What is Occupy? A new movement symbolizing the rising awareness of unfairness, and the lack of positive change? A protest? A tide of unrest stemming from decades of unraveling barriers against greed and the economic theories bereft of any concern for the common good?
It's all of these, based on anger from palpable feelings of betrayal and the empirical evidence that Wall Street has profited (risen) from the ashes of the American Dream: our Government let this happen.
The intellect and steadfastness of purpose behind all the individuals that have joined together in this collective effort to reclaim their right to share in the American Dream is not going away. Unions have been here before. And now almost 50 percent fewer Americans live in middleclass neighborhoods.
In 1948, Hubert Humphrey, in an impassioned speech, said the Civil Rights Movement was a response to 172 years of inequality and its time had come. In 1964, as Lyndon Johnson's Vice President, he helped push the Civil Rights Act through Congress.
Now there is a movement against greed. Greed has been a driving force of humanity from the beginning of history, just like man's enslavement of his fellow man; which can well be considered a function of greed. Slavery obviated the need for cheap labor and shipping jobs offshore -- again, a practice based on greed.
Unbridled greed is not concerned with morality or any public good.
There so many diverse manifestations of greed in our society which have been assiduously cultured by the greediest as a generation of "depression psychosis" (J. K. Galbraith) dissipated in the aftermath of the Great Depression. And this rebirth of unfettered Greed has once again laid to waste our economy and, increasingly, our society.
However, today greed has become so widespread that the fight against it often polarizes into individual issues that lead to a lot of isolated shouting -- thereby allowing the root cause to become obscured. Instead, we hear so much about the parts -- parts that have not been tied together to be able to see the whole -- the whole truth.
Think about all the parts:
Congress divided into vectors, left and right; raters who committed fraud and have the chutzpah to rate the United States; the Supreme Court standing up for corporations -- when the Bill of Rights and the Constitution were written to protect the people; the Fourth Estate is supposed to objectively create informed public opinion, but when it is objective the "fair and balanced" buffoons yell liberal and worse names; tax laws favoring the ultra rich; subsidies for the most profitable corporations the world has ever seen -- Big Oil; the SEC protects its rules but does not enforce regulations; the Fed does not enforce regulations regarding the issuance of "complex securities that must be explained to be understood" --yet Alan Greenspan admitted that in all honesty he could not explain the financial instruments, "too complex to understand;" and the Fed has its own power of attorney to do what it chooses with the U.S. Treasury printing presses; support for public education has been devalued and privatizing has customarily not provided a better format; Congress, after attacking the wrong country, goes to war in Afghanistan -- a graveyard full of all the failed countries who were there in the past; health carriers, in an oligopolistic/monopolistic industry, do whatever they see best for their own bottom line, and the Sherman Act was defused decades ago when there was real competition from hundreds of health carriers; jobs shipped offshore and profits parked off shore; Wall Street mega-bank holding companies having their own way no matter what; and capitalism along with government are viewed as culprits, and not as essential elements to our Democracy that have gone awry.
While Congress has cried UNCLE to get enough money to run campaigns to get elected and stay elected, it seems -- so have presidents.
How long will it take to coalesce the collective spirit of Occupy into a movement based on the Doctrine of Fairness to restore Government and Capitalism to a force for the beneficial interests of our society?
Adam Smith believed that one byproduct of Capitalism would be for the "beneficial interest of society." How long will it take more of the 99 percent to comprehend that they share some responsibility for allowing greed to flourish and take what it can from the society it needs to survive?
We desperately need the right conversation in this country. A new dialogue of public understanding about what has really happened and that all the unfettered greed and lies must be stopped.
We are awash in a sea of greed caused by the deregulation and devaluation of ethics. And unless we recognize and acknowledge: the return of Social Darwinism -- reborn as Financial Darwinism -- has infected our society with a toxic virus resulting in the largest percentage of people living in poverty in the United States in our recorded history; the highest level of people without full-time or any jobs since the Great Depression; the existence of most favoritism ever accorded to banks - we will not cure Wall Street Flu.
The past ought to serve as prologue. We know what to do.
So why are people willing to sleep outside in parks, in cities all over our country and the world? Why is there a generation of young adults (many are our own children) who have borrowed money to go to school who feel betrayed by government support for greed and not for education? Think about how our government has funded banks that charge exorbitant interest rates on student loans -- and consider the government has not charged banks interest on the funds they loan to students!
What could we do with the billions of annual subsidies given to Big Oil -- why can't Congress give it to students?
Proposals to rectify student loans have been tepid at best. Financial reform is reform in name only, and banks have not been reined in. These are high-profile problems -- inequalities -- that continue.
Why is there a vast tide of unrest sweeping our country and so many Americans from all age groups and economic backgrounds who have now joined this protest? It is simple, because of the fundamental unfairness and lack of the application of available solutions. Congressional Republicans have not brought the Jobs bill out of committee for a vote. Angry?
So what is the movement about, why are there protests? Why are people willing to sleep in streets outside in lousy weather?
Because they care, they care about a better country and a fairer playing field; and they feel betrayed. They (the 99 percent) are victims in the 30-Year War Against the American Dream -- a dream they have been swindled out of. Keep in mind swindlers do not care about their victims. Our government does not get it yet. Democrats cannot just promise change and hope, and Tea Partiers and Republicans may have more in common with Occupy than they care to imagine.
So now is the time to coalesce for the common good. Now is the time to fight to establish The Doctrine of Fairness.
E. Henry Schoenberger is the author of How We Got Swindled by Wall Street Godfathers, Greed & Financial Darwinism ~ The 30-Year War Against the American Dream. To learn more; www.howwegotswindled.com.
Follow E. Henry Schoenberger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ehschoenberger
Ever since the 2010 elections, several GOP controlled states got busy crafting and passing onerous Voter I.D. laws to inhibit, confuse, and frustrate potential Democratic votes, all in the name of ferocious Voter Fraud thats going on.
such as elderly women bringing certified copies of Birth or Marriage certificates, not honoring State Drivers Licenses because some states offer them to non citizens thereby forcing all potential voters to have 'special' state I.D.s made, voting boards allowed to simply throw out 'bad handwriting' votes, (the elderly often suffer with arthritis and other conditions.)
The ONLY thing we seem to have left in this country is the ability to have a voice and Vote. When thats gone, then The Great Experiment will be gone too. When Republicans use a Voter Fraud Bogeyman in order to repress the Democratic turnout, this is the equivalent of Poll Taxes or Civics Testing and is pushing us closer to that reality.
When only 32% of the U.S. Voting population participated in the last election, THEY win.
And naturally, not one peep from our Corporate Owned Media.
The who, what, where, why, and when needs to be nailed down and this information needs to be spread. It's frustrating because there are lots of people who want to go to the DC Occupy, but there's nothing organized to go to.
How we use this characteristic to achieve socially valued goals and objectives is the responsibility of our government, "we the people." How we structure our rewards and punishments to control human behavior to ahieve desireable outcomes and avoid painful outcomes is the role of our elected officials. In a round-about way the politicians are responsible for the bad outcomes we have achieved in the U.S. because of the faulty way we have structured our system of rewards and punishments.
We need to enact policies that align the self-interest of greedy individuals to achieve the goals and objectives of the country. Let capitalism reign as the most effective means of generating wealth; but, enact tax and labor policies to ensure that the wealth is distributed in such a way so that we have a balance between the individual satisying their greed and the group achieving it's goals and objectives through government intervention (tax policies).