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PDF versionOccupy Wall Street: A new generation, a new kind of leadership
by Jamie L Manson on Oct. 12, 2011
For weeks I had been reading about the protests taking place on Wall Street. But I didn’t really take notice until October 1, when nearly 15,000 protesters were marching practically over my head as I attended a wedding at a restaurant just below the Brooklyn Bridge.
The demonstration resulted in the arrest of over 700 people. While they were on the Manhattan side of the bridge, police pepper-sprayed the crowds and swung batons at those who crossed barricades. A day earlier eyewitnesses reported that one officer forced women into pens and sprayed mace in their faces at close range.
Brendan Fay, left, stands next to Robert Pinter at the Occupy Wall Street protest. (Photos by Jamie Manson)
Videos of these ugly scenes have been posted on YouTube. Though the images are difficult, in many ways those batons elicited shots that were quickly heard around the world.
By the following Wednesday, dozens of unions and activists groups organized to march in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street.
Brendan Fay, a filmmaker and Catholic gay activist, said it was those images of pepper spray and batons that “stirred him from the couch to the streets.” For Fay, the event “was like an awakening on Wall Street. This is a moment and an opportunity for churches and communities to reflect on the current economy as working for change…We know can do better. We must do better.”
Occupy Wall Street is also shaping up to be a defining moment for young adults, known commonly as the Millennial generation, in the U.S. This generation, often criticized for numbing themselves with video games, text messages and reality television, suddenly finds itself to be the prime mover in perhaps the most promising protest movement to sweep the country in decades.
They are doing what politicians and elected leaders continue to fail to do: they're hearing the voice of the majority of Americans and are taking action on their behalf. And with their idealism and youthful ability to camp out indefinitely in a Manhattan park, they have inspired Americans across age, racial-ethnic, and religious boundaries.
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When I joined the demonstration last Wednesday evening, I was stunned by the stark contrast between many of the mainstream news reports about the protesters and what I actually witnessed in and around Zuccotti Park.
Rather than a great sea of unwashed, ne’er-do-wells, I encountered instead a spectrum of individuals reflecting the true face of America.
Middle aged Hispanic men who had the look of laid-off construction workers chanted a message to the president: “Obama, eschucha! Estamos en la lucha!” (Obama, listen! We are in the struggle!)
Behind them marched young Muslim women wearing the hijab. They carried a banner reading “The people united, will never be defeated.”
A young Korean woman shouted into a mega phone, “Show me what democracy looks like!” A group of Asian twenty-somethings, wearing bright orange vests with the word “justice” embroidered on the back, replied, “This is what democracy looks like!”
An elderly woman in stood in the midst of the marchers, waving a flag at protesters that read, “I’m 87 and mad as hell!”
Though some protesters also advocated for other causes such as environmental protection and stopping animal cruelty, all seemed united in the desire for economic justice and equal representation by their elected leaders. The call themselves the 99 percent, because they believe that 1 percent of the U.S. population controls an incongruous amount of the country’s wealth.
One demonstrator, Robert Pinter, summed up the cause as an attempt to “to stand up to the corrupt and failing ‘corporatocracy’ that we the taxpayers financed and saved after the crash of 2008.”
Like so many fellow occupiers of Wall Street, Pinter believes that the “lust for power and profit above all else has destroyed the working and middle classes. It has led to an erosion of our democracy and the ethics and values that used to guide us.”
The leadership body behind Occupy Wall Street remains somewhat ambiguous by organizational standards, and they have yet to articulate their key goals. This could partly be due to the unexpected speed and size of the response to the movement.
But it also reflects the leadership style that the Millennial generation seems to prefer. According to an Occupy Wall Street FAQ posted on The Nation website, the de facto decision-making body for the movement is known as the “General Assembly,” which they define as “a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system with roots in anarchist thought.”
Interestingly, most Millennials I’ve talked to about the future of church leadership seem to envision a similar model.
Yet, for all of their ambiguous leadership, the group has also proven to be quite shrewd. They have been quick to defuse claims by critics that occupiers are little more than lazy, unclean, drugged-up hippies. When complaints arose about unsanitary conditions in the Zuccotti Park, they created a sanitation committee. A team of volunteers regularly sweeps the grounds and quickly removes accumulating garbage. Those who show up drunk or high are promptly asked to leave. And, of course, they are brilliant with social media and web streaming.
