Occupy Wall Street
The blog occupywallst.org was created in response to the recent protests going on around America. The people involved are using the peaceful protest method of general assembly (basically occupying) on Wall Street and in other major cities around the U.S. These citizens want to bring attention to the great financial disparity between the top 1% and the other 99% of wage earners. Their unofficial slogan “We are the 99 percent” helps to shows the solidarity of the protestors. This movement started with Adbusters calling people to occupy Wall St. on July 13, 2011. The inspiration for this sort of protest was derived from similar movements in Egypt and Spain. Since the start, however, the movement has grown. Now there are occupiers in multiple cities around the U.S. including Columbus, Chicago, and San Francisco. Some of the protestors have been out there for over 2 months now and it the movement only seems to gaining momentum. At the onset, there was no clear message or objective for the movement but now there a proposed list of demands has been released. While some of these demands are somewhat lofty and possibly unattainable, it still helps to bring attention to what the vast majority (99%) of Americans want. It is uncertain how long this movement will last, or even what it will accomplish, but it reaffirms some of our democratic values including free speech, assembly, and the pursuit of happiness.
Discussion Question:
1. Would you be willing to camp outside, on Wall St., for weeks or even months to promote a change you believe in, even if you’re risking arrest?
2. Do you think the 1% and 99% are two classes having conflict of interest?
3. What do you think, will that blog be successful? Is a blog the right medium to achieve the aim of changing the system of the Wall Street?
4. What is the purpose of expanding to 1000 cities? Will spreading across the country make the message any more powerful?
1. Would you be willing to camp outside, on Wall St., for weeks or even months to promote a change you believe in, even if you’re risking arrest?
2. Do you think the 1% and 99% are two classes having conflict of interest?
3. What do you think, will that blog be successful? Is a blog the right medium to achieve the aim of changing the system of the Wall Street?
4. What is the purpose of expanding to 1000 cities? Will spreading across the country make the message any more powerful?
I found this blog very interesting. While I love the idea behind it of representing the 99%, I find their "demands" to be a bit lofty and incredibly unrealistic. These demands are a bit deceiving though, because they were posted by one user. It makes it seem as though they are representitive of the entire organization. It is hard to see exactly what they truely believe in. Just something I noticed.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the first question, I do believe that I would be willing to camp outside if it was for something that I truly believed in. Having said this, I do not believe that I have ever felt that strongly about a topic before. While I find the efforts of those who do that noble, I do not know if it makes a difference in the long run. It is nice to believe that that kind of passion has a lasting effect on the world though.
Like Alana said about how the "demands" seem a bit fishy. The "organization" backing this seems to act more like a political party, with their hidden meanings and agendas. For that reason they may be trying to gain support behind a "noble" cause.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a Mixed Economy, one with heavy market pressures. I believe that camping out in front of wall street wouldn't do too much. Sure politically there might be some pressure. There aren't a ton of cases where protesting has ended overwhelmingly favorably for the protesters on issues like this. Sure if you brought in race, environmental, cultural, or religious issues something would happen.
Look at the NFL Lockout, what is going to happen with the NBA Lockout eventually. And other economic protests, in which people loss. The people that always lose aren't the people with the money. That probably won't change too sadly. But in our society, money is the equivalent of power. Those with money are the ones that pay for our jobs either writing our paychecks or spending their money on our services. They aren't required to do this, but they do, they have more bargaining room.
In my opinion, everything appears have their own reasons. Without the effort of the 99% of workers, the 1% can't gain such wealth. But we can't also expect the 99% to be rich and 1% to be the workers. Otherwise, who are willing to cook them the meals, who will build their house, who will grow their wheat. I personally will support the Occupying. But I think people need to have their own opinion rather than rushing in to the crowed. I think the position of the 1% rich is unshakable, they have their ability to earn the money.
ReplyDeleteI will focus my comment on your first discussion question. I think I would be willing to go to almost any lengths to achieve a goal I truly believed in, as long as what I was doing was actually going to be helpful. I’m one of the most stubborn and dedicated people you will ever meet, so I go to great lengths to achieve my goals. One thing I have been learning more and more though, is that I need to know at what point I cross a line between determined and productive, and being stubborn and unproductive. I feel as though if what you are doing is getting you arrested, you probably shouldn’t be doing it. If you get arrested, it only hurts the image of what you are trying to do. There are ways of protesting something and standing against it without getting arrested. If you want to change something in our country, you need to think a lot about public opinion of the issue. If the people protesting it are getting arrested, what will that do to the public’s opinion of them? That’s something to consider when you are deciding at what point you switch up your tactics. Swinging with the punches is just as important as it is to stand your ground sometimes. Adjusting is not giving in, it’s being smart enough to realize that sometimes if you want to accomplish a goal, you need to adjust to the situation and adapt, as opposed to just being stubborn about continuing something that will not accomplish anything.For me, I would be willing to camp out outside and protest publicly, but once it came to the line of getting arrested, I would be smart enough to know that it probably won't do anything to help my cause if I get arrested, and would then stop and find another method of achieving my goals.
