0
Occupy Wall Street....
Posted by The one and only "B"...
on
1:34 PM
Hello world...
Lately the biggest topic of discussion in our country has been the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. It's been heavily covered by the news, discussed ad nauseam on twitter, facebook, and in most social settings. When it all began, the details of what exactly this group was protesting was a little hazy to me. There was a sense of unorganization and confusion. Whenever I watched the news, the interviews that were conducted showed just that. Everyone had a different grievance, a different concern, a different opinion as to what they were protesting. I couldn't take them seriously. Back in high school, I was on the varsity Debate team, where I learned that if you wanted to win your debate, you had to have a clear and concise argument.
To be honest, other than what I have heard from the news, and from my friends and family, I haven't taken much of an interest in the movement. Not because I'm part of the 1% of the country that's well off, god knows that I'm not, but because I'm too busy trying to make ends meet. Trying to afford money for college, so that I can someday be able to accomplish my own dreams. Trying to save enough money so that I can pay off hospital bills, afford money for car insurance, hell, even money for gas. At the end of the day, I have felt more of a resentment towards this movement than I have had sympathy for it.
A majority of this resentment has stemmed from what I have seen on television. Kids my age sitting dirty in the street complaining that they can't find jobs, when they could be using this time to try and find one. What sent me over the edge was a sign that one kid had that said he quit his job so that he could join the protest. Seriously? You're complaining about the lack of jobs and the horrible economy, when you had one, and then you quit it? How can I take you seriously?
I honestly can't believe that I have spent years busting my ass at shitty jobs, not being able to graduate college on time, due to lack of monetary help and a refusal to take out student loans, that would have ultimately led me to debt, while a bunch of kids bitch about not getting what they want. They want free educations. They want more jobs. They want, they want, they want... but to me, it just seems like they don't want to work for it. They don't want to make the effort, they just want everything handed to them. There are some points where I just want to scream at all of them.
Today my grandmother made me stop working to read a passage from a book she's been reading. Within the book there's an excerpt from a speech that Timothy Radcliffe gave during his address to Yale University, where he discussed "Talking to Strangers", which just so happens to be the name of his speech. There was a lot of information within the speech, but one of the main points that he was trying to make is our difficulty with communication. How we need to look beyond the "single vision" that we have all have seemed to acquire.
I know that this seems off topic, but stay with me, and I swear I will tie this all back together. Timothy Radcliffe brought up how he "had practiced a version of the medieval disputatio." which was a form of debating. Naturally, this perked my interest, being a debate snob. "In the disputatio the aim was not so much to demonstrate that your opponent was utterly and in every way wrong, and to be derided and dismissed as a fool. Instead you had to show the limited sense in which he was right... The aim was, through disagreement and mutual criticism, to arrive at a common truth, that was able to accommodate what was true in each position."
I believe that if we really want to change the current state of our country, this is what we need to do. Both sides need to sit down, lay out their grievances, and find a way to come up with solutions. It's easy to sit around bitching about how your side is right, and the other side is wrong. I think that was what really had me riled up with the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have laid out their issues, and instead of proposing solutions, they have caused more conflict. They blocked the Brooklyn Bridge, they stormed banks to withdrawal all their money, they have stormed Times Square, and for what? They wanted attention to their cause when they already had it. All I've seen is their creation of more problems.
When I first started writing this diatribe on OWS, I looked up the movement's facebook page and website to get a better idea of what their cause was. Mainly because I understand that if you want to have an intelligent conversation, you first have to understand what exactly you're talking about. When I looked up the facebook page, and went to their info tab, I stopped reading it halfway. Why? Well, probably because they have listed so many issues that I can't even focus on all of it. Again, one of my problems with this movement. Clear and concise arguments people! It's not that hard! (Thank god for my years in Debate). When I pulled up their web page, however, I was able to find this mission statement:
"Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."
Even with the research I have attempted to do, I still feel like this movement is so unorganized, at least in the sense of it's content, that I can't even attempt to make enough sense of it to be able to make any arguments against it. Other than I really dislike the blatant stupidity that a portion of my generation displays. All I have really learned from this is that it's easy to sway people to join a movement, if your movement encompasses every grievance this country has.
I think I'll continue to watch the movement, just to see what it might be able to accomplish, because I'll be amazed if it does.
