NEW YORK -- A week ago, I happened on "Occupy Wall Street," which took on an even larger proportion this past weekend. When I saw it, the demonstration was taking place in a tiny park just steps from the giant construction site that the World Trade Center has become. The cops were there as well in big numbers; observing a chaotic spread of sleeping bags, scruffy occupants and a large array of protest signs about the ills of capitalism.
What struck me first about this sight was the tight age cohort: Millennials to the core.
Whether their disgust with Wall Street is fueled by a lack of jobs or a more complex analysis was not apparent to me, but I trust we will be hearing more from the Millennials. Scholars are suggesting they will be a force to be reckoned with. In fact, you might already be experiencing their tendency to want to be heard in the workplace, in the classroom or at the dinner table, for example.
There are a lot of them; 90 million by some count, comprising the largest generation in our history. They are the most racially diverse generation ever, and they have been, and are being, shaped by remarkable events such as 9/11 and the ongoing global recession; by their parents -- the boomers of yore; and, of course by technology -- the first generation to take instant communications for granted. I believe that Millennials will shape our response to issues that bedevil us -- through their passion about social issues, their facility with technology and social networking, and through their continued willingness to vote -- as they did in big numbers in the last Presidential election.
Many of them will go to business school -- or are already there. A quarter of post-graduate degrees are in business, and 20 percent of undergraduates are pursuing business degrees. Even at liberal arts colleges that may not offer "business" as a major, students flock to economics instead, or as close as they can get to the subject. This may be the result of parental pressure to exit school with some hope of finding a job (unlike baby boomers, Millennials are close to their parents and apparently even listen to them) but it is also in pursuit of the skills, language and heroes they have grown up with -- more Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg than Bob Dylan and Robert Redford.
The question I have been thinking about is how they will bridge these two worlds -- passion for social issues, and comfort with technology and business. I know from experience that real change is hard; that to influence business, and Wall Street, requires people skills as well as analytics, patience, and multiple approaches to gain the attention and commitment of the power brokers who set the rules and design the reward systems. Protest is a not an insignificant part of the puzzle, however, and always has been; just ask Walmart, Nike or Nestle.
I saw Mayor Bloomberg on TV that same evening that I observed the Occupy Wall Street movement. He was on the news, commenting on the situation downtown, which hit the mainstream media when protestors were arrested for obstructing traffic, and police tactics were depicted as being heavy-handed in some accounts.
"Where is Wall Street?" he fumed. He was really asking two questions: "What Is Their Problem?" and "Why In My City?"
Bloomberg elaborated that Wall Street has gone global and is thus not an appropriate protest venue, at least in his opinion. And from his billionaire's perspective, protesting the very institutions that we need to create jobs and prosperity is a trifle gauche. Bloomberg is usually an astute guy, and I am generally a big fan of what he has done for New York. In this case, I could only feel that he didn't get it.
One irony that emerges from what we know of this generation's attitudes is that they have higher trust in institutions than their predecessors. What this means in terms of their expectations of both business and government remains to be seen. I left downtown feeling hopeful.
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Will Bunch: What I Saw at the Revolution
Phil Aroneanu: Why Environmentalists Should Occupy Wall Street
Eddie:
Let's get right to the point. Oh, hold on, I've got a text message coming in. . . cant txt now, c u 2nite. . .so, I did a check of the topics on Thinking Out Loud, oh, wait, let me read this Tweet. . .Ha! Funny!. . .Anyway, looking at what's being discussed on this blog, I only found one posting that had anything to do with sustainability, Carbon Offset Upset, and that one was a failed attempt at satire.
The other postings--the jabs at politicians, the faked Shuttle trip to Mars, the Harry Potter products (actually that one was half-funny)--fill up the Ethernet but signify nothing.
This blog should be devoted to what's really important: Sustainability, Zerofootprinting, and the Vegan lifestyle. Did you know that all these products are now compostable: drinking straws, soft drink cups and dog leashes? Did you know Americans spend more on bottled water in one afternoon than Europe spent from 1500 to 1725 outfitting ships to explore the so-called "New World"? Did you know that we Millennials have never heard of The Firesign Theatre. And that even if we did know of the comedy's group's recordings, we wouldn't understand a word they were saying?
Oh, hey, gotta go. Late for a glee flash mob -
--Oct. 6, 2011, Thinking Out Loud, http://marperl.blogspot.com/
Went to an Occupy Denver gathering today. Was severely disappointed in the lack of focus and direction. Here's some advice. Don't be a bitter pissed off mob. Raise an issue, have some relevance & facts, offer a helpful solution, manage and carry out small objectives which achieve awareness and change. If the goal is to be heard... then tap into the resources of the 99% community. The people of influence, local businesses, media... use some creativity!!!
Today I saw zero focus, zero clarity, just people who've always wanted to claim they protested or have that activist merit badge. This is not a 4:20 smoke out kids...
Smoking is one of the most corporatized things one can possibly do! Your protests are about community and real people helping others. Blowing smoke in others' face is really not going to help your cause. Good thing a cop didn't see you.
p.s. My mother died of lung cancer last year.
Theodore Roosevelt - Speech at Osawatomie, Kansas (31 August 1910)
No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered — not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.
Do these 'protestors' know that the same politicians encouraging their protest are the ones who pressured banks into making loans to unqualified applicants? They were pushing the ‘progressive’ idea that more people should own their own homes. It sounds great in theory, but look at the results. Do they know that these politicians haven't prosecuted ANYONE for their part in this massive fraud? The biggest fraud is that the government is going to help them get a job. If they want the American dream they should go find a job doing anything. Can’t find something? Try for an internship. Can’t do that? Start your own company. Some of the most successful business people are those without a business degree.