Surviving