Essay #3 - Final Draft

Jasmine Ho

Mr. Hayes

English 1A17

11st March 2013

Inquiry into Occupy

            When we talk about “protest”, what will be the first image that pops up in your mind?  Most people would say they see a scene of a large group of people marching on the street, yelling slogans, holding enormous banners, some of the protesters may even did hunger strike, in order to fight for a goal together.   Protests are mostly in local scales, on the other hand, cross-countries; international movement is not common and frequently takes place.  If we were asked recall the latest worldwide movement, no doubt, Occupy Wall Street will be the answer.

            Many people think that Americans convened the Occupy movement.  However, it was not, on the contrary, it was initiated by a Canadian magazine, Adbusters, which its organization is non-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment.  Inspired by Arab Spring, a revolutionary wave of protests and demonstrations took place in the Arab World in 2011,

Occupy Wall Street movement first started in Zuccotti Park, which is located in New York City’s Wall Street financial district.

Different occupants have different reasons in participating the movement, but basically, the overarching theme of the protest is “We are the 99%,” advocating the 99% of low-income people withstand the 1% wealthiest people from the bank industry, mortgage industry, insurance industry etc.  Participants make use of various Internet platforms, like Facebook, Youtube, to arouse the public and media’s awareness, inviting more people to occupy financial districts of large cities in different countries.  The wave of protests has spread out to 800 cities all over the world.

Debates have been raisin concerning various negative impacts of the Occupy, including the unconventional style of the protest, the change of people’s view towards the various financial industries, how the economic and political atmosphere being affected after the movement etc.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has no official leaders; participants simply find a place to “occupy” for a long period (more than three months) of time.  Such unconventional style of the protest was very controversial.  Supporters of the movement think that the more people occupying the places, the more power gathered to show their discontent towards the gapping inequality problem in the society.  On the other hand, the opponents of the movement assert that simply occupy a place is meaningless.  

Michael Moore, an American social critic and liberal activist, once published an article “The purpose of Occupy Wall Street is to occupy Wall Street” responding to the Occupy movement.  Moore thinks that the informal, unorganized structure of the protest “allowed people from all over the country to feel like they were part of the rebellion by simply deciding that they were part of the rebellion, this makes a personal movement.”

People peacefully express their demands and discontents should be encouraged and appreciated, and no doubt, the large scale occupying action had aroused public’s attention to the gapping inequality.  However, this does not mean the loose and unorganized structure of the entire protest is beneficial in achieving the final goal of the movement.

The intention of the occupy movement is to give pressure to those financial industries not to “bully” the 99% of the population.  Indeed, the unorganized movement allows people to hold their “personal” protest as Moore said, however, the ultimate aim of holding a protest is to make use of the mass pressure in fighting for a particular group of people’s goal.  Without mature planning of the activity, participants will be ending up doing their personal things individually; this is exactly what had happened in Occupy.  In the video “What is Occupy?” uploaded by pogobat, an interviewee mentioned that what she does everyday in the occupy period is drumming.  

A majority of other participants also were doing similar things at the same time. Some of them played the guitar and sang songs; some of them did drawings; some of them simply wandered around.  What these people did were something meaningless and helpless to the protest, they thought that occupying the place had already contributed a lot to the movement.  As time passed, participants treated “occupy” as a practice, the power and original intention of joining the protest then gradually diminished, where a powerless movement was resulted. 

In the article “Occupy Wall Street: A Frenzy That Frizzled” by Andrew Ross Sorkin, an American journalist and author, he expressed his opinions concerning the effectiveness of the Occupy.  Sorkin thinks “it is not to say that Occupy Wall Street had no impact. But consider this: Have any new regulations for banks and businesses been enacted as a result of the Occupy? No. Has there been any new meaningful push to put Wall Street executives behind bars as a result of the Occupy? No.”  What Sorkin pointed out is very true.  The questions that he asked made us reflect on the “solid outcome” after having this long period, “soul missing,” protest.   The zero constructive and remarkable achievements resulted are the best evidences telling people the effectiveness and feasibility of having such an unorganized and redundant movement.

As mentioned above, the Occupy Wall Street movement had aroused the public’s awareness to the inequality problem, at the same time; many people had more negative view towards the various financial industries.  Sally Kohn, a liberal political commentator, wrote an article “Occupy Wall Street – It’s Not What They’re for, But What They’re Against.”  In the article, Kohn pointed out that the inequality problem existed since “big business profits and CEO bonuses have gone up, worker salaries, however, have declined.” Kohn’s point of view is economically and politically correct, however, the format of the movement has distorted the original spirit of the Occupy.  

The Occupy Wall Street welcomed every single participant with different and unique reasons to join; a common connection between their participating intentions is to against financial industries.   Under this circumstance, the general public’s impression towards the related industries were even worse, since they thought those financial industries were the sole party in society leading to the gapping inequality problem.  Thus, the movement had aroused lots of people’s hatred towards the people working in these industries. 

The Occupy Wall Street movement had led to the wide spread of the inappropriate thought of “financial industries are the sole party responsible to the inequality.”  Indeed, many people are suffering under the economic environment nowadays, however, we cannot express our discontents and blame entirely to the whole industry.  Money is something very important in order to “live.” Earning money is not a crime or a fault.  Lots of people who are working in the management strata of a company were not born rich, for instance, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc, they worked very hard and grab the economic opportunities in order to have a return of huge success in the business world.

The “spirit” of Wall Street advocates a very fair rule, which is no matter the background of a person, if he or she works hard, will also have the chance to be outstanding.  Obsessive avarice ruins this fair game.  Looking back to the root cause of the inequality problem, it happened mainly due to a group of greedy people in different industries, trying to earn money in a very extreme way that exploiting some other people without regrets.   However, we should always bear in mind that the thought of “lots of greedy people in this industry” are not the excuse or weapon in repelling the entire industry.  Rather than “occupying” Wall Street, “defending” Wall Street, this fair platform of striving, would be more appropriate. 

All in all, we should respect the intention of having the Occupy Wall Street movement, it raises the public’s awareness towards an enormous and long-term social problem existed in the society for quite a long while.  However, as an outsider, looking back at the entire movement, I can see that the loose organization of the protest has led to many negative impacts, which somehow worsened the effectiveness of such a large-scale movement.  To conclude, I think that Occupy Wall Street had experienced a failure in achieving for “solid” returns to the society, on the contrary, the society and even the entire country was suffering from a long period social instability.

Works Cited

Kohn, Sally.  “Occupy Wall Street – It’s Not What They’re for, But What They’re Against.”  FoxNews.com.  FoxNews.com, 14 October. 2011. Web. 7 March 2013.

Moore, Michael.  “The purpose of Occupy Wall Street is to occupy Wall Street.”  The Nation.  The Nation, 14 March. 2012. Web. 6 March. 2013.

Sorkin, Andrew Ross.  “Occupy Wall Street: A Frenzy That Frizzled.”  The New York Times.  The New York Times, 17 September. 2012. Web. 8 March. 2013.  

“What is Occupy?”  progobat.  Youtube. 2012. Web.  9 March. 2013.  < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngFmmKB6Jvs>.