ReplyDeleteJake Johnson
his blog is interesting.People use peaceful protest method to protect their rights which assembly in wall street.I am doubt of is it work or can change the unfair system. To me,I guess I can not take the high risk to attend the protest.Because the protest has been for a long time.You cannot work in several month how can to feed the family and it’s possible under arrest.Maybe I am cowardly.The purpose of the protest is encouraging more and more people to join them and do the great influence and more powerful in American.They hope the government can regard it then do something to balance the wealth different between top 1% and 99%.They will hold in 1000 cities.There is almost spread across the all country and citizens will realize how huge with the influence.
ReplyDeleteI thought the whole idea of this blog was very inspiring. Feeling so passionate about something that you are willing to devote months of your life to it amazes me. In all honesty there is no political issue, at this point in my life, that I feel so strongly about that I would do something like this. These people's courage amazes me. I believe that if this move really does spread to cities around the world that it may be successful. Sometimes sheer persistence really does pay off. Then again after reviewing some of the demands I feel, as though this campaign could never really be successful. As much as I love some of these points, I don't believe there is any way college education will ever be free. I also don't think our country will ever open boarder migration. As far fetched as this move seems to me I still find it very interesting.
ReplyDelete-Miranda Granche
The current massive socioeconomic protest that is continuing across the nation is extremely remarkable. People are protesting to bring up new economic changes. They are chanting weeks and months to accomplish their future dreams. They are we waking up from their dream. These protestors believe that it is time to get down the riches and to bring back fair economic structures. The purpose of this protest is to reinstate fair economic shares for everyone in the world particularly in the United States of America. However, the most frequent questions that come in our mind are that how we the 99% can arrive at a fair economic frameworks. I will return back to the current frequent questions about this economic situation. Will this protest be successful? I do think these protests will be successful if the current tax cuts propose for the rich concluded by congress shortly. Along with that I do think that this economic approach is precise in terms of narrowing the socioeconomic gaps. Only by taxing something to the rich from their incomes because the approach we use is reasonable. We cannot share their wealth in the same way because that is socialist approach however by asking them to paying identical tax rates. We can narrow these gigantic economic gaps and make strong the nation’s economy by taxing them something. The purpose of this protest as we are watching physically, through social networks or even Mass Medias is to show their socioeconomic resentments to the world. Protesters want to see the democracy and economic authenticity now by having fair economic standing. They do not want to wait for a moment to see fair economic changes. These protesters want to show their irritations by arriving in different major streets by themselves legally.
ReplyDeleteBy
Tedros
To me, Wall Street is the most greedy place that a lot of money-power deal under the prosperous surface. 2008 subprime crisis happed from there, government insists to protect few capitalists’ benefit, even use state power, administrative policy to reduce their loss. Instead, series problems of poverty, housing, education which involve people's livelihood do not be concerned deeply. People, especially, middle and lower class definitely have the reason to protest Wall Street, government for their right. However, Occupy Wall Street cannot solve the gap between rich and poor. I don’t believe all the problems on lists of demand can be addressed. For your Q1, I think I won’t do that outside, because it is not the way to solve problem, but this spirits of seeking equal and individual right should be encouraged.
ReplyDeleteShiyun Hu
Occupy wall street is a broad agenda that consists many demand. In my opinion, this demand is the same as changing the system of the country. Even-though the demand is right thing to be asked for, it is difficult to get there. The United States is a big capitalist country and trying to change this system is unbeatable. Those people who are seeking economic justice will succeed if all 99% nation are in the same foot step. For example, Libyan and Egyptian people who stood together get what they were demanding. Citizens of the U.S. are frustrated with this economic challenge, therefore this may trigger the society to stand together against economic injustice.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Allen said.Although the whole idea that people use peaceful methods such as posting on the blog to show their demands is quite inspiring ,it can never change the fact that the position of the 1% rich is unshakable because they have their own ability to earn that amount of money and they really deserved it.We need try our best to improve our life qualities by working hard more than just complaining about it
ReplyDeleteActually for the discussion question 3 ,though I do appreciate this blog is successful in representing 99% percent people's demands ,I still do not think a blog is the right medium to achieve the aim of changing the system of the Wall Street since we need more formal and direct ways to show what exactly we need to the government.Everyone has different demands but we need choose the most realistic and attainable demands to address ,not something like free college education.In my opinion,writing a letter to the government or talking to the government official directly by making a appointment would be a more proper and effective way to express our demands.
