Why They Are There

Sept 25th, 2011

I have written and argued over the last day about the relative disorder and even incoherence at times of the Occupy Wall Street protest. That doesn't mean I don't stand with them. In fact, I wish I could join them.

However much I continue to push for a simple 3 to 5 point set of demands with very specific targets, only a fool could fail to understand their need to be there.

David Graeber of The Guardian writes:

"Why are people occupying Wall Street? Why has the occupation –despite the latest police crackdown – sent out sparks across America, within days, inspiring hundreds of people to send pizzas, money, equipment and, now, to start their own movements called OccupyChicago, OccupyFlorida, in OccupyDenver or OccupyLA?

There are obvious reasons. We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working-class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: studied, got into college, and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.

Is it really surprising they would like to have a word with the financial magnates who stole their future?

Just as in Europe, we are seeing the results of colossal social failure. The occupiers are the very sort of people, brimming with ideas, whose energies a healthy society would be marshaling to improve life for everyone. Instead, they are using it to envision ways to bring the whole system down."

This can only be done one brick at a time. This is why I continue to challenge the protesters to do better and unify more succinctly. It is our duty to help them pull the bricks.