The Occupation Will Be Televised

It was Karl Marx, or, rather Bob Zimmerman, who said "When you ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose."  Looking back, it seems quaint that these two generations, writing almost exactly a century apart, should predict revolution.  And perhaps, to one looking back on the present day fifty years from now, the same idea would seem quaint and hopelessly naive.  But I, for one, feel it is time.  People living under various regimes are waking to the reality of their complete powerlessness, and they are not impressed. During the Arab Spring, the world was witness to a different kind of revolution, one truly by and for the people, not spearheaded by Napoleons who would turn around and crown themselves when the moment passed. The people took to the forums, to Facebook, and organized themselves in the newest, potent democratic sphere.  It is telling that the government in China fears social networking sites, and bans their use in official policies.

The beast to the south, America, is finally waking too.  We are with you on Wall Street, with your cardboard manifestos and your silent and spoken affronts.  As Marx predicted, it is only when a great, single class of people who have nothing realize that they do, in fact, have nothing, that the revolution can take place.  Not only are they waking to their exploitation, they're coming into a collective consciousness.  A class consciousness that binds them in their various sufferings, expressed (notably online), in places like "We are the 99 Percent."

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

The very title refers to the unequal distribution of wealth, as any good Marxist would quickly observe. And the occupations are spreading.  There is no quick fix and there is no answer.  The system is broken.  Does anyone remember the country where, "whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it... laying its foundation on such principles...[that] shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness?" The Declaration of Independence itself calls for the abolishment of a system that has stopped serving its people. Historians and theorists often point to Marx and claim his projections were unfeasible, that the means of production would never be returned to the workers.  What they may not have seen is that the inequalities Marx describes on a national scale are now taking place on a global scale; America may be the catalyst because much of the wealth and more of the debt is held there. It is happening in Greece, and it is happening in America, and it is happening in Egypt and the UK. The world is changing.


The problem is Greed
The problem is Wal-Mart.
The problem is for-profit Universities.
The problem is, corporations are NOT people.
The problem is, capitalism only works if people are good.
The problem is the American Dream.
The problem is Hollywood.
The problem is privatized medicare.
The problem is ignorance.
The problem is Jersey Shore.
The problem is the machine of sameness.
The problem is Bieber.
The problem is McDonald's.
The problem is Vogue.
The problem is Halliburton.
The problem is branding.
The problem is the emptying of the self.
The problem is Disney.
The problem is the Tea Party.
The problem is CNN.
The problem is bailouts.
The problem is copyright law.
The problem is BP.
The problem is Wall Street.
The problem is Bay Street.
The problem is the underfunding of the arts.
The problem is fascism masquerading as democracy.
The problem is the death of the imagination.


Turn it off. Opt out. Don't buy and don't worry.  Let the walls come crumbling down around you and rejoice in the ruins because at last you will be free. We are with you on Wall Street.  The Occupation Will be Televised.