At this point in our humanity’s stream of consciousness there are only 2 things that matter. They are last week’s South Park episode “Ass Burgers”, and the Occupy Wall Street movement (which could be thought of as a much broader world wide anti-globalization movement).
So there’s this Occupy Wall Street. What the fuck is going on people?! Why aren’t we all there?! And more importantly, why doesn’t the youth of today care? I thought we all grew up punk rock. I thought we all wanted a better tomorrow. Have we all sold out? Is that the real deal? Are the music and art scenes just full of posers who pretend to be authentic while in reality you couldn’t pry they’re lips from the rotting teat of the corporate man if he kept on punching them in the face? Because that’s what’s going on. Make no mistakes. Maybe you personally haven’t been punched yet, but your friends, neighbors, brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents have lost their jobs or seen their wages/hours decline, seen cuts to education all across the board, had their houses sink underwater in value, taken out student loans which can’t be paid back because there are no jobs available for college educated individuals; and this, yes all this, due to an irresponsible and unsustainable system that is designed to funnel all the wealth in the country towards the wealthiest 1 percent.
The sentiment fulfilled by government policy seems to be that corporations won’t have enough money to hire employees unless they have the lowest tax rates since before the Great Depression, and in fact, the major problem with our economy is that of the deficit, which has been bloated by rampant government spending on things like education, and you know… society.
Obviously Obama’s proposal of rolling back the Bush Tax Cuts was blocked by congress, but all the other information is accurate. If you don’t trust the graph, you can check out the National Tax Union’s website on the matter. Here you will find the rates for every single income bracket dating from 1913 through today: http://ntu.org/tax-basics/history-of-federal-individual-1.html. The PDF I downloaded though was literally 130 pages and not practical for blog posting.
What really stands out, at least to me – and mind you I’m no economic scholar - is that the Great Depression and our current recession were both preceded by long periods of record breaking low tax rates on the wealthy. Maybe that is inconsequential. You can make up your own mind.
So now we find ourselves in a downward economic spiral that’s lasted for the past 3 years, and we can’t seem to find a way to shake it. What is the cause? Well this is complicated, and perhaps I don’t even completely understand it (like I said, I have never studied economics), but the best way I can summarize the epicenter is that it stemmed from a number of policies that work to the benefit of corporations and the wealthiest in our country at the cost of the rest of the population. These include a lack of regulation in the financial sector, corporate personhood (a convenient legal lie that in this situation allows corporations to donate money (in these times unlimited) to political campaigns), as well as of course a phenomenally low tax rate on the wealthiest persons, or corporations.
This brings us back full circle now to the Occupy Wall Street protests springing up all over the United States. This is exactly what the movement is protesting. There seems to be some confusion about this, yet I don’t understand how there can be. The Adbusters’ website, where the original call to Occupy Wall Street was raised, clearly states the desire for a democracy rather than a corporatocracy as the purpose of the protests. Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself:
Still the movement faces naysayers around every corner.
Herman Caine, a popular Republican Presidential contender commented on the protests: "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself! It is not a person's fault because they succeeded, it is a person's fault if they failed. And so this is why I don't understand these demonstrations and what is it that they're looking for."
Wait. What? Wow! I guess he doesn’t care about the lack of jobs in the country.
The Occupy protests have also been criticized for not offering any solutions, but has it ever been the protesters job to offer solutions? I thought the purpose of a protest was to draw the public’s attention to mass injustices that were being ignored. The protests against the Vietnam War were not offering methods of getting the troops out of the war. They were just saying that they shouldn’t be there. Likewise, the Civil Rights movement was not fighting just one law or practice. Rather they were protesting discrimination, which was the result of a complicated system made up of multiple laws and statutes as well as lack of protections for minorities.
I recently had a facebook thread interaction with a friend on the protests. Despite the fact that she is all for fairer tax rates, she was turned off to the Occupy protests because to her, protesting means “mob rule”, and voting is the way we change things in our civilized society. She couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that a large point of the protests is that the people do not have a voice when they vote because the officials they elect to represent them are actually representing the private interest groups who fund their campaigns. This individual is not alone in her staunch refusal to join the cause of Occupy Wall Street. I see it in the lack of posts about the protests on facebook. I see it in the lack of friends at protests themselves. I see it in the snide remarks of people who are just scraping by, yet they see the Occupy movement as something to ridicule. What is going on here people?
I think the real problem is actually that our generation has been taught since day one that it’s cool not to care. That’s what makes you cool. But we do care. We care about being cool. We also care about ourselves. And we are so proud. So proud of our individual achievements that we can’t acknowledge that we got there with help from other people and circumstances. This is very American. The fiction of the self made man. That’s who Herman Caine is, right? Without any help from others he conquered racial prejudice and fought adversity to rise to the status of CEO of the Godfather Pizza chain! But of course he didn’t take part in the Civil Rights movement, because his father told him to not cause trouble. What a good complacent Republican.
Ever Since the Occupy movement has shown it’s face, I haven’t been able to really think about much else. After all, aren’t we supposed to preoccupy our minds with whatever the most urgent and important issue of the day is? Doesn’t everything start to pale in comparison? Doesn’t it all just start to sort of look like shit that somehow subdues the rest of society? “Here’s your Big Mac, Iphone, and American Idol. Charlie Sheen’s freaking out again! Now roll over and play dead. Good boy!”
In the latest episode of South Park entitled “Ass Burgers”, Stan Marsh can’t help but see everything in our culture entertaining the masses as shit. President Barack Obama is caricatured as a lame duck signing any bill that comes his way by quacking up diarrhea. Cartman markets burgers flavored by his farts, which exude the gaseous flavor enhancers of all the fast food chains. Everybody loves them, and Stan can’t manage to win any of his friends over to his enlightened cynicism. I saw this as a direct parallel to the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the lack of solidarity by the bulk of my generation.
