OH, the drama.
This Occupy Wall Street thing has gotten way out of hand. Somehow, a group of people with no specific purpose or plan has attracted other groups of people similarly without purpose or plan, and these groups have attracted the attention of basically everyone.
Wow.
Therefore, after seeing one too many Facebook political arguments as informed as those of the majority of the protesters, I thought I'd throw my two cents in.
Actually, it's more like one cent.
Make that a piece of eight.
Anyway, I'd like to bring up a few things that are slowly becoming my pet peeves about these protests.
Students
Here we see students who, obviously, were accepted into the university they're protesting in. Why? Oh, they probably worked their little hineys off to get good grades, perfect their applications, yaddayaddayadda. Then comes the time to choose a university to attend. Do they choose to attend? Yes. They conciously make the decision to spend a huge amount of money (or take out a huge amount of money in loans) to get the education they want. That's fine, everyone has that choice. Now, however, they're rejecting it. They think that raising tuition is evil and that they're victims. So, do they drop out of college to get a job and start saving money? Nope. They remain enrolled while rejecting their education. They stand or sit or yell vague phrases in the spot where a serious student might have passed on their way to class. Where's that serious student now? Maybe community college, waiting for the day he gets accepted into a university. That student is working harder than ever, while the student who was accepted over him is rejecting his education. What I want to ask these students is this: what did you think would happen? Entering university at such an economy, did you really think you would be spared? Did you really think the government valued education enough to spare your university from budget cuts? While you're standing holding your vague sign, you're still paying for the spot you're standing in. Either drop out or get real.
The "idea"
Any footage I've ever seen of protester interviews included these words: "you can't stop an idea." That's fantastic. That means the protesters have an idea on how to fix the economy, right? Wrong. It seems their idea is to stand around like a herd of cattle. Nonviolent, yes, but who's depending on cows to save the world? Besides me, that is. I'm not saying that the protesters aren't intelligent or even that they don't have ideas. My issue is that they don't have one cohesive idea that they all share. They all have their own individual ideas, which would be fine if they weren't protesting together. Fact is, they're all protesting for something different. Few people think that's important, but it is. How are we supposed to satisfy their demands if they don't have a specific demand? How are we supposed to follow their advice when they don't have any? As individuals, I'm sure they have lovely ideas. But as a group? They're far too scattered to be taken seriously. Once they all start carrying the same sign (granted it's an informative sign and doesn't say "you can't stop an idea" on it), we might have something to work with. Until then, they're just a bunch of angry people in everyone's way.
The Media
Ah yes, the media. It always manages to get people riled up; self-respecting people that previously took the protests as seriously as I do. Then comes the footage... the police, the EVIL police beat up some protesters. Grab me a sharpie, because it is clearly time to start making those cardboard signs. Forget the fact that the media is completely biased. Forget the fact that the purpose of media has become to shock you and get your attention. Forget that this is because the media is out for your money. No, these evil policemen deserve my wrath of standing around. If I showed you a video of a kid getting beat up, you would think it was a horrible case of bullying. If I then showed you a video of before that attack, of how the victim was actually a bully that was beating up the other kid's younger brother, you might sing a different tune. I'm not saying that police brutality can ever be justified. But what if I then told you that the bully was paid a good amount of money to beat up the brother? Messed up, yes, but could you then see the bully's point of view? Well, it seems as though the protesters are the younger brother, the police are the paid bully, and those reacting to the footage of police brutality are the older brother. The fact that I just confused myself tells me that there's more to this than meets the eye. My real question is this: who paid the bully? Who's benefiting from police brutality? Nobody's stupid enough to think that we can send policemen to beat up innocent college students without getting bad beef for it. In fact, it's practically guaranteed that police brutality will only get people more riled up and make them support the protesters. Why, then, is there police brutality? Who wants us thrown into more chaos? I'm not trying to be Les Nessman and say that everything's a conspiracy, but I also think that there's more to this situation than meets the eye. Instead of focusing on the protesters, I think we should turn our cameras the other way. Follow the bully. See who he's answering to. Only then will we be closer to finding the source of the problem. Close, no, but closer all the same.
What am I basing my opinions on? Absolutely nothing. I don't follow the news. I don't even get television. Feel free to prove any, if not all, of my points wrong. I just thought that with all the finger pointing going on, someone ought to question them. Might as well be me...
I do, however, have an idea. An idea on why this is all happening. Just watch this video... all will become clear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFE31-GzjaY
Less than three,
~ Summer
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