The Occupy Movement

I haven’t read much about OWS in a while and I think this is the most powerful article I’ve read on OWS. When I went to Boston in October my friends and I ended up walking to where the Occupy Boston people were stationed. We decided to walk through and we were really confused about what exactly Occupy was trying to do since everyone seemed to be protesting something different. As Taibbi said though, it makes more sense now; everyone was fighting for something different because they wanted a different America. This America that we have now isn’t the America that the Founding Fathers had planned. Corporations have so much power that now the government is thwarting even peaceful, and legal protests against the power of corporations. Is it really that surprising that thousands of Americans are upset about how America is? About 1-5% of Americans control 90-95% of the country’s wealth. People are going to be upset and the government doesn’t know how to react about it. I thought it was interesting when Taibbi brought up the police force. I still think that the NYPD is being overly glorified as a result of 9/11, but Taibbi showed how this isn’t just about the NYPD it’s about all the police forces in the country. The protestors were being arrested for doing something constitutional, yet Wall Street workers and other corporations were stealing from the average people and you never hear about them being arrested. To me, the OWS started because of this. I don’t think any of the protestors were trying to say that they denounce the corporations; I think they were trying to say that the corporations shouldn’t be allowed as much power and leeway that they have. I believe in this. I believe that corporations have way too much power, however, I’m always aware of the fact that I’m going to continue buying products from corporations because I don’t have a choice. Taibbi also brought up how we’re being suffocated by the media. We see millions of ads a day whether it’s on TV or online. Sometimes we just need a getaway from it all. We’re being blasted by so much that it’s actually shocking people didn’t explode before. The OWS movement was different. It showed everyone around the world that just because they didn’t agree exactly one what should be done that didn’t mean that they weren’t fed up with the corporations. I don’t think anything will change soon, but OWS did make more people aware of the injustice in the country.