I must say, all of this Occupy EVERYTHING stuff has really gotten me fired up over the last month or so. Of course, not fired up enough to make a post on here dedicated to it... or maybe so fired up I just didn't think I could do it justice. Either way, I'm going to ATTEMPT to take some of the madness and absurdity I've seen over the last few weeks and put it into a nice little package.... and then I'm going to take a shit on anyone who does things I think are stupid because, well, it's my blog and I can say what I want.
It all began when they stripped Pluto of it's planethood and started
deregulating all the space travel. Fuckin' Jupiter and Saturn, greedy fucks.
Standing Up For What Is Right
First, I just want to say I am thoroughly impressed by the many people out there who taking to the streets and being brave enough to speak against power. There are so many things that need to change (that word still feels so dirty) in this country, and nothing is going to actually happen unless someone makes a stand.
African-American Civil Rights Activists had Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Occupy Wall Street
has internet memes. I think we all know who wins this one.
I remember when things really went to shit 3 years ago. Everyone was shocked. It was the most unprecedented economic meltdown most people alive on the planet had ever seen. The dominoes fell and soon it spread across the entire world. America had managed to destroy the world economy. And yes, we were all blamed! Every day people, working hard in their jobs and trying to get by were blamed for being too greedy. Maybe that was the case with some. I have my doubts, though, about a big sudden paradigm shift where middle class Americans were suddenly ALL going out and spending way more than they had. Something felt wrong about all of it.
Wait, What Happened?
Now, I'll be the first to say that I haven't always been the most educated, or most interested, in all of the political and economic bullshit in this country. I've never had to worry about it. I grew up spoiled in a world where everything was honky dory and no one had to really worry. Graduate High School, graduate college, get a good job, get married, have kids, retire. Live the American Dream. 2008 shattered that dream for so many people. People who were living it, people who were trying to live it, people who were getting ready to live it. Things are different.
When asked what caused this, or how do we fix it, I can't give a definitive answer, but I can say I know a few things that helped contribute. My big beef, and one of the things I think had a huge part in all of this, is the campaign for deregulation of financial institutions. I understand the idea behind the deregulation, but with so many things in life... what looks good on paper or in your head doesn't always translate to real world success. This would definitely fall into that category.
Giving rich people the means to try to make money from essentially nothing using fancy schmancy economic calculations (called derivatives) ended up being nothing more than gambling. Here's what's so fucked up about it now, though. Banks can take depositor's money and use it to gamble. That's right, when your paycheck goes into your CHECKING account, Bank of America can use that to bet on whether or not it's going to rain in Oklahoma next Wednesday. Gambling with someone else's money... man I wish I could do that.
According to Chris Matthews, 'It's the derivatives stupid!'
Then someone showed him this.
My other big beef, and really this pisses me off more than all the deregulation, is the rampant corruption in our political system. Directly tied to that is the mass media, which essentially is nothing more than propaganda for whatever side they have money invested in, but I'll get back to that later.
Lobbying. Oh, lobbying. I used to have a love/hate relationship with you. Then along came Citizens United. Well, if you're too lazy to click a link and read (fuck you jackasses, why am I even doing this?), here's what it is. Corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns. Now, there are a lot of rules in there, but this is the basic premise behind this ruling. Needless to say, a lot of people were pretty pissed off.
Especially this guy until he found out from Fox News that this is
what AMURRRICA stands for!
How Do We Fix It?
My honest answer to this question when its posed to me most of the time is 'Fuck if I know'. Now, that's probably not gonna cut it on here, so I'll try to answer it by keeping it as simple as I can.... well, I guess I have to keep it simple since my brain doesn't really function at a very complex level.
First and foremost, money needs to be completely taken out of politics. Serving our country by being in the Congress, Senate, or being the President is an honor. I'm tired of seeing life long Senators who don't get anything accomplished and just talk on TV all the time. Fuck those guys (I'm looking at you Dick Lugar). It has become all about money, and not about doing what's best for our country. What's best for our country isn't serving the richest, greediest assholes in the world.
And here's the basic premise behind the entire Occupy Wall Street movement. It's not about asking for hand-outs. Wait... let's take a second and let me reemphasize this. IT'S NOT ABOUT ASKING FOR FUCKING HANDOUTS YOU CONSERVATIVE ASSHOLES@!!! Ok, now that I got that out of my system...
People want to work, they want to be given a chance to earn a living. Sure, there are a few rotten apples out there who think we should all just smoke pot and sing bonfire songs all day, but they are a VERY small minority (except when everyone actually starts smoking pot, then everyone wants that...).
We all just want a system that is a little more fair, and a political system that favors the little guy like its supposed to do. The government is there to protect its citizens, not turn them into mindless slaves that just do whatever they say and buy whatever the commercials say. The problem is, we've woken up to the fact that this is what 'The Power' wants us to do and we're telling them to fuck off.
If you don't think they're scared, or if you don't think this protesting is working, then you need to reassess. The 'top 1%' (What I mean by that is the people with the power) are scared shitless right now. This is why they're trying everything they can to either get rid of the protesters or slander the shit out of them via Fox News (and sometimes CNN & MSNBC).
All I'm asking from anyone who has taken the time to read all of this is to keep yourself informed. Get your information from MULTIPLE sources, and fact-check as MUCH as possible. Yes, this requires more work, but it's better to be right than wrong. Making choices over the next few years while being uninformed is only going to make things worse. We got ourselves into this situation by being complacent, now we need to fix it by being proactive. That's why I love seeing all of the protests, and that is why I love my country.
But I'll never love it as much as Stephen Colbert.
