Occupy Wallstreet

[The Germanator]

I went for a couple of days to Zuccotti Park for a few hours at a time and it's definitely interesting there. A lot of lively conversation going around. Some more sane than others, but basically it's a lot of like-minded people of different ages and races standing up for something...and unfortunately drum circles, but what can you do?

I agree with you in that it seems like lots of the problems are governmental and systematic, and I don't see how that changes very easily, but at least this movement is trying to pointing that out. It's still tough to say what will come out of it, but I support the idea for sure.

I thought this article has a pretty good statement about what exactly is wrong while pointing out misconceptions about why people are protesting. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...ating-20111025

[Vampyr]

I admit I haven't read too much into or kept up very well, but from my perspective it looks like the protesters are very angry and have very valid criticisms and concerns...but I haven't seen or heard of any possible solutions they have put forth.

Do they actually have a plan, or any demands that they want met? Obviously they feel that the distribution of wealth is severely skewed (and it is), but what exactly do they want done about it?

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Do they actually have a plan, or any demands that they want met? Obviously they feel that the distribution of wealth is severely skewed (and it is), but what exactly do they want done about it?

Therein lies my distress. These protests seem to be a reflection of a general, primal consensus that "something ain't right", but to most of the protesters what that is ranges from completely blaming corporations to completely blaming government. My problem with protests like this are that they tend to only engage an individuals reptilian brain, and that encourages shallow thinking based on emotion and not complex thought. My hope is that people take the opportunity to really examine our current economic system as a whole, and not simply attack the wealthy, but ask what is currently in place that has allowed the wealthy to grow so much more quickly over the last 15 years than everyone else?

"For every problem there is always a solution that is simple, obvious, and wrong." ~ Mark Twain