After two weeks of veritable mainstream media silence and only coverage through independent news sources, the Occupy Wall Street and solidarity movements rapidly which are rapidly spreading across the United States finally reached a critical mass. Last Saturday during one of their regular afternoon marches, the protest collectively decided to take the Brooklyn Bridge through a march to a park in Brooklyn in an effort of finding solidarity. The intention of which, I hazard, was to bring more people from Brooklyn into the throng of protesters. The end result was over 20,000 people from around the world watching their livestream of the march in horror as 700 people became trapped by police on the bridge, a presumably 13 year old child get arrested, and word that a New York Times freelance reporter who was covering the march was arrested as well. Heady stuff indeed.
Now that the movement has finally grasped the media's attention, questions have arisen as to what it is precisely that the protesters of these self-described "occupations" are protesting about. Many news sources sight an overall ambiguity to the protesters' interests. I would retort that the writing is virtually on the wall. To comprehend the general discontents that drove these people, which at times numbers in the thousands, one merely needs to read their signs. However, it would seem that the mainstream media has been more spurious as to what they are going to depict of the movement with frequent mentions of the couple of women who have removed their shirts because "they cannot afford one" or the classic image of a bandana sporting hippy holding a pithy sign. Part of the reason for these depictions is because we are discussing mainstream media. They are, in fact, a business enterprise whose primary motivation is to interest readers and controversy sells. What they are overlooking, whether intentionally or otherwise, is not the brilliantly colored haired 20-somethings but the rather large contingent of the middle aged speckled throughout the group. This isn't simply a bunch of young rabble rousers. This is a movement consisting of a large number of people from frequently diverse ages and backgrounds. Yes, you have your hippies and tattooed strewn young people but you also have men and women in business attire down there as well.
Curious and concerned about the protests taking place on Wall Street, I, living all the way on the other side of the nation, decided to drop in on their IRC chat, which is available through the movement's main website. I stayed and conversed on their irc channel and on Portland's occupy channel to see just what the heck was going on. If the media was going to be slow to report, I figured that this would be the best way to keep up to date and actively and directly seek out to learn what it is they were talking about. I was actually very impressed by their channel. The diversity of the crowd, which features a constant ebb and flow of 150-170 people, was impressive. Nearly every viewpoint was represented although the moderators of the IRC channel were very quick to ban those whom they labeled "provocateurs"--individuals who were intent on promoting violence at the various protests. Another discouraged subject of discussion was potential candidates for the 2012 presidential election. The reason why this sort of discussion is being discouraged is plain. The movement does not, as some might believe, simply consist of liberals and democrats, but also includes Libertarians, Republicans, and Tea Party.
Contrary to what Van Jones may think, the Occupy protests are not an one party movement. Instead, I consistently found diversity amongst the participators of the IRC channel and many agreeing to the existence of a problem. The source and what is the problem is a constant subject of debate where, at times, text flies so quickly by on the screen that one scarcely has time to keep up. Participants, instead, tend to engage in one on one public conversations by signifying precisely who they are talking to. This tends to keep the conversation from turning into confused mayhem. Mayhem still happens but the moderators of the channel are quick to bring it all back down to a reasonable level.
What is even more fascinating about both the protest on Wall Street and it's IRC chat channel is the diversity of educational and vocational backgrounds. There may be a recently graduated and unemployed young person standing next to a steel worker who is, in turn, standing next to a financial analyst. The IRC channel exactly mirrors this. I was quite surprised to see financial analysts, a student working on his master's in Economics, trade floor assistants and much, much more. It is probably one of the brainiest IRC channels that I have ever seen. Sure it gets the random violent provocateur or the extremely hostile raider who comes in and declares everyone present to be a "Commie" but for the most part, the participants know their stuff and can very clearly argue as to what they think is the problem whilst backing it up with evidence. Brainy indeed. #occupywallst is more of a think tank than a internet chat room.
Contrary to the random raider's beliefs that they are all communists, the majority of the visitors seem to agree that capitalism does indeed have its place. The most frequent complaint that I have seen in my days there has been that "corporatism" has become too powerful within our government. The reasons for how this came into being vary. Many cite the Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission ruling by the Supreme Court. Others believe that it is the regulatory bodies of our federal government that is the source and yet others feel that it is the privatized Federal Reserve that is too blame. Those in economics and accounting fields of study or vocation tend to cite the problem of "the revolving door". The list of sources for this "corporate corruption" of our government goes on and on and the evidence is pretty heavy.
Another subject of frequent discussion is the public's role in "the problem" and a general awareness that we have been complicit in its formation. We are, as a public, at fault for what we're faced with. I believe it is this awareness that drives many of the participants in the IRC channel to come forward to discuss. After all, if we make a mess, we should be the ones to clean it up as per our mothers. The general feeling is that we cannot, as a nation, expect our government to clean itself up. We must be the cleaners through peaceful but very vocal protest. Anarchy is not the goal nor is Communism. Although discussion of improved social services does frequently come up, the desire to continue a capitalist democracy is fairly rampant.
If I had to sum up the movement's intention into one sentence, I would say that this diverse group of people are saying that "there is something wrong and we need to fix it". What they want is your attention and your input--your voice--to join theirs to demand change from what could be a potentially corrupt system and restore it to its proper form of democracy.
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