America: the people demonstrate

Occupy Wall Street demonstration leads to 700 arrests, as it spreads from NYC to other cities. Is a people's revolution underway?


Brookyn Bridge New York: placards, throngs of educated and articulate people, a desire for change. The bankers shouldn't be bailed out, but the people ought to be in these times of austerity, they say. We are the 99%, they are the 1% who hold onto power. Arrested protestors, a familiar world scene over past months.

"Disorganized" as CNN described the preceeding gathering which has fluctuated in size at a park near Wall Street, and it might be. It appears that 'frustrated' might better describe the under-financed and ill-prepared attendees. But they meet to demand a halt to what they see as 'corporate greed' and the unbridled buying of influence in Washington.

Concerns about DC might be justified, as Bloomberg reported in 2009 that Barack Obama, who had spoken of a need to clean up Washington "has wavered on his pledge to block lobbyists from working in his administration, (and) is finding his Cabinet nominees’ violations of tax laws more difficult to overlook".

"All the people like us are We, And every one else is They" wrote Rudyard Kipling. But as we all know, there are more of us than of them, the elite. For by their very nature the elite rules from atop a steep pyramid, we flounder and worry at the foot of that structure.

The movement might quickly gather pace via social networking sites. Whether it'll be any more successful than it has been in Spain, for example, is open to question. But then, revolution rarely occurs from on high, but requires the people to press for change.

As the US election 2012 gathers pace, this counter-establishement movement operating in precise disharmonious parallel will be fascinating to follow.

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1 comment:

  1. A somewhat more jaded look at the group may be found here: http://fundypost.blogspot.com/2011/10/night-of-living-documents.html

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