Occupy Wall Street - An introspective look so far

OCCUPY MORALITY

I just think that analyzing why something is successful and giving credit to one particular event or statistic is not misleading and inaccurate. If A happens, B will happen. If you do A it will lead to B. That is what we are taught to look at in school. It does not work like this. Like mythology, fables, legends, morals of stories, and religion, the gut or point of the story is always taken out and all that is presented is the flavorless skeleton form of a story.

If we look back to history class we were presented with what happened when. And we MIGHT be presented with one or two sentences of the causes of this or that event (wars, riots, strikes, etc). We are never told about the undercurrent, the concoction of causes (there's usually more than 1 cause and relationships between them) which led to the event(s). And there's no questioning why things happened the way they did. If there was questioning, things would become exposed as event A should not necessarily conclude in fashion A unless there a force such as self interest involved.

Lastly, I guess the most important factor that goes into anything (and is usally left out) are people's intents and expectations. There's no real introspection into the populace's thoughts and feelings and to its "leaders" interests. Why do things happen and conclude the way they do? What do people care about? What don't they care about? Are the people moral?

Whenever I meet someone who's involved with charity, I listen to what they are doing. They will continue on and on and on and on about their great plans to change this or that (code for "change the world"). Then I have to stop them, as I am pretty disappointed and exhausted of hearing the naivety. Of course, it takes some experience and time to really get that reaction (light bulb going off in the head) going. I've heard it before. Great expectations and enthusiasm. It takes years (and many examples and repetition of similar programs) to see a pattern by looking at the program conclusion. What effect did they have? Did they really change what they set out to change? The answer is almost always NO, they did meet their stated mission/goals.

Well, why is that? That's something I ask. This question just isn't asked enough. Forensics needs to take place. Introspection and inspection needs to happen alongside some analysis. Branching of events and conclusions based on x and y factors needs to take place. Why did the Plinko chip fall where it did and not the other slots. What were the causes and effects. What were the odds of each path?

So, I stop the great ideas and plans diatribes of the people in these charities to ask a simple question. Why are people in the condition they are in. Perhaps the best example charities trying to reduce poverty. I will ask the charity representative "why are people poor in the first place?". Then a pause. Maybe the answer they will blurt out is "because they need some money.. If they only had the money do A or B". Then I ask, "well looking back, poverty is not a natural human condition. No one wants to be poor. So how did or why it happen?" No answer. Then i will interject "have you looked at the political system? Have you looked at the big businessmen? Have you looked at the corruption? Do you think any of that has anything to do with why the people you are trying to help are in such dire straits?" Still no response. I will continue, "There's a system that's keeping people from succeeding. People are handcuffed. there's people in power that want to keep their power and they way they do that is by keeping other people in chains. Poverty is a form of control and power. Their system is intent on maintaining the status quo and poverty and maleducation are a few of the levers of control. Now do you think, throwing money at the problem will solve it or will it only create a short term resolution? It might even create long term dependence." Then I will be asked, "So what is your solution?". I will respond, "Well, education about the system is step 1. If people don't know what they are facing, they won't know how to proceed to proposing solutions and then executing them." After some time, the conversation will usually conclude with disbelief in my propositions. There is no way such corruption exists. There is no malintent by those in power and control. Hence, the ineffectiveness of nonprofits throughout the ages...

Well from what I've experienced, I can say it's really self interest that's the root of everything. In fact, there's people who would love to enslave others if they could get away with it. What percent of the population thinks this way is up for debate. My experience is it could be the majority in big cities. The bigger the city, the less its people are moral/ethical. Living in smaller cities is just healthier for the mind and soul. My experience in schools with the teachers and students says so. Both were propagandized and had self interests. There was no introspection. It was all about one's interests rather than the interests of the whole. Heck, some of the teachers were racists. A lot were fascists who loved the control. What else could pink slips and detention be? Of course, there were bullies. Now why are there bullies? It's because there isn't a majority to stand up to bullying and to nip it in the bud because the majority are bullies in one way or another. Free lunch one way or another!

Once in awhile a person comes around who thinks about the world and its people and asks a lot of questions. Confucius, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, George Carlin, and so forth. What baffles me is why not everyone thinks in the same manner. Leaders don't create movements. Movements happen by themselves. There's a saying "When the students are ready, the teacher presents him/herself". Now the trick is to put out the message yet stay alive. Take Jesus or MLK Jr. for example. The heretics always go up against the interests of the people. There's enough support out there for the "leaders" of that time to get rid of the heretics, yet stay in power.

In this video, the "leaders" of the movement have been at it for quite a long time (decades), the best example being, Michael Moore. He's always had a message. But his message has been booed and hissed at (take the Academy Awards Iraq War speech for example). Why? Because people have their SELF interests in hand.

So what sparked the Occupy Wall Street movement (#OWS)? Was it the third world child slave labor? NO. Was it the free trade deals such as NAFTA? NO. Was it outsourcing and insourcing? NO. Was it the Patriot Act? NO. Was it ABU GHARIB and Guantanamo Bay or torture? NO. Was it the telecom spying? NO. Was it the 2008 banker bailout? NO. Was it the deregulation (Glass Steagal and Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000? NO. Was it the poverty numbers in the country? NO. Was it the increasing income gap in the county? NO. Was it all the Reagan and Bush wars? NO. Was it the 1 million dead Iraqis? NO. Was it the military budget? NO. Was it the banker bonuses? NO. Was it Enron, Worldcom, shredding of documents at Arthur Anderson? NO. Was it the practices of the IMF and World Bank and WTO? NO. Was it the dismantling of the right to Habeus Corpus? NO. Was it the drone strikes? NO. Well there's plenty more.. So what was it? It was simply that the disaster got to the individual and effected him/her. That's all! There is no great egalitarian ideal that a lot of people work towards. Should I pursue what's good for everyone or should I pursue what's good for me, even though it may harm others? Because of self interest, there will always be future crisis. All we do is jump from one crisis to another.

Education can only help those that want to pursue the egalitarian ideal. The rest use it was a weapon. The rest don't care about anything but themselves. So the question is what percent of the population is what? Let's talk about change in a manner in who can realistically be genuinely changed.

Those in power know the threat to them is ideas, ideals, sympathy, and egalitarian. They hide, coverup, and lie. They create The Matrix. And it takes a lot of time, energy, and effort to see through it and change yourself. Throughout time, people have been gotten rid of. Their damn ideas must be gotten rid off. Hence we have things such as book burnings, witch burnings, public executions, jailings, etc. It's dangerous to have ideas that go up against establishment interests of power and control and the perceived investments of the people.

[Article]Exploring Books Burnings by Richard RJ Eskow


Here's the latest on #OWS featuring Michael Moore, Naomi Klein and a few others...
[Youtube] OWS so far - Occupy Everywhere - Nov 2011