Yes, there are some freaky people in the crowd. But this typically comes with the “radical action” territory. And it’s important to bear in mind that many of the occupiers are staging a long-term sit-in on New York City streets. Who wouldn’t look a little rough around the edges?
Most of the occupiers I met were well informed, articulate, and justice-oriented. And they all shared one reality in common: an inauspicious future. They have been told that the America in which their parents were raised is not the same country that they will inherit. They have been told not to expect basic entitlements like social security, and they watch powerlessly as their elders lose pensions and retirement accounts.
It is a future that is not only bleak, it also seems increasingly out of their control. Millennials are coming into adulthood in a nation whose superpower status is gradually being compromised by a failing education system, a dearth of manufacturing industries, an eroding infrastructure, out-dated mass transit systems, and a severely polluted environment. Like most Americans, they realize that they are being led through this mess by elected officials who seem unconcerned with their needs and desires.
The support that Occupy Wall Street is garnering seems to be helping them shape their priorities. Among the goals being discussed by the General Assembly is pushing to resurrect the fight to increase taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
This issue was among the most painful losses during this summer’s war over the budget. The fight was lost largely because of the Tea Party’s hijacking of the entire budget process -- and because the president, it must be said, allowed them to get away with it.
This failed attempt at a just budget plan was likely one of the galvanizing forces behind Occupy Wall Street. But, ironically, the Tea Party itself may have also inadvertently provided this new movement with one of the most important models.
One of the greatest obstacles faced by liberal causes over the past few decades has been an inability to organize around issues. Liberals are often, by their very nature, non-conformists. Movements like the Tea Party, and other political causes fueled by the religious right, rest on the power of absolutism. It’s much easier to organize people who see the world as black and white.
The Tea Party movement showed us the power of mobilization. So far, Occupy Wall Street seems to be successful in shaking off the complacency that has mired down so many Americans, and in getting folks from varied walks of life to rally around one, crucial issue.
Even Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had to admit this weekend that the movement is beginning to make him nervous.
It will be interesting to see if the consensus model eventually compromises Occupy Wall Street’s power to organize and mobilize. As we all learned last week, part of Steve Jobs success was his genius and creativity. But a good portion of it was also a result of his controlling, authoritarian leadership style.
If Jobs had to work on a consensus model, the iPhones and iPads that have been crucial to organizing this movement still might not exist. His untimely death leaves us to dream of what a different world it could be if more micro-managers also had genuine talent.
Only time will tell if Occupy Wall Street can make passionate ideals and consensus style leadership a high-impact enterprise.
One very healthy sign is that Occupy Wall Street seems to be inspiring the creation of a multitude of movements throughout the country and even in other parts of Manhattan. On Tuesday, a group of protesters made house calls to some of New York’s wealthiest residents. They walked miles to the Upper East Side to protest in front of the multi-million dollar townhouses of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and J.P. Morgan Chase Chair and CEO Jamie Dimon.
They were protesting the possible expiration of a New York State surcharge on households with an annual income of more than $1 million.
As the Upper East Side protests were taking place, over in East Harlem, about twenty blocks to the north, a pilot program that offers a free, half-gallon of milk to needy families was in full swing. The line stretched for three city blocks. The milk ran out well before all were accommodated.
It was yet another sign of just how long an occupation this may have to be.
[Jamie L. Manson received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School where she studied Catholic theology and sexual ethics. Her columns for NCR earned her a first prize Catholic Press Association award for Best Column/Regular Commentary in 2010.]
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Yea and these freaks were on
Yea and these freaks were on video defecating on police cars. They are polluting and ruining a perfectly good park, filling it with trash, urine, and worse. The place reeks of pot smoke. They sleep in while working people go about their business. They provoke and attack NYPD officers and they are costing the city so much money that could have been used to hire more cops, firemen, and teachers. They should all return to their parent's basements and leave the hard working people of the city alone.
An NYPD officer who has been forced to deal with these people.
Ano, on the wrong side of the
Ano, on the wrong side of the track. It is obvious to what class you belong.
Those "freaks" represent at least 95 of the populations who have been empoverished the past 40 years, beginning by Reagon. In the Western we are not on the the most poverty ridden countries.
How rigth on target you
How rigth on target you was!