While I find this protest inspiring and support people using peaceful methods to achieve their goals, I really do not think it has any chance of working. Their “demands” are quite ludicrous, and while they are only the voice of one person and are not representative of the entire group, it still makes me skeptical that they will achieve whatever it is they want to achieve. Another problem is that they don’t really seem to have any goals. Other than the list created by one person, no one really knows what they want. Other than shedding light on the situation of the top one percent having so much money, they don’t really address what they want to do to change that. Other than a very communist method of literally redistributing the wealth, I’m not too sure how the top 1 percent will stop having such a disproportionate amount of wealth in the short term.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the first discussion question asking if I would be willing to camp on Wall St for months, I would have to say no unless something had occurred that went against basic human rights. If you look at the protests in Egypt and Libya you would see that they were formed because the government went against their rights to speak in Egypt and their rights to LIVE in Libya. Here in the U.S. it is a problem with money. We forget that we are one of the more fortunate countries in the world and we bitch and whine when we lose a few dollars and we can't afford a fancy television. I think the minuscule problems we are facing can be resolved with this occupation of Wall St, however I believe the more effective way to go about fiscal problems is to just be more responsible all around instead of just telling the top 1% to fix our problems for us. If a blog can unite people to be loud and rowdy and be flat out obnoxious in front of news stations, why can't a blog unite us to be responsible when it comes to mortgages, credit payments, loan repayments, etc.?
ReplyDeleteI found this blog to be very interesting. However i could not protest like they are and spend months protesting and there being a chance of nothing changing, especially after one month. People can't go on living like that. However i do give them their props for standing up and protesting for something they believe in. I find it very interesting that they use a peaceful method in doing so. It's not just one person's voice, it's everyone and a group of different people. With all this being said i don't think it is enough to change the system of the Wall St.
ReplyDeleteI really wanted to address the second discussion question that you asked, especially because it seems like it relates to a lot of things we discuss in class. I don't personally feel that the 1% and 99% are the two classes having conflict of interest. I don't feel that it is quite so black and white and has a lot to do with what people "consider" themselves to be. One problem in our culture is that the majority of people always seem to always want more things regardless of whether they are in the top 1% or the bottom 99%. However, I feel that many people tend to “clump themselves” into the middle class if they are poorer, even though the middle class is becoming smaller and the upper and lower classes are becoming bigger.
ReplyDeleteWow, how do I write 100 words when I agree with what the majority here wrote. Wall Street is the devil! I think the protesters are doing what they feel is right to help out a bigger cause. I think I would camp out for weeks on end if were to help millions of American citizens. I guess if take into account that I've been deployed for months on end before to help stabilize other governments then I guess I can say "Been there, Done that!" If something is for the greater good of man and women, then count me in.
ReplyDeleteLike Shelby and others have said, I agree that the conflicts of interest regarding these protests are not as black and white as the protesters make it seem. Otherwise, I do not feel that there would be such a large scale protest campaign, in the first place.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would really like to be able to support change; however, I find that (too) many of the protester's demands are too far flung. It's kinda like a game of basketball, and rather than trying to run up for a solid dunk, people are trying desperately for the half-court shot (i.e. trying to make college free for all students).
Either way, I am interested to see how events turn out.
The slogan of the blog is very attractive and fascinating. It seems to represent people who both intentionally and unintentionally think and acknowledge the existence of disparities and unfairness between the 1% of rich people and them, who are included in 99%. Furthermore, the blog also releases list of demands to justify and explain the needs that they've emphasized. However, although they construct the demands, spread it not only to other states in U.S, but also to the other countries, still, their slogan of the protest is abstract to actually affect and change the situation. In my opinion, if people involved in the protest really want to change the financial situation, they have to build practical demands that actually move people including in 99% to take an action, such as making a petition and submitting it to the National Assembly and Holding an issuable debate on the television to grab an attention toward their movement. I think, if I see a debate or an action which relates to my daily life, I will response toward the topic either positively or negatively toward the issue and attempt myself to leave my opinion somewhere, like internet website, to exchange the opinions with others and push myself to lead changes about the issue. And, certainly, there are numerous number of people, who have same opinion with me. Therefore, if the group are eager in making changes, they have to catch and bring the utopian ideas or demands.
ReplyDelete