Occupy

The Occupy Movement is over a month old, and showing no sign of slowing down or losing momentum. I believe this is, partly, because the majority of protesters are unemployed and angry about it, and therefore have nothing better to do. But, more significantly, there are also a lot of people who are fed up. Fed up with the lack of accountability of Wall Street and big business in general. Fed up with being lied to by politicians and the media. Fed up and frustrated by stagnant wages, rising prices, and lack of benefits, while watching the top 1% getting richer and richer - "The economy is doing fine, just not for most of us."

People are fed up with a lot of things, and taking this opportunity to express that feeling. This is why some people find it easy to say "I don't know what they want". There is not just one thing that people are angry about. There is a lot of problems that need to be addressed, that nobody seems to be interested in addressing. That's what the movement is really about. It is not a giant finger pointing out a single problem. It is a lot of fingers pointing at a lot of problems.

Adding to the confusion are the occasional anarchists and others who are there to generate chaos for its own sake. So far, these people have been held back by the more rational protesters, who want to keep things peaceful and non-violent - and are doing a better job at this than the police, who can't seem to tell the protesters apart.

Overall, the Occupy Movement is not about creating solutions to the problems it is pointing out. It is just the beginning. It is "Step One: Identify the Problems to be Addressed". Next comes "Step Two: Work Together to Solve the Problems."

Step Two is going to take some work.