The World - What Next?

by: KendalJames

Thu Oct 13, 2011 at 11:17:06 AM EDT

From Bill Clinton to Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi and everywhere in between, many experienced policy thinkers agree: in order to get what they say they want, Occupy Wall Street will eventually have to get specific and say what agenda they WOULD advance. Such an agenda would likely address wealth inequality and big money influence on policy among other demands.

But despite all of the direct democracy and capacity building taking place in Zucotti Park, the 99% are most certainly not comprised mostly of anarchists or self-styled revolutionaries or people who take dumps on cop cars. In fact, the 99% as the movement describes it includes Republicans, Libertarians, vegetarians, racists, values voters, gun nuts, survivalists, hippies, Snooki fans and financial planners. The 99% also includes people who believe that American government can work again, and that participation is essential, not hopeless.

KendalJames :: Occupy NJ / Wall Street / The World - What Next?

Perhaps that's one reason why OWS has yet to get specific with where it wants to go: such a move would require parsing out the claim of being the 99%. Because without any gun-toting Evangelical Libertarian pro-lifers in their ranks, it's a tough sell.

It doesn't make their understanding or ideas wrong, but it DOES clarify the point - a huge portion of Americans, composing about 50% of the 99%, generally don't get it and support leaders and policies which are anathema to their own interests. They might not know any better, but they think it nonetheless: these Occupy Wall Street hippie thugs want to abort all the babies and make us a communist dictatorship.

Americans may be generally dissatisfied with government and leadership right now, but it's unlikely that most or even many believe that the country is so far gone that we should start over from scratch. And even if such a notion was somehow verifiable and correct, it doesn't mean that one group of revolutionaries can impose their vision on a populace that doesn't largely understand - let alone agree with - an agenda that doesn't even exist yet. Which means that points raised by OWS will - hopefully - find their way into and be expressed through the process of government. Yes, it's a steep climb - but it's now clear than numerous officials and influential individuals support OWS. And without the willingness to get specific, there is potential to squander great opportunity.

What do you think?

(Matt Taibbi's wish list for OWS demands is pretty good. Go read it.)

Tags: Occupy NJ, MattbTaibbi, Bill Clinton, ows, ONJ, Occupy Wall street, featured, (All Tags)

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Occupy NJ / Wall Street / The World - What Next? | 2 comments

Matt Taibbi (0.00 / 0)

You're right. It's a decent list of suggestions from Taibbi.

If you're at work and can't view the video KendalJames linked to, or if you don't want to listen to Don Imus' pretty insulting questions, here's Matt Taibbi's article in Rolling Stone: My Advice to the Occupy Wall Street Protesters.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.

by: Rosi Efthim @ Thu Oct 13, 2011 at 18:18:38 PM UTC

#OWS news coverage (0.00 / 0)

This is interesting. New York Times, pulling media research from Pew Research Center, says media coverage of the nearly one month old movement is beginning to reach levels quantitatively equivalent to early coverage of the Tea Party movement in early 2009, sharply spiking in just the last few days.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.

by: Rosi Efthim @ Thu Oct 13, 2011 at 18:53:23 PM UTC