Everybody has an opinion on what the protesters are doing on Wall Street, of course they are all different. "Why are they there?" "What do they want?" "When is going to end?" "What does it mean?" If you are having trouble grasping the whole concept of it all, it is simply because you just do not get it. It is not a "you just do not get it man" way where it is generation versus generation. It is probably because you just do not need to get it. You have a comfortable job, you are not buried under a mountain of student loan debt, you can get married because you simply can afford to, and you can buy or already own a house. If you do not get it, it is probably because you actually feel like you have a voice. Your politicians listen to you, do what you want. Most likely, you just do not get it because you have hope that you can lead your life the way you want, so you put your head down and go about your business.
In his 2001 book, The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda, Senator Paul Wellstone (r.i.p) wrote about this passivity as such, "You do not want to lose your job. You have to put bread on the table and prioritize for your family. That is why most people, as someone once said, are more concerned with making a living that with making history." Those thoughts are almost twenty years old and I would not be so annoyed if I thought that was the case today. I think we are so disconnected with our families, our friends, our neighbors, and our communities that we no longer can relate with each other. Which spills into our politics, making our system inefficient, where it only works for some and ignores others.
So let me try and break it down to an understandable level, not just some incoherent rambling questions from news personalities, and just to mention, I was deeply disheartened on NPR's coverage of the protest as well. To move just slightly further back in history, those who graduated before May 2009 are most likely getting screwed by their exorbitant student loans. For someone in my age range, 25-34, our unemployment rate is 9.5%, with an average $704.00 per week, which adds up to $36,400.00 a year for those with jobs. The median home price in 2010, was $221,800, with an average of $272,900. The average amount of students loans is upwards of $20,000.00. Lets say we find our soul mate, our true love, the one and only...we will combine. Oh, wait, the average cost of a wedding is another $20,000.00. So to sum it up quickly, we are screwed and that is why people are protesting on Wall Street, plain and simple. I did not even get into those of us with advanced degrees and zero job prospects. My generation has no chance, we can not be complacent. We can not sit back in our comfortable houses, because most of us do not have one. (Sorry I do) We literally can not afford to lead the life we want to live and there seems little hope that it will ever be possible.
Since we are so inconsequential to the United States as a whole, let them do it. No body, I repeat NO ONE is legislating for us. Obviously we can not afford to have commercials and fund campaigns the way corporations and unions can, much less PAC's. Most of these corporations will not even hire us, and when they do it is not at a livable wage and it is not a reliable job. Being concerned with making a living does not apply to us, because it is not available to us. The only thing that is available is making history. I say march on my fellow discontented friends. I see my face, my sisters' faces, my sister-in-law's and friends' faces in all of your efforts and I for one appreciate all of your hard work. If I could afford a plane ticket to New York, I would be there in a heartbeat.
Hey! I'm such a flooze, I only just realized that you had a blog! Great habit to get into, of course, writing all the time.
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I start thinking about the sorts of things you're getting into, I can't stop parsing, dicing/slicing, dissecting, co-cog-i-mog-i-tating, really. It does always seem like we're replaying the whole boy who cried wolf thing, doesn't it? Aren't people always sort of disgruntled with their political parties? Haven't they both always sort of represented the same moneyed elite interests anyway? Why are we now to believe that these people have something to say? Aren't things ever good enough for some people? etc.
But the numbers you present do not lie, and discourse has shifted considerably towards a more pessimistic understanding of the American present, and I'm not so sure the more traditional conservative bugbears about optimistic liberals wanting more more more really holds this time. A lot of the protesters may call themselves progressives, but all they're doing is (rightly) fighting for those "economic liberties" that our parents' generation had. Fair enough, right?
Of course, the whole wide-eyed, bemused discourse coming from the "mainstream" is as manufactured as their studios, as the makeup its personalities are caked with, as their very impartiality, naturally. What is it when astroturf is manufacturing astroturf? Post-modern democratic discourse?
“Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter.” - Nietzsche
Your last sentence pretty much sums it up for me: geographical and economic impossibilities ultimately render hope for change very difficult. Democracy always rests on matters beyond the official democratic process. I can only hope that in the years to come, that things will get bad enough that money and geography are sent to hell. Martyrs wanted.
-Brett