A brief analysis of Occupy Wall St

The Occupy Wall St movement is almost universally misunderstood, even amongst those who would consider themselves occupiers. I cannot truthfully say that I know 'the truth' about the movement though I consistently see the same misunderstandings. Occupy Wall St was an expression of popular anger at the gross injustices of our social, political, and economic systems. There were no official goals, no explicit demands, and no consensus on which specific issues should be the focus. However, if a single message can be gleaned from the entire movement it is this: there is a class war going on and we are losing.

This class war is being waged on a variety of fronts, many of which initially appear completely unrelated. The wars on drugs, terror, and crime share a common enemy: the poor and disenfranchised of the world. Corporate personhood, corruption in government, and the two party system are only some of the ways that democracy is quashed. The consolidation of media outlets, propaganda relabelled as public relations, and internet censorship schemes all seek to throttle the development and exchange of ideas. Concentration of wealth, a currency controlled by a self interested elite, and a predatory economy all prevent people from having the time or resources to effectively enforce their basic human rights. It all comes down to control, control of the masses to solidify the power of a neo-aristocratic class.

The ultra-wealthy elites looked at Occupy Wall St and saw a true threat to their power. People across the country, indeed across the world, coming together to show just how mad they are. We were talking, sharing our struggles, realizing that our personal and financial problems are shared by millions. To borrow from the feminist movement, we began to realize that the personal is truly political. Yet this in itself is not threatening, instead it was our show of strength. We saw how many of us there are, how many of us are mad as hell and don't want to take it anymore, and we started to realize that we are strong. The proletariat were starting to see their true power and the ruling class was terrified.

In response, there was a massive, coordinated campaign to silence and destroy the movement. Occupiers were mocked and vilified in the media, we were supposedly just angry kids who had no cohesive message and offered no solutions. These claims were false or patently absurd, you do not need a solution to identify a problem and the message was simple: there is a class war going on and we are losing. We were relentlessly hounded by police and federal agents, in Denver the peaceful encampment was stormed by pseudo-soldiers with tear gas and paintball guns full of pepper spray. In Boulder we were lucky, the police resorted to sleep deprivation via hourly visits and the city council issued edicts that would criminalize standing still in a public park at night. Yet elsewhere elderly women were being pepper sprayed and a veteran was almost killed by a tear gas canister to the head. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security worked in cooperation with major financial institutions to coordinate a Nationwide crackdown on Occupy communities everywhere. The full and terrifying power of the ruling elite was exposed; the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever known, a surveillance system that only the Stasi could envy, and a domestic police force systematically desensitized to brutalizing the same people it is supposed to protect. Driven home at the barrel of a gun, the message was clear: Do not challenge the status quo.

It would be a mistake to say that the system is broken, it is performing the function for which it was designed. The sad truth is that we cannot use the ballot box to resolve our social, political, economic, or environmental problems. The game is rigged, so the winning move is not to play.  I believe that we are speeding towards an abyss, a humanitarian catastrophe where billions will suffer and millions will die. Yet all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. I fear that we will only awake from this artificially induced dream when we are faced with a devastating social crisis. At this point it may be too late, the powers that be might capitalize on this to cement their control or we might enter a new dark age while simultaneously facing environmental catastrophes. No matter the outcome, the longer that we sleep the worse the nightmare will become.

Still, the greatest legacy of Occupy Wall St has yet to make itself known. We stirred the pot, scum may still float at the top but now we are more aware of them. Information has started to spread, ideas flow more vigorously than ever, and a new international network of activists has formed. We know that the system is failing, we know that it must fall, and we are awaiting the next opportunity to bring it down. Now with more experience, more allies, and greater resolve, whenever the next political movement appears, we will be ready.