i think you should probably make a list of the bullet points that aren't allowed in the conversation about the occupy movement, or it doesn't really have a starting point.
your rant has a few good points, but is overall fairly ridiculous, and doesn't seem to address a lot of fairly basic issues, or show much understanding of the movement your are bashing. you've also assigned a general "social template" for the people who are out there, which doesn't really apply if you look at the real scope of it. therefore, it would be pretty easy for someone to say, "oh hey, you seem to have completely missed this basic point.." and if your only response is going to be, "this is propaganda. i've heard it before. reposts can gtfo!" then the conversation basically has no starting point.
if you asked me, there are a lot of people trying to prove, or vehemently state the following:
"you are completely responsible for everything that happens to you, and no one else is ever at fault in the end!"
(you, the 53% guy, fox news, etc.)
if that statement were true in any fashion, there would be no need for banks, government, insurance, unemployment, police, etc.
the fact is, you can have years of experience in a field, and end up screwed over and in a 3 month job search culminating in a panicked sale of your belongings and car, and a 6 month stint in fast food while applying and sending resumes everywhere and being signed up for 5 different temp agencies before you win the application process lottery somewhere and get a job that lets you pull yourself back out of the potatoes-and-rice-every-fu
it is true that hard work can pay off, but it is also true that the system as it is can fuck you with a running start. if you asked me, there isn't a damn thing wrong with the many thousands of people who fell on the wrong side of the poor-panic coin-flip that has been created by our economic system freaking out, rallying together, and trying to force something (anything) different to happen. to get companies and politicians to actually have to listen to that many (muddled, unfocused, blah blah blah) problems that people are really living with every day.
if you're just going to 'tl;dr' everything that's been written about why people are in the streets/parks, then rage rant about them, you aren't really doing much more to better yourself or anyone else than the theoretical and hyperbolic occupy movement you've imagined for us here.
to all of what i read, i'd use your own words in response:
"Your smarter than this, don't feed me propaganda drivel."
side note: when is the last time you went out to one of the parks you are typing in all-caps rage about wanting to get people out of?
Here, then is my full response. I do admit that I got a little verbose, and several times I might have wandered off topic a bit. Hopefully it makes sense and covers all of the salient points as well as properly responding.
Okay, so lets go down the list then. Once again, this is another case of where someone has a differing opinion than yours regarding this movement so resort to either ad hominem or strawman attacks, or possibly both. That is perfectly fine, and I have been guilty of doing it myself before. Hell, if I read through my original blog post I'm sure I could be guilty of doing it several times throughout it. But we shall ignore that for now.
Let's start at the top then shall we. Yes, this was a rant. I did not know that I needed to come up with a full presentation including citations proving that I understand the basic premise of this movement. As that is being pointed out as a requirement for engaging in any type of criticism or discourse regarding this movement then provide a basic background I shall. This entire movement was started by a Canadian activism group to begin with; a self titled group of "artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators, and entrepreneurs" and unapologetic anti-capitalists. The protests are suppose to be about protesting social and economic inequality and corruption and influence over government. It was originally started with Occupy Wallstreet, which took up residence and "occupied" a publicly available, yet privately owned piece of land that is Zuccotti Park. It has since spread over the United States with many other cities being "occupied" in much the same manner. By large groups of individuals setting up interim housing in public and private parks and areas. This occupation is done without legal permits or the express permission of the owners, much like here in Portland. The major difference here is that in Portland it is also being organized and inspired by Anonymous and are occupying Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Now, I believe I have shown at least a basic understanding of the movement and its core principles, despite the movement itself stating that it has no clear cut and highly defined goals or agenda. So let us move on. Now, next you make use of Petitio Principii stating if based on the hyperbole of "you are responsible for absolutely everything in your life" that there would be no need for "banks, government, [...] police, etc.". This is extremely circular logic and would be akin to me stating that if people weren't allergic to peanuts that there would be no need for apples, oranges, bananas, etc. I did not state that no one else is ever at fault. I did state though that you control your life, not anyone else. We all have choices to make, and in the end we need to take responsibility for our own actions and our own lives instead of attempting to blame some mythical government boogey man for all the woes in the world. Yes, the job market sucks. Yes, much of the government appears to be "in the pocket" of big corporations. Does this change anything though? No it does not. You still have just as much power to affect your life and your decisions either way. However, for the sake of argument let us move on to another point and an example to put things into perspective.
