Occupy Everything

It started in New York about a month ago and I was a smug bastard thinking that they were all hippies and idiots. I felt for them but on the other hand they were 'neo-hipster, marxist-lite scum' who didn't understand economics or politics. I called my sources and they told me exactly what I thought, that these people would disappear in a week if not a few days and that their incoherent protest would mean nothing. Yet the reason for this puerile protest was entirely valid and concrete. People, I thought, are either too angry or too defeated to voice their complaint precisely and effectively.

I was a little more right about that part. I've been mostly working since the protests started, I've been unable so far to attend the local protest, and I have heard only a few scattered reports and read a little about the issue since it started. But I have been paying attention. At this point, with the protests spreading and dissatisfaction being aired around the world and income equality becoming a talking point that the ignorant or hostile factions cannot slap down into silence, it seems like these protests are hopeful. They certainly point to a vitality that has belonged to lifestyle activists for the past three years and now finally belongs to everyone. In 2008 there were few protests, most of them astroturfed (and badly) or so far across the spectrum that they were close to insane, frothing rambling.

Imagine my relief when I see on the TV crowds of people of mixed ages and origins, all united, across the world, in protest against... well they're in protest against a lot of things. Mostly coming from America is the "99% rhetoric" which targets the super-wealthy and their stooges, and also the financial sector, lobbyists, and many of the other diseases of affluence that have sickened American democracy since its inception. In Canada, the branch plant of America, the protests are similar. The word 'oligarchy' is being thrown around a lot in conjunction with 'corporate' and people might understand what is meant by those words.

My hope is caused by the fact that the protests attract a good cross-section of people, and are opposed only by the ignorant or politically entrenched or apathetic. In other words this is a confrontation between a system that has succeeded only superficially and its adherents and, on the other side, the people who have been forced to subsist under that system, many of whom have suffered, many of whom have made incredible sacrifices, and many of whom have been spat on for most of (if not all of) their lives by 'the bootstrap crowd' and anybody with hard-fought comfort.

It's the age old combat between those who glean the spoils of life off the backs of those who are born into lesser stations. Has modern wage-slavery finally been unmasked? Is the structure of the world going to change? Is commodities trading going to be outlawed in favor of concrete economics? Are world governments going to concede that they have become accustomed and comfortable with oligarchy? Are America's taxpayers going to be reimbursed for the incredibly reckless and unsustainable policies of its government for the last decade? Is the financial bail-out going to be rectified? Is Greece going to be allowed to fail so that its oligarchs can be exiled in shame? Will the money system and its vice-like grip on human life and potential finally be broken? Will this be the renaissance where our species overcomes its petty tribalism and begins to plan for a great future? Or are we going to face yet another vast heartbreak that the global, soulless hive of moneyed villains will mock us about for decade after hopeless decade? Will 2011 influence the coming century? Will we be able to do great things without the deadly crutch of ideology?

It's clear to me that after this point there are a few roads: 1) the tyranny of sums and figures will continue to oppress a strained and breaking world, or 2) some type of financial civil-war will break out, or the world will begin to change for the better in a concentrated effort or 3) business as usual with slightly more awareness on the part of the populace, and increased spite and tension.

There are probably many, many more possibilities but I see the above three as the most likely. 1 and 3 resemble each other but there is a significant difference between how they might play out in terms of impact on majority politics. 2 is what might have to happen, with a large scale flight from monolithic credit systems and centralized financial power into personal and communal responsibility and smaller economic plays. World hunger is caused in part by ignorance, warfare, and politics, but when this year's crop harvest is speculated on as if the food supply is a roulette wheel for the rich, then... well what? What happens then? What has been happening for more than 20 years? Why subsidies? Why bail-outs? Why silence?

And I for one am glad that the silence has been broken, and that the clamor is spreading. And I laugh at those sneering bastards in tailored clothes, drinking champagne as they watch the under-classes raise hell. Their time will come.