Today, the 15th of October, as I followed similar protests around the world, I thought of you, Ms.Manson! I knew you were right from the beginning because, as a journalist, I'm following the trends for more than a decade and reached the conclusion that this unfair, criminal and globalized system could not go for ever. More than just reporting, a journalist must know how to read the signs of the times, and even predict what is going to happen. As Christians, we have also a duty: being able of making prophetic condemnations and announcements. To be pleased with the status quo should never be a Catholic characteristic. Jesus was no conformist. Why should we?
Thank you for your courage, and keep fighting the good fight.
Just let me show you a post in Commonweal, dated from the some day. As you can see, you are not alone:
http://commonwealmagazine.org/what-do-they-iwanti
The video of an
The video of an Iraq-Afghanistan vet admonishing the police proves you wrong! "These freaks"...Shame on you! Again, it is amazing how easy it is to serve Hierarchy and Oligarchy and freely bear false witness on their behalf!.
Having done a few tours down
Having done a few tours down there (being held after my normal midnight shifts in a bad part of the city), I have been pushed, punched, and spit on by some of these people. Even some of the drug dealers and gang bangers where I normally work treat the police with more respect.
These people do not speak for
These people do not speak for Americans, they speak for themselves. Americans do not want to "replace capitalism" as many of the signs say. Americans do not want a socialist regime telling them how much they can earn, where they can live, what types of cars they can drive. Americans do not want a collectivist mentality to take hold in this country, where the needs and desires of the individual are subordinated to the dubious "greater good".
These people are an embarrassment to all decent men and women in this country. This dirty, ragged, motley crew of weirdos, bored college kids with more time and money than common sense, and aging hippies chanting their little slogans and wearing their little vests represents none but a tiny minority in this country.
If they think socialism and collectivism is such a great thing, then these folks need to go somewhere and start a commune and live together in a collectivist socialist utopia. Or they could move to Cuba or Vietnam or Venezuela. But leave the rest of us alone, we're sick of their nonsense.
fortuntately, Clint, you do
fortuntately, Clint, you do not speak for Americans, nor for our Church.
In fact, please see the priests speak in the excellent documentary Capitalism: A Love Story.
Who speak for the poor majority growing more every day by the insatiable greed of those you defend so staunchly.
Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor.
- a little slogan from a 'dirty, ragged, motley crew of weirdos"
Clint, we have this now: the needs and desires of the individual are subordinated to the dubious "greater good".
With the greater good determined by Dick Cheney, the Bush dynasty and the filthily wealthy elite minority.
Your pal Warren Buffet says: This is class warfare, and my class is winning, and we shouldn't be.
Funny, but the popes since
Funny, but the popes since Leo XIII have been more more collectivist in their teaching than capitalist. Do you agree with the magisterium?
Atacking Ms Mason/the
Atacking Ms Mason/the Pope?
In Caritas in Veritate Pope Benedict is very critical of the casino-like practices which led to the collapse of the financial markets in 2008. In No. 65 he is adamant that “Finance, therefore – through the renewed structures and operating methods that have to be designed after its misuse, which wreaked havoc on the real economy – now needs to go back to being an instrument directed towards improved wealth creation and development.” Apart from developing new structures of accountability he writes that “Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instrument which can serve to betray the interests of savers. Right intention, transparency, and the search for positive results are mutually compatible and must never be detached from one another.” In the next paragraph he calls for “the regulation of the financial sector, so as to safeguard weaker parties and discourage scandalous speculation and experimentation with new forms of finance, designed to support development projects, are positive experiences that should be further explored and encouraged, highlighting the responsibility of the investor.”
How can this be accomplished at the international level when in recent years governments have promoted deregulation of the capital markets which has led directly to the present crisis? In No. 67 he proposes a new role for the United Nations Organization and other multilateral financial institutions. The institutions alluded to here cover the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). He believes that there is a “strongly felt need, even in the midst of a global recession, for reform of the United Nations Organization, and likewise of economic institutions and international finance, so that the concept of the family of nations can acquire real teeth.” The Pope believes that a strengthened United Nations would be better to do such things as, “manage the global economy: revive economies hit by the crisis.” (Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC)
CWC, Protecting your
CWC, Protecting your wealth?
As you can see in the growing movement, they do represent the majority of the American people
Clint one of the things they
Clint one of the things they are protesting against is the socialization of corporate debt while these same corporations are allowed to privatize their profits. This is hardly capitalism. It's a very perverted form of corporate socialism.
"As we all learned last week,
"As we all learned last week, part of Steve Jobs success was his genius and creativity. But a good portion of it was also a result of his controlling, authoritarian leadership style." So you favor controlling, authoritarian leadership styles when they're efficient? - J. Ratzinger Jr.
