In the Spring of 2000, my friend and former colleague Zack Exley arrived in Washington, DC, to observe the protests that had engulfed the city during the World Bank's annual meeting. Driving into Washington from the airport, out the window of his taxi he saw "a teenage white girl with long dreadlocks who wore a homemade t-shirt proclaiming: WE NEED A NEW SYSTEM."
Later that evening he attended a party at the home of then-Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers along with "ambassadors, politicians, esteemed professors and what seemed like the entire combined senior economist staff of the IMF, World Bank and Treasury."
It turned out Larry Summers had seen the girl too and was eagerly telling his guests about an interaction he had with her:
And so I asked the girl: 'What is this new system that you want? Tell me about it!' And the girl had nothing. Nothing! She had no fucking clue what this magical new system was supposed to be. No one is saying that there aren't problems with the world economy the way it is today. But these kids out there -- they don't know what they want!"Mr. Secretary," said Zack. "You've got 50 economics PhDs in this room who pretty much run the world economy. And you're asking that girl for a better system? Aren't the solutions your job? You admit billions are living in hell, but it's up to that girl to fix it?"
Summers chuckled and the conversation moved on.
More than a decade has passed since Larry Summers saw that teenage girl outside the World Bank, and our domestic and global economy has only further deteriorated. We've seen two burst bubbles, two recessions, two major wars (many more minor skirmishes), lower employment, and higher income inequality. Meanwhile, those with power in our financial, political and media worlds simply cheered or sat on the sidelines feigning powerlessness.
Over the last twenty five days across the media -- with several notable exceptions -- we've seen elites point fingers, chuckle and play punch the hippy while covering the Occupy Wall Street protests. Whether it's reporters at CNN mocking protesters while sympathizing with Wall Street traders, Rush Limbaugh referring to protestors as a "parade of human debris," or a conservative reporter acting as an agent provocateur at a protest in Washington, DC, at best many in the media seem desperate not to face the fundamental issues at the heart of the demonstrations, at worst they place blame for our failed economy at the feet of the protestors -- mocking them as unemployed drains on the country.
It also comes as no surprise that Fox, which actively worked to build the Tea Party movement, has attacked these grassroots uprisings as "astroturf," and "petulant little children," and compared protestors to the "Unabomber." The Tea Party and Fox News fight to protect our system's fundamental inequalities while Occupy Wall Street is a fundamental challenge to it.
In 2000, Larry Summers tried to outsource fixing a global economic system he bore responsibility for to a girl in dreadlocks. Elites in the media and our political system are now attempting to foist the same responsibility to those camping in Zuccotti Park.
As the New York Times astutely pointed out: "It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That's the job of the nation's leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies."
If those in the media casting aspersions on the protestors had spent a decade covering the underlying problems with our economy, instead of cheerleading the housing bubble; worked to expose the lies that led our country to war, instead of taking an administration at its word; and not allowed themselves to be manipulated by political and media figures whose goal was simply to distort our political processes, there might not be a need to Occupy Wall Street. Instead the dreadlocked girl is still right -- we need a new system.
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meantime less loud about their mission to change the life of people. Life changers they
became indeed.
Danny Schechter wrote a nice summary of the recent failure of media, giving an
insight into the problem.
http://rinf.com/alt-news/media-news/where-was-media-when-sub-prime-disaster-unfolded/2854/
It should be noted that newspapers, for instance, are in entering the seventh year of
crisis. They are gradually vanishing.
And what happens if we have 1993 again, where the Democrats pass an economy saving budget with zero Republican votes, Again?
Go back and take a look at Teddy Roosevelt. Somewhere, amongst the movement, you need to find a Teddy Roosevelt.
As far as I can tell, much of the worldwide Occupy movement is about getting rid of corruption, the government-corporate devil's dance. It's also about trying to look at things in new ways.
People often think of TR in terms of "Speak softly and carry a big stick," of blood sports, and Great White Fleets.
However, he began as anti-monopoly, anti-corruption campaigner and remained so. He was a conservationist... when very few were talking about it.
Although never super-healthy, with poor sight, he worked hard and seemed to have unlimited energy.... and, like Bill Clinton, a nearly photographic memory.... and he loved a political fight.
TR wrote and wrote and wrote.
Check out his writings... use them.... and start looking
These cowards sit in their comfort taking cheap shots at those who are out there showing courage, in far less than comfortable circumstances.
And by the way, when I see these demonstrators interviewed by the likes of Victoria Jackson, the level of their intelligence and articulation makes the people at the Tea Party demonstrations look like blathering dunces by comparison.
Perception, however, is 99% of reality. The Wal Mart Moms in the flyover states look at OWS and see unfocused and privileged college students together with paid union protestors and find nothing there with which they would want to join forces. Anything that rocks the average world isn't ever going to get an impartial hearing.
The best result of the protests is that Congress decides to give bank regulation some teeth and gets major bi-partisan support in the effort. Nah--didn't think so either.
My crystal ball says Republicans get the next four years to screw up which convinces both sides they got it all wrong, and we need a completely new paradigm. You will not see anything like European social democracy, but you might at least be able to loosen regulations on small business, tighten them on financial institutions, make taxes fairer and flatter and finally--comprehensively--address the issue of fair trade vs. free trade.
People who have jobs whose wages enable them to have a decent life aren't camping in public parks and thinking up catchy signs.
That is why they don't get it, especially when the "new system" offers an alternative counter culture.
I place the odds of the American people reclaiming the current system from the corporations, lobbyists, and super-rich are less than 1%. Sure electing a president is easy enough, but can the people of America fill congress with politicians for the people? Not going to happen. It'll be easier to tear the whole system down and start from square one.
In the end, congress will probably throw the population a bone or two to keep them pacified so that the current institution continues to exist as long as possible.
In the 80's Canada was where the US is now. They had runaway deficits and burgeoning entitlements. They fixed it. It was uncomfortable for awhile, but not impossible. The result is that the Great Recession effected Canada less than any other Western nation because they did not experience the banking and housing crisis as did America.
We don't need to re-invent the wheel, just get bi-partisan consensus. If that is impossible, our government is well and truly broken and we need to consider a constitutional convention which allows the red and blue states to just implement their own versions of their ideal economy.
The protestors know nothing about anything. So what?
how do you know?
:-)