The bleeding-heart, starry-eyed liberal that i am, i was absolutely thrilled to hear about a leaderless, grassroot movement sweeping across the globe, one that questioned apparently shady deals between governments and financial institutions, and one that encouraged ordinary citizens to be aware of the financial policies, be it of the government or the financial institutions where they had entrusted their savings in.
I’ve had a problem with how elections are being funded in the US, specially after the recent supreme court ruling that allows corporations to fund campaigns for or against a candidate, under the idea that corporations have the same rights as individuals. My gripe with this idea is the fact that a very few individuals control these corporations, and just as few individuals control majority of the money. These individuals then contribute heavily to campaigns, and elections seem to be won or lost depending on how much money a particular candidate spends spreading his/her messages. So, in short, any representative needs money, that these few individuals or corporations have, to effectively win an election, i.e. to get a job or their jobs. Ofcourse, this money comes with, if not condition, heavy expectation, that the representative will work in favor of the causes of these entities. To me, this is the definition of bribery. In a perfect democratic society, the voting public would be well aware of all the issues, and no amount of propaganda would be able to sway their votes against their own best interest. but we dont live in that world, far from it.
i have always thought that any election should be publicly funded. Each candidate gets X amount of dollars from a common pool, and they can best utilize that amount any way they see fit. If the people with resources are so worried about democracy faltering, let them donate to this common pool. In short, i think the people with a lot of money get more than their fair share of one vote. My first reason to be all for the occupy movement, even though i dont think that this is one of their official demands, i know they share the same sentiment.
The other idea that gives me goose bumps is the idea of a leaderless movement. “Democracy does not need leaders, the idea of a leader portrays a shepherd leading the rest of us general masses mentality, we are not sheep, we are capable of deducing the best path to follow. We, thus, need a mere representative, who will do as he/she is told by the majority of the masses.” Ive touted this idea to anyone willing to listen over the past few years. So, way-to-go-occupy.
But here is where my enthusiasm about the movement, falters, if not ends. Theres no doubt that the movement has gained quite a momentum by now, its spread throughout the world and gained popularity. Scores of people unsatisfied about the direction things are headed in have come out and peacefully protested, demanding that things be changed. Which is great, but changed to what ? Lets say a million people gathered outside of wall street and demanded that they change their ways. What would we tell them to do ? They havent amassed a lot of power that they can easily relequinsh. They dont even have vaults full of gold that we can go in and loot. Their wealth is tied into complex financial products, that some of us might even happen to own as 401k or CD or home/car loans.
Then there is the misconception that the banks actually took tax payers money and ran off with it, when in reality, all the bailout money has been paid back and with interest.
So, is this movement just a lynch mob against the have-a-lots? The movement now encompass many different countries, where the problems are vastly different. With vastly different problems, comes vastly different solutions. Is the Occupy movement adept at letting regional activists prioritize demands, while still ensuring that the demands are legitimate ? Which brings me to the bigger question, does the movement have concrete demands they can fight towards, and one that they can mobilize their supporters towards. Because, sooner or later people are going to get tired of camping out in the park, and winter is fast approaching in new york.
I support the spirit of this movement, but without concrete goals and a roadmap on how to achieve it, doubt much is going to get achieved.