In Washington on Tuesday,
In Washington on Tuesday, these leftists could only manage to assemble about 100 protesters (up from 53 when the day began). The usual suspects, the Washington Post reported, Code Pink, Planned Parenthood, Peace Action, etc. They spent time trying to decide how best to "occupy" the Hart Senate Office Building -- should they take over bathrooms or push all the buttons on all the elevators? In the end, they did nothing. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dcs-occupy-protest-attracting-onl...)
In Los Angeles, some Occupy LA speaker said,
"One of the speakers said the solution is nonviolent movement. No, my friend. I’ll give you two examples: French Revolution, and Indian so-called Revolution. Gandhi, Gandhi today is, with respect to all of you, Gandhi today is a tumor that the ruling class is using constantly to mislead us. French Revolution made fundamental transformation. But it was bloody.
India, the result of Gandhi, is 600 million people living in maximum poverty.
So, ultimately, the bourgeoisie won’t go without violent means. Revolution! Yes, revolution that is led by the working class. Long live revolution! Long live socialism!” (http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/10/11/occupy-l-a-speaker-violence-wi...)
In other words, do away with nonviolent means and embrace violence and the shedding of blood. Apparently, this fellow does not read Fr. John Dear, but, I suppose Ms. Manson will, nonetheless, support him as a "well informed, articulate, justice oriented" individual.
Finally, Iran has joined in support for these protesters. Ayatolla Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, has called these protests the "American Spring" and predicts that they will "topple" capitalism in the West. (http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Iran-Wall-Street-protests-to-toppl...). So, these people are being praised by the leader of a regime renowned the world over for its oppression of its own people, suppression of all human rights (including, ironically, the right to protest), and for being a state sponsor of global terrorism. How appropriate.
This is what Ms. Manson is praising, a group of incompetents and violent radicals who are being supported and praised by one of the most violent and evil regimes on the planet, Iran. This movement is despicable, and so is the praise being heaped upon it by the left.
This (bowel) movement is also
This (bowel) movement is also supported by the Obama Administration, Cong. Pelosi, and a cadre of other wingnuts. These are the shocktroops that James Hoffa, Jr. was calling for this past Labor Day.
OWS has also called for violence in order to get its point across. They are NOTHING compared to the Tea Party. The Tea Party demonstrations were inhabited by law abiding citizens, done on weekends because they hold jobs and support their families, and don't live in their parents basements. Wherever their rallies were held, they picked up after themselves, and generally left the places in better shape then when they arrived. They didn't use the world as their toilet.
Che is Dead, Deo Gratias!
Dromig 10, congratulate
Dromig 10, congratulate yourself for gloating over the misery of millions in this country.
Jesus had plenty to say of the rich, pharisaers, functionaires and priest of his time. The tea party crowd have been used by the same type of influential people as those who were instrumental for the poverty and abuse of their time.
If the greedy corporation of these nation had not exported million of jobs overseas and south for more obscene profit, on the back of underpaid and abused foreigner, there would not be so many people in the streets demonstrating in this country.
Petty criminals go to prison, as they should, but none of the criminals from wall street and big business have been held responsible for their high crimes which caused the collapse of our economy. Because of the corruption of the filthy rich, many do indeed live in their parents basement, in cars and on the street. This seems to give you great pleasure.
Martha, I am not gloating
Martha, I am not gloating over the misery of others. I was trying to point out that the demonstrators of OWS are the useful idiots whom Lenin and Stalin reference when the speak of the masses. I can hear the crickets when the lamestream media reports that these demonstrators wish to imprison or kill the bosses. Their message is incoherent, more or less all over the place. The goons from SEIU, the Van Joneses, the Clowards and Pivens, the Bill Ayers, will occupy the vacuum that these useful idiots wish to create, but they, the useful idiots, don't know it. This is the crap they have been fed from grade school on up. All the peace and justice stuff, and not a whiff of personal responsibility.
As for the rich, Jesus didn't condemn the rich for being rich, He condemned them for placing riches above God. Money is only a means for obtaining goods and service we want. It is only a tool, an inanimate object.
I am as against the greedy corporations as you are. Some have made their money by getting preferential tax treatment from their buddies in Congress, both Dems and Reps. It is not the job of gov't to pick the winners and losers as it sees fit. Just look at the green energy sector, a new company, EnerDel, is going belly up after receiving $118 billion in our hard earned taxes which keep going to feed Leviathan.
