09-18-2021, 12:32 AM
(09-17-2021, 08:27 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:(09-17-2021, 12:04 PM)David Horn Wrote:(09-17-2021, 09:00 AM)beechnut79 Wrote: Today is the tenth anniversary of the takeover of Zucotti Park in New York by a band of folks who labeled their movement as Occupy Wall Street. It’s goal presumably was to call attention to the vast inequalities that have taken place since the Reagan heyday of the 1980s. This is when what I often refer to as a Creed of Greed took the helm. Though not exactly stated this way, the movement challenged what could be referred to as our Halloween economy, as it has been predicated on treats for Wall Street, tricks for Main Street.
Sadly the movement accomplished little except to bring greater awareness to a problem which had been festering for some three decades, now four. Many if not most of us feel restricted of dejected when it comes to relationships and work. Many go to our workplaces in fear, wondering who will try to undo what we have been trying to build. And while what one poster here stated about the rank and file workforce being treated as livestock at best, vermin at worst may be a bit of overkill, what is left of our hard fought for labor laws are the only thing that has saved many from reverting to wholesale sweatshops. But our big labor unions of yore had one major fault, and that is while being formed to combat the greed of corporations, they ended up becoming too greeedy themselves, which led to their downfall and near extinction. And for many folks their self-esteem has taken a big hit as they can no longer count on a job being there for them over the long haul and being able to retire with a lucrative pension. We were for long told that if you keep putting in the effort that it will pay off. For most this is no longer the case. For the most part not much has changed for the better in the ten years since Occupy.
So, what do you see as the legacy of the Occupy movement and could a resurrection become possible
OWS was a precursor and, like most precursors, it had great vision and poor execution. Labor unions, on the other hand, had the execution down pat, but lacked vision of what needed to be fixed. Unfortuately, the two never mixed (and probably would have spent more time squabbling than cooperating). The old solution (unions) is broken and the new solutiion (OWS being only one of several) is having failure-to-launch problems. Some third thing (TBD) needs to arrive on the scene or this dies an ugly death.
OWS on the saecular scale fell about the same time as did the Bonus Army of the early 1930s. Both no doubt relegated to being scant footnotes on the entire landscape and may end up being pretty much forgotten to all but the historians. Just like the Hippie and Yuppie movements.
Right now it depends on what two senators do whether the Occupy Movement has any tangible result. Send an email to senators Sinema and Manchin and tell them to pass the reconciliation bill. It's a giant step away from the trickle-down economics that created the 1% against which Occupy protested.
It will be a great start, but what emerges from Manchin and Sinema may not be adequate, and in any event more activism and participation, or a true resurrection, will be needed to keep this big shift in the direction of our ship of state on course and get the rest of the agenda done, including full voting rights for the people.
Then the hippie and yuppie and green/great society sixties movements will reach their peak of fulfillment in the next Awakening, which will resurrect and continue the previous ones. That's what ALL Awakenings do, from saeculum to saeculum, but this time the planetary cycles are explicit in connecting the start to the climax.