Love from,
Excuse me while I go find an advil to cure the headache this has given me.
B
Lately the biggest topic of discussion in our country has been the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. It's been heavily covered by the news, discussed ad nauseam on twitter, facebook, and in most social settings. When it all began, the details of what exactly this group was protesting was a little hazy to me. There was a sense of unorganization and confusion. Whenever I watched the news, the interviews that were conducted showed just that. Everyone had a different grievance, a different concern, a different opinion as to what they were protesting. I couldn't take them seriously. Back in high school, I was on the varsity Debate team, where I learned that if you wanted to win your debate, you had to have a clear and concise argument.
To be honest, other than what I have heard from the news, and from my friends and family, I haven't taken much of an interest in the movement. Not because I'm part of the 1% of the country that's well off, god knows that I'm not, but because I'm too busy trying to make ends meet. Trying to afford money for college, so that I can someday be able to accomplish my own dreams. Trying to save enough money so that I can pay off hospital bills, afford money for car insurance, hell, even money for gas. At the end of the day, I have felt more of a resentment towards this movement than I have had sympathy for it.
A majority of this resentment has stemmed from what I have seen on television. Kids my age sitting dirty in the street complaining that they can't find jobs, when they could be using this time to try and find one. What sent me over the edge was a sign that one kid had that said he quit his job so that he could join the protest. Seriously? You're complaining about the lack of jobs and the horrible economy, when you had one, and then you quit it? How can I take you seriously?
I honestly can't believe that I have spent years busting my ass at shitty jobs, not being able to graduate college on time, due to lack of monetary help and a refusal to take out student loans, that would have ultimately led me to debt, while a bunch of kids bitch about not getting what they want. They want free educations. They want more jobs. They want, they want, they want... but to me, it just seems like they don't want to work for it. They don't want to make the effort, they just want everything handed to them. There are some points where I just want to scream at all of them.
Today my grandmother made me stop working to read a passage from a book she's been reading. Within the book there's an excerpt from a speech that Timothy Radcliffe gave during his address to Yale University, where he discussed "Talking to Strangers", which just so happens to be the name of his speech. There was a lot of information within the speech, but one of the main points that he was trying to make is our difficulty with communication. How we need to look beyond the "single vision" that we have all have seemed to acquire.
I know that this seems off topic, but stay with me, and I swear I will tie this all back together. Timothy Radcliffe brought up how he "had practiced a version of the medieval disputatio." which was a form of debating. Naturally, this perked my interest, being a debate snob. "In the disputatio the aim was not so much to demonstrate that your opponent was utterly and in every way wrong, and to be derided and dismissed as a fool. Instead you had to show the limited sense in which he was right... The aim was, through disagreement and mutual criticism, to arrive at a common truth, that was able to accommodate what was true in each position."
I believe that if we really want to change the current state of our country, this is what we need to do. Both sides need to sit down, lay out their grievances, and find a way to come up with solutions. It's easy to sit around bitching about how your side is right, and the other side is wrong. I think that was what really had me riled up with the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have laid out their issues, and instead of proposing solutions, they have caused more conflict. They blocked the Brooklyn Bridge, they stormed banks to withdrawal all their money, they have stormed Times Square, and for what? They wanted attention to their cause when they already had it. All I've seen is their creation of more problems.
When I first started writing this diatribe on OWS, I looked up the movement's facebook page and website to get a better idea of what their cause was. Mainly because I understand that if you want to have an intelligent conversation, you first have to understand what exactly you're talking about. When I looked up the facebook page, and went to their info tab, I stopped reading it halfway. Why? Well, probably because they have listed so many issues that I can't even focus on all of it. Again, one of my problems with this movement. Clear and concise arguments people! It's not that hard! (Thank god for my years in Debate). When I pulled up their web page, however, I was able to find this mission statement:
"Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants."
Even with the research I have attempted to do, I still feel like this movement is so unorganized, at least in the sense of it's content, that I can't even attempt to make enough sense of it to be able to make any arguments against it. Other than I really dislike the blatant stupidity that a portion of my generation displays. All I have really learned from this is that it's easy to sway people to join a movement, if your movement encompasses every grievance this country has.
I think I'll continue to watch the movement, just to see what it might be able to accomplish, because I'll be amazed if it does.
Love from,
Excuse me while I go find an advil to cure the headache this has given me.
B
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