The reason companies are sending jobs overseas is because of the restrictions placed by gov't AND the hostile environment which organized labor creates with their mandates. I have no problem with wages being collectively bargained, it's all the benefits that have a cost which isn't paid for until way down the road. It's the same for unionized gov't employees. Our states, counties and municipalities are strangled with pension costs.
The Tea Party represents the attitude taken by our founding fathers that gov't is needed, but in a defined and limited manner. What we have today is obscene. Both Bush and Obama have the idea that it's gov't's job to save us from ourselves, and we lose more freedom everyday. Our wages, and what portion we keep is a direct correlation to our freedoms. If some make more, or even much more, than me, why should I begrudge them? The parable from a few weeks ago about the man who pays his workers in reverse order to when they started in the day is a clear example of not concerning ourselves with others good fortune. This is not a license by those who cheat, rip off their clients and workers, or illegally make money. There are laws, and we are a nation of laws, not men. It is this reason why gov't should not be picking winners and losers like the Obama Administration is doing.
CWC, Jesus was the very first
CWC, Jesus was the very first leftist ever. Have you seen them latest numbers of the protestors. Not even the cruel corporate media cannot ignore them anymore.
20 percent of the people in this country are in poverty and another 100 millions more on the verge of it, with the help of the likes of you, they as well end up homeless and hungry.
Thanks for nothing
Martha, all this under a
Martha, all this under a Democratic President and Democratic House. My, the Democrats have no concern for the poor!
Democratic house??? Since
Democratic house??? Since when? The leadership is GOP Boehner, under whom they have pushed through anti labor legislations, and diminshed safety nets, for which people have paid into.
Leave Lening and Stalin out if this. The corporate corrupt stranglehold on the USA seems to be worse than empiraical zarist had on Russa. Millions now suffer now in this country thanks to the perverted GOP lording over us on behalf of criminal business; defeating any measures by the current administration to reverse the trend, raiding the Social Security trust fund....all to gain back the power of the executive branch for more crorruptive measures.
WALL ST, DC & RCC
WALL ST, DC & RCC ...........Thanks, Jamie, for this interesting and incisive report. As someone who spent 30+ years in the highest echelons of Watt Street, I am certain the protests can and will be helpful in pushing politicians of both parties to finally bite the hand that feeds them, the big banks. ............Surpisingly to many, Wall Street bankers and their wealthy allies have great influence on the Vatican and US bishops via groups like Opus Dei, the Knights of Malta, FADICA, the Leadership Roundtable, LEGATUS,et al., which explains why the bishops seem always to back the "low tax" political party. Wealthy Catholics make large tax-deductible contributions to the bishops' groups and reap huge tax savings for every year tax rates on high earners stay low. For more on this, please see the comment entitled, "WALL ST OWNS DC AND THE RCC" accessible by clicking on to http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/wall-street-protests . ..............Interestingly, the Wall Street disruptions have parallels to the present and pending disruptions among the hierarchy as described in the comment under the heading, "LET'S GO BACK FURTHER" to Eugene Kennedy's excellent current column, "You can't go to Rome again" accessible by clicking on to http://ncronline.org/blogs/bulletins-human-side/you-cant-go-rome-again . Keep up the great work.
Finally an article that I can
Finally an article that I can almost march in step with you to, except for the part where you see a democratic church. Seems that you can not ever separate the church from politics.
I have this question for you though. Do you believe that it is possible for a movement made up of just occupiers to change the status quo? Look at Mayor Bloomberg in New York when he says "just remain peaceful and keep in your place." Will this ever be enough pressure? If it becomes a waiting game, then politicians and beurocrats(sp), and corporate people will simply wait it out.
Another question is since the monetary model and the political model are so intertwined, is it possible to change capitalism without radically changing democracy as well?
A third question is, after any possible success, what do you do with all of those who worked according to the old system, the loyalists? A look at Libya will tell you that systems do not change peacefully.
Take me for example. I am in complete agreement concerning the political and corporate changes that the occupy movement is trying to present. But I do not support such strategy in the Church. Has the independent church movement thought about what they will do with people like myself, a loyalist? Will the movement devolve into just another group with dictatorial powers over those whom they don't like or appreciate? Tyranny by the multitude is much worse than tyranny by a singular.
