For the past few weeks, disgruntled Americans have banded together in an uprising commonly known as “Occupy Wall Street.” Protesters are camping out in Lower Manhattan around New York’s Financial District to speak out against financial and political policy that has contributed to the national economic climate. This past weekend, protesters took to the streets of Boston in an extension of the Wall Street organization and are currently occupying streets near the downtown Financial District of Boston.
The movement has gone viral on the Web, with millions of hits on sites such as Reddit, Tumblr and Twitter. On several of these forums, in addition to the “official” website for Occupy Wall Street, users have posted lists of grievances and demands on these sites to direct the movement, however, no official compilation of goals has been released.
This whole protest seems to carry a whiff of adolescent self-righteousness, with a similar predilection for protesting for protest’s sake. The movement could grow in scope and impact if protesters could simply define what, specifically, they are protesting.
Many of the demands listed both on-site and online are vague and without direction. One of the top posts on Reddit enumerates the movement’s grievances, including the fact that “they have poisoned the food supply, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.” Who ‘they’ is in this situation is unclear.
Much of protestors’ dissatisfaction seems to stem from government policy, and some of it has absolutely nothing to do with fiscal matters, and so the mystery remains as to why these people are occupying Wall Street and not Capitol Hill. Wall Street works within governmental parameters, so their behavior and policy seems like more of an end effect than a cause.
There is no doubt that our economy is in dire need of a prompt re-vamping, but Occupy Wall Street needs to become infinitely more organized and directed before they even have a prayer at change.
Protesters’ collective temper tantrum is not unwarranted, but merely unfocused. Occupy Wall Street needs to stop glorifying the idea of the protest and get down to business, pardon the pun. Some of their concerns are completely valid and need to be addressed; they just need to start formulating real goals and demands so that the world will take them seriously.