I am actually going to skip over the other parts of your argument briefly so that I can get to something else that is related. You asked when the last time I went out to one of these parks was that I am raging about people getting out of. Not that it has any bearing on anything I was saying, and not that what you are doing is not an extremely thinly veiled strawman argument, but last week. Not only that, during the nice parts of the year I quite enjoyed going out to the parks; whether it be Saturday market, simply going out to the park to read and enjoy the scenery, or walking around downtown and enjoy Pioneer Square. I am sure that there are quite a few others whom also like to enjoy going to a park, especially a nicely maintained park where one can play in or simply lay on the grass and read a nice book. That, however, is not going to be possible unless someone steps in to repair the massive amount of damage being done to all of these parks within the next few months, or unless the government spends quite a lot of money on cleanup and restoration of these parks.
Now this brings up a related point. None of these protests are being done in a legal way. There are no permits being obtained that allow large numbers of people to congregate and occupy these areas for extended periods of time. There is no permission being sought nor given by the owners of the privately owned land that these protests are "peacefully" occupying. Do you know why permits are required for these sort of things? For one, they help the city recuperate some of the cost that it will require to clean up after such an event. For another, it gives the city or owners an idea of the time, cost, and effort that will be required to provide proper civil servants to assist those attending such an event, plan for the proper amount of civic resources to be readily available to deal with anything that may arise during such a gathering or event, and plan for the amount of labor & costs that will be needed to deal with the aftermath of such an event. In addition to such things, a permit helps with avoiding instances where a public place closes at a certain time and people violate laws by refusing to vacate the premises.
But let’s put this into terms that are more easily conceptualized. Governments work within a budget, and out of that budget comes money for paying for civil services, public transportation, education, unemployment, and a whole host of other things including public parks and their maintenance. This money that is used to pay for this budget comes from many different sources, chief amongst them being income taxes. Now let us say that someone gets it into his head that he isn't happy with the state of things and is going to change them. He decides to do this by standing in the middle of a public park all day holding a sign and chanting things. He obeys the laws, cleans up after himself, and vacates the area at the proscribed time in accordance with the law. The system carries on, things continue to run smoothly. However, a few people see this man and think he has a good message. They tell a friend, who tells a friend, who tells a friend, who all agree that they as well are tired of the bourgeoisie nature of the government and society as a whole and they feel that they should have just as much of a chance in life as the people with all the money. Now suddenly there are several hundred people with signs, chants, trash, and everything else that goes with such things in this park. However, they don't have a permit for this so they are occupying the area illegally. The city though looks the other way, after all it is our right to peacefully assemble, it even says so in the constitution. Plus, these are local citizens. They still have to live here and want to be able to use this stuff later so it's not like they will cause that much of a disruption to the greater workings. Normally that would be the case. However, this one man has now become unto a hive mind. It isn't an individual, it is a collective; and as they see it the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. What matters if they disrupt traffic if they get their message across. Who cares if local businesses aren't able to make money if they affect political change. Who cares if something meant for the public is not accessable by the public now or maybe ever again, for they are the very embodiment of the outrage of the public. It's not their problem if more police have to be called in, and overtime paid to deal with the ripple like effects that their outcry has caused on their local society, for are they not the vast majority of society themselves and should not their voice be heard. What are laws in the face of their great and mighty outrage at the unfairness of a system that has been in place for well over 200 years that they are just now noticing how it works. For they are the majority, and they are the 99%. They should not be forced to pay taxes to such a degree. They should have more say in how the government works, but do not bother them with minor trivialities such as their disinterest in how the government actually works or who they either did or more likely didn't elect. They are vast, they are legion, they are anonymous, and their great outcry shall be heard. Either you are with them or you are against them, and forefend those that have a differing opinion; for through their great hive mind have they reasoned that they alone are right and either you stand with them against something, or you will fall for anything.
Enough hyperbole for now though, let us continue to explore this further. So here is this great gathering of people. They are up in arms about the corruption in government and the flagrant disregard for laws and consequences that big business has and how they, the little man, must pay for the bourgeoisie's actions. Suddenly it is time for the park to close. The day has came and gone, they have broadcast their message to all and sundry, and the day has drawn to a close. Businesses who have lost money because of the disruption have long since closed their doors for the evening, people have put their children to bed and told them to try to sleep as best they can despite the noise, police have been called in from the hope of a quiet evening in their homes to deal with the situation. Crews will have to work long through the night and probably for many nights to come to clean up the mess left by so many people, but what concern is that to the people. Jobs cannot be had, jobs like the one that the cleaning crew will be doing, and the street sweeper will be doing; they are no where to be found for the Evil Overlord known as Big Business and Corporate Banking has decimated our once fair and noble economy. But these jobs cannot be done tonight, as the force of change that has dubbed itself the Occupy movement refuses to be moved. Damn the laws, and damn those who try to enforce them. They are exercising their right to assembly and they shant be silenced by any agent of the corrupt government. Their rules do not apply to them, let lesser men that stand by while we brave few fight pay for our actions.
For weeks this goes on. Time is taken off of work, or the hunt for a job to replace the one that they lost months ago cease. Traffic and local business is disrupted, money as well as time is lost, public feeling goes from supportive to disinterest to finally hostile towards the protestors. They continue their valiant stand against corruption. For the sake of this argument let us assume that some change happens that appeases them. We will ignore the fact that they are rallying against nothing and yet everything, that they lack some sort of clear cut direction or sense of purpose. Something happens that changes things and they finally feel that they can step down from their righteous vigil. Now comes the recovery and the cleanup. But wait, what is this. The cleanup doesn't come. The park is left in shambles, but why? Individuals assisted with the cleanup at first. They felt it was the least they could do to show their support for what seemed at least in principle a good idea. Over time though that support fell off though as an end was not in sight and it looked less and less like a cry for change and more and more as just rabble rousing. Why doesn't the city or state do something about it then. Where are they, what are they putting our hard earned tax dollars to work on if not the cleanup of our public parks. Well, the money that was budgeted for Parks & Recreation was slowly drained away to pay for other things. The money to pay for the overtime of the police, fire, and emergency services had to come from somewhere. Cuts had to be made both in other department budgets and in workforce. Unemployment has to be paid to help support the people that were using their time to protest and not look for work. Roads had to be repaired and maintained to deal with increased traffic and congestion on alternate routes to avoid the congestion caused by the protests. Money that would have been made by allowing the use of the area the protestors were occupying was lost because of it being unavailable. Should the public be expected to pay for this? They obeyed the laws, they did not contribute to the ongoings that lead to the parks current state of affairs. Should the owner if it is privately owned be expected to pay for the repairs and reconstruction? They did not give permission to use the park to these people, and the owners will get no help from the government as they are already dealing with trying to come up with money to pay for the fallout this caused.
Is my point coming through on this? For the sake of argument let us hope that I have waxed eloquent long enough to make my point and defend my belief. So now back to some of your other argument. I was not trying to belittle your experience with the downturning job market by any means, nor anyone elses for that matter. I myself have had my own experience with it as has everyone else to some extent or another. However, I stand by my original statement that in the end we have only ourselves to count on. You do what needs to be done to make do until you can find something better. Let me clarify something though that might have been misinterpreted in my previous posting. I am not saying that I am where I am at due to 100% of my own hard work and dedication. There are those that have helped me to get where I am such as my mother and sister. Without them I am sure it would have been a much worse struggle. In the end though even with their help I could not have made it as far as I have without putting forth the effort and the tears, frustration, and hard work myself.
I am currently facing loosing my job soon. Am I going to freak out and run to the streets crying out that something change right now as it's not fair that I don't have a job? No. I am going to do what needs to be done to be able to make it. I know that there are jobs out there if you look for them. They aren't always glamorous or what you want to be doing but they are there. If it means I have to go back to flipping burgers or working day labor to get by, then that is what I will do. I will cut back on expenses and get rid of absolutely everything nonessential to living until I am down to nothing more than the roof over my head, the food in my stomach, and the clothes on my back; however meager they might be.
Finally let us move onto one of the last things you had said. "if you're just going to 'tl;dr' everything that's been written about why people are in the streets/parks, then rage rant about them, you aren't really doing much more to better yourself or anyone else than the theoretical and hyperbolic occupy movement you've imagined for us here. [sic]". First off, I believe I have a good understanding as already discussed about why people are in the streets & parks. Next, I shall in fact "rage rant" about them if that is what I feel it is well within my perogative to do so. I believe that in doing so I am excercising the same freedom to speak out about what I feel that you and everyone else riding this bandwagon goes on about when you begin shouting from your soapboxes. Finally, as to your assumption and implication that I am not doing anything to either better myself or by expressing my opinion in an honest and blunt fashion I am somehow beneath everyone else. How dare you, sir. How dare you judge me or condem me simply for doing exactly what is, as has been pointed out many times by the protractors of this movement, my "god given" right to express myself freely.
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