If this is the leadership of
If this is the leadership of the next generation, our great country and world is in trouble. These are malcontents who defecate on police cars, harass good and decent citizens--thugs! As for that Muslim woman and the Asian woman that Jamie writes about, let them try this lawlessness in a Muslim country or an Asian country and see what happens. Why does NCR and its writers continue to hold up these thugs as heroes? Eric Cantor may be nervous about this group because there is no telling what "give-me--give-me--give-me" people will do next. The fact that Michael Moore and his ilk are heroes of this group tells us these are people filled with hatred and a feelings of entitlement.
Excellent, well-articulated,
Excellent, well-articulated, and "dead on" article.
Occupy Wall street is
Occupy Wall street is destroying public property. They leave garbage everywhere and just want someone to pay them to do nothing.
They want Free education, by which they mean to say that they want someone else to pay for their education. Well I want a car, but that does not mean that everyone ought to pay so that I can get this good thing.
The OWS group pretends to be the 99% but since the start, there were far more people in the TP.
memo to GOP: phoney
memo to GOP: phoney CAIN/PALIN puppets will not win us.
Jobs and justice will, with health care and housing and education and peace and the rest of our Catholic social issues.
It seems to be frequently
It seems to be frequently repeated that "Occupy Wall Street" has no proposals. There is a list of proposed demands with a request for us to vote on them and a closing date by which we are to have completed that task. http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demand... The demands are well worth looking at and voting on.
The second thing I find very interesting is that Occupy Wall Street is focusing on the injustice of the enormous economic divide we have in this country, and indeed the world - "we are the 99%". On September 15th of this year, almost a month ago, Archbishop Dolan, President of the USCCB, sent out a letter to his "Brother Bishops" about the very same issue: http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/abp-dolan-economic-crisis He said: "I hope we can use our opportunities as pastors, teachers, and leaders to focus public attention and priority on the scandal of so much poverty and so many without work in our society. In order to assist you in these ongoing efforts, the Administrative Committee has asked the bishops' conference to provide you, diocesan staffs and other leaders with resources and materials for preaching, educating the faithful and advocating on behalf of the poor and jobless." I have not heard any preaching about this matter over the past month. I have done a "Search" of the Boston Pilot website looking for "Archbishop Dolan" and, though I have found mention of him in connection with other issues, I have found no mention of this letter or its message. Those mentions of the protests against the banks in The Pilot are simply reprints of Catholic News Service stories. I would be very interested to know of other people's experience in other parishes/dioceses. Are you hearing any preaching on this subject? Is your diocesan newspaper raising up these issues and educating about them?
One other point. The other
One other point. The other day I was walking home and encountered a group of young students from the local Catholic High School, my alma mater. I stopped to engage them. I asked them if in their studies (they were sophomores) they did "current events". No, they said. I asked them if there was any discussion in their classes about the "Occupy" movements. No, they said. I found this alarming. When I was in High School (and even in Grammar School) we did current events. In my Freshman Year we studied the big Encyclicals: Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno. I am 65. But then I thought again... I certainly have not heard ANY sermons referencing Lumen Gentium or the other documents of Vatican II for a very, very long time. Exactly what are our students in Catholic High Schools learning? Through what lens are they viewing the events they see on the TV or read about on the internet? Do we occasionally check their pulse? Or, are we simply content that our school roster is complete and our staff in place?
More ZEAL than actual
More ZEAL than actual leadership at this point in the movement. Perhaps this book would be a good starting point for an INTELLECTUAL foundation for the 99% to base their future POLITICAL ACTION:
(about 2:40 into the clip)
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000050051
http://www.amazon.com/Price-Civilization-Reawakening-Prosperity-ebook/dp...
Meanwhile the 1% are all reading THIS book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056JIT6C/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_...
Great article Jamie. This
Great article Jamie. This country has fallen a long way from true democracy or true capitalism. The death knell was 2008 when congress agreed--twice-- to socialize corporate debt while allowing these same corporations to keep their profits private and financial instruments unregulated. We used to think the middle class was too big to fail. We were wrong and our children will pay the price.
I for one wish they would
I for one wish they would raise the tax rate on the highest income earners to 100%. That would still not be enough to make a dent in our massive federal debt. Then they would have to face the fact that entitlements will have to be cut drastically in order put our financial house in order.
Here is an inciteful video from one of the occupiers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrPGoPFRUdc&feature=player_embedded
so they should pay all of
so they should pay all of their income to the government? are you kidding?
