is there in small doses, but it’s hard to define and filter out from the subjective white noise droning through the airwaves and cluttering up popular publications. Searching for information on Occupy Wall Street, what it is and what it stands for, brings in results as varied as the protesters themselves. TIME magazine says one thing, radio pundits another, T.V. coverage finds a different angle (depending on the channel, and the channel’s corporate owner) and the internet is like a myopic game of bobbing for apples.
The information can be confusing and conflicting. Our poll-manic media has already released a number of surveys to establish how popular the movement is with Americans: the TIME/Abt SRBI poll claims 54% of Americans have a favorable view of the protesters, supposedly from a ‘random’ group of 1,001 people. Another survey found 59% are favorable, while the Wall Street Journal’s survey has only a 37% approval rate (no surprise there). Obviously each organization has its own opinion and the so-called ‘random’ groups being surveyed are probably randomly selected from subscribers of the publication, so a liberal leaning magazine like TIME will have more favorable results and the more conservative Wall Street Journal less so. Such polls are essentially pointless, as are most claims and ‘facts’ perpetuated by corporate media, no matter where their sympathies lie.
Trying to pin down an amorphous movement like Occupy Wall Street and present it in a specific light will serve only to make the matter more confusing. The protests are not about any single objective or idea, the best way to describe it is as the anger of the people at the vast inequality of this county come to a head.
The protestors have resisted forming a list of demands or any specific idea as a primary objective; they want it to remain open. It is a noble practice, preventing any small group involved in the protests from taking charge and speaking their opinions in the guise of the entire crowd’s opinions. It is a waiting game to see what impact, if any, will eventually come from the protests. That is one of the problems of the lack of specific demands, because the movement is more emotional than cognitive, what will the government do in response? Increase taxation on the wealthy? It seems unlikely that congress will pass any legislation to this effect. Another commonly heard protest associated with O.W.S. is that corporations, and the wealthy, have too much power is Washington. If that is true, appealing to Washington to end this practice is futile.
Anarchists were among the first to show up on Wall Street on 17 September. There are a few members of O.W.S. that say the President has become irrelevant, it is likely that the anarchists are the preachers of this doctrine. The depth and complexity of the bureaucracy that truly controls the U.S. government does appear to limit presidential power; the people, and not any branch or member of government, are the only ones with any true power to change the establishment. The only sure victory is if O.W.S. continues indefinitely and continues to grow.
The universal goal of anarchism is complete individual liberty. With corporate power growing (Mitt Romney is now referring to corporations as “people”), what limited liberty we currently enjoy, thanks to the founding fathers forethought in drafting a Bill of Rights, is under threat. The movement still growing on the streets could be the first step towards breaking the chains that government and an unrestrained free market forge to keep the populous in check. One of the definable objectives that all the occupiers share is that the wrong groups have too much power over this country, and that these groups have taken control of the American government with their bottomless well of money.
Occupy Wall Street has proven that the people are well aware of what is happening to this country, and that powerful minorities are halting the natural growth of society to their own advantage. The people are not as ignorant as these minorities like to fool themselves into believing. The people are not blind to these facts, and they are becoming very tired of it, and very angry.
While the government is bogged down in disputes and partisan bickering, and the President views O.W.S. as little more than a way to gain support and win another election, the people involved, walking the streets, not only in New York City, but in Oakland, Detroit, Bloomington, Hong Kong, Tokyo and other cities in the U.S. and around the world, are the ones working for change.
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