Greensboro is Occupied

I was out of town this past weekend when I started seeing posts on Facebook about "Occupy Greensboro" -- a hometown rendition of the "Occupy Wall Street" protest that started in September in NYC.   I have to admit, I'm really happy to see the movement take hold and grow, and really proud of my fellow Greensboro-ites who are adding their voices to so many others.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm an aging hippie, so perhaps civil protest is in my blood. I grew up in the era of marching for civil rights and protesting the Vietnam war. My generation was socially active; we had a strong bent to justice and equality. In the years since, I've wondered what happened to the spirit and energy that informed our youth -- dissipated, I suppose, in material comfort and general ennui. Honestly, I've been too cynical and weary myself to muster much give-a-damn for quite a while.

But the Occupiers have something going on. In the words of Buffalo Springfield "there's something happening here." To my chagrin, a lot of people are saying "what it is ain't exactly clear." For weeks, the media didn't give much attention at all to what was happening on Wall Street. Then, when it could no longer ignore the fuss, they honed in on movement's lack of demands or clear purpose. I think it's perfectly clear myself.

The average person is darned sick of the wealthiest 1% being such a burden to society. That's a different way of stating the issue, isn't it? We're accustomed to thinking of the poor as the real burden. Not so much. Pardon me for citing such an obviously socialist writer, but as William Morris said over a century ago:

... the existence of a privileged class is by no means necessary to the production of wealth, but rather for the "government" of the producers of wealth, or, in other words, for the upholding of privilege.
... No man [should] be tormented for the benefit of another - nay, no one man [should] be tormented for the benefit of Society. Nor, indeed, can that order be called Society which is not upheld for the benefit of every one of its members.

It's clear to me, and to many many others, that the privileged (what the occupiers refer to as the 1%) have been niggling too long with our government such that our laws and policies uphold privilege above common good. The current economic and political system (in practice, if not in theory) is designed to allow one small class to torment a much larger class. Many of us would like to see money out of government. 

It's perfectly clear: we would like to see Wall Street bankers and brokers gainfully employed and not employed for their gain alone.