OWS needs to really settle on
OWS needs to really settle on what it wants. I suggest instead of regulating capitalism (which won't work) they should work on replacing it with employee-ownership of the workplace and with such workplaces replacing financial services for members (educational, consumer, mortgage). Of course, doing that requires thinking outside the standard liberal box, including converting some or all of Social Security contributions to personal accounts holding employer voting stock (rather than index funds - which decrease accountability to shareholders and employees).
One of the main themes - if
One of the main themes - if not the main educational themes - of Occupy Wall Street is the uneven distribution of income and financial assets in the US, an inequality that has grown hugely over the past 30 years.
This article from a respected source summarizes the situation of the 99% vs the 1%
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
The IMF has developed models that demonstrate that big income inequalities (such as we have in the USA) inevitably produce constant financial crises.
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2010/wp10268.pdf
Finally, why no jobs? The main reason is that the 1% and possibly the top 10% are investing their money in financial speculation rather than in business and job growth. Financial speculation means rapid trading through arbitrage, short selling and programmed trading., The top 1% per cent make huge sums from these practices. Huge amounts of money are rapidly moved around the world's financial markets but the money never stays anywhere long enough for an operating business to put to use. Some of this trading is don through hedge funds (holding as of Sept 2011 $2.16 trillion dollars. Other rapid trading is done internally by corporations: the trillions you hear about that US corporation are "sitting on" are being used for this kind of speculation.
In order words our financial system is designed to divert capital away from investment in business growth and jobs into financial speculation, an activity that does not grow our economy but which does further enrich the top 1%. The top corporate 1% also use billions to pay lobbyists, donate to elections, and buy Congress. And the President, who depends on contributions from Wall St. Meanwhile the middle class shrinks, we have a jobless "recovery," the poor are pushed into further desperation, incomes of the employed (except for top corporate operatives) are reduced, and the future is stolen from our debt-ridden or unemployed youth. And the Catholic Church, and regular church-goers, consistently ally with the forces that are causing this mess.
Our financial system is broken. How shall we fix it?
revolution with integral
revolution with integral Liberation Theology
before millions of us starve homeless and naked while the filthy rich writhe in their warming orgies.
perhaps already we find it is too late.
come to the desert, not to Wall Street
How did I know when i began
How did I know when i began to read this blog that some how the leadership of the Church would be discussed. The difference is that these people protesting have no alternative if they are unhappy with with the USA other than emmigrating to a new country. You, who are unhappy with the Church, can leave at any time and join another church. May I remind you that years ago, Ms. Feidler tried to get millions of signatures protesting the leadership of the Church, even paying chidren to get signatures and it was a dismal failure.
Cain is correct when he says those protesting should take their concerns to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Ano, Cain is a traitor, who
Ano, Cain is a traitor, who wants to enslave 99 percent of the people, to the benefit of the bloodsuckers, for whom it is never anough and never good enough.
Martha, who is Cain a traitor
Martha, who is Cain a traitor to? This is an offensively racist remark. Black Americans are not homogenous and Reverend Al Sharpton does not speak for all blacks.
Wonderful reporting. Thanks
Wonderful reporting. Thanks for your consistent efforts on the part of the people, Jamie. I never miss anything you write and often post them.
It amazes me how so many
It amazes me how so many people are convinced that the Banks and Wall Street are the good guys. They are laughing all the way to the bank and thank you for your blind loyalty.
"It amazes me how so many
"It amazes me how so many people are convinced that the Banks and Wall Street are the good guys. They are laughing all the way to the bank and thank you for your blind loyalty."
It's amazing how many people think they're "the bad guys," too. Most of the bankers and Wall Street folks ARE in the 99%. It's also amazing how many people think the union members who have bankrupted cities or who prevent positive change for POOR children trapped in failing schools to protect their cushy benefits packages are the good guys. And finally, it's amazing how NCR has been reduced to a rag trafficking in whatever liberal shibboleths drift across their desks. NCR has become a joke - a bad one at that.
How very sad it is (and how
How very sad it is (and how very quickly) the stereotypes come out: "dirty hippies," "lazy students," etc. How frightened the right must be to see their heretofore-unchallenged authority questioned! Notice that the more scared they are, the more ugly and generalized their insults become.
The most common response I've heard at Occupy Chicago (one of the 1100 local movements, grassroots all, unlike the Koch Brothers-financed Teabaggers)has been "get a job!" The best response I've heard? "Here's my resume. I have a master's degree. Would you be kind enough to offer me one?" Then the little scardy-cat $1000+ suits scurry off in fear, happily content because they've got theirs and could care less about anybody else. The saddest sign in several windows on LaSalle Street, from the Federal Reserve? "We're the 1%!"
You can mock the Occupiers, call them names, and wish they'd just go away. But they aren't going away, and they have long memories. They are peaceful and will be glad to explain themselves, should you actually speak to one or more of them. Go on -- be brave!
Susan Lersch
susan.lersch@yahoo.com
Yes, they're really foam in
Yes, they're really foam in at the mouth now. The next couple years will hopefully give them more cause. It's not the sixties redux, my neoliberal friends, it's the thirties again. Take your blood pressure medicine daily.
If anyone is fearful of these
If anyone is fearful of these people, they are right to be so. These people actually advocate the toppling of the capitalist/free market system that this nation was founded on. These people have looked at the absolute economic chaos that decades of socialism, government-run health care, and worshiping at the union altars have caused in Europe, and they still want these policies to be instituted in the United States. Either they suffer from mass delusions, are not bright enough to put two and two together, or they are so blinded by their own selfish interests and ideology that they cannot see that implementing these same failed policies here will lead to the same economic collapse that Europe is suffering from. They cannot see that socialism is unsustainable. That type of delusional thinking is indeed frightening.
Given the choice of people like this implementing some form of socialism, or maintaining the status quo, to me there is no doubt: give me what we have! Of course, I would prefer a DRAMATICALLY reduced federal government, one that does only that which is specifically enumerated by the Constitution and nothing else. Either way, I have no desire whatsoever to be governed by people like these protesters. God forbid!!
The insulting posts! I'm
The insulting posts!
I'm deeply ashamed. The insulting posts are an insult to all justice and peace oriented people in the world, where similar movements are happening. I don't like to accuse nations as a whole, but I can accuse a system based only in speculation and greed - the Wall Street globalized system - that plunged humanity in one of the darkest moments of history. People around the world are suffering the effects caused by the 2007/2008 meltdown. The first country that went banrupt was Iceland, once considered the happyest country in the planet, Greece followed, among many others. The Greek's despair is such, that since the crisis the suicide rate had a raise of 25%. The poorest of the poor in developing countries are suffering the most.
Wall Street's is a disfunctional and criminal system: hedge funds, fraudulent derivatives, short selling... Can you imagine the effect on the world finantial and economic system caused by thousands of computers giving orders to sell or buy stock at the least signal? They can reduce to despair entire populations just like that. If the people who posted these hate messages are Catholics, from now own I will call myself just a Christian!
It's not about replacing
It's not about replacing capitalism with socialism. Why do we always need to pit one system, one party, one religion, one race against another in this country? My system, my party, my race, my religion is the good guy and everybody else not on my team is the bad guy. Real life is not a movie or a sporting event or a news TV soundbite. In the real world where things actually get done, things are not so black and white. We do not live in a completely capitalistic country nor do we live in a completely socialistic country. Our system is a mix, sometimes more one than another but never just one. Would those who hail the advantages of capitalism support ending public libraries and state departments that provide valuable social services which we all use? Would those who favor socialism wish to do away with the high standard of living capitalism has brought to so many people?
Do you think the ricj have
Do you think the ricj have hired pro bloggers to try to nullify this fledgling movement?
we held our own little Occupy
we held our own little Occupy in front of the US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico Saturday, and I put up about a hundred photos of the event over at my flickr account:
flickr.com/photos/charlesjscanlon
Amazing. Seems like history
Amazing. Seems like history repeating itself. A disgruntled part of the population decides to choose a group to target. The targeted group becomes responsible for all the ills of society, including poverty, joblessness, debt, etc. They are labeled as greedy capitalist pigs. The disgruntled part of the population quickly grows and becomes a "movement". They continue to elect criminals who bear huge responsibility for the financial woes of the country, but are never brought to justice. These same elected criminals are in fact put in charge of developing new regulatory schemes that will ensure continued upheaval and hatred of the targeted group. The "movement" finally resorts to mob mentality and destruction of businesses. Christallnacht and Nazi Germany in the 30's? Nope just OWS in the 2010's....
And in a recent interbview it
And in a recent interbview it was found that 31% of the OWS protesters supported violence. OWS is a violent mob looking for a spark to set it off. NCR support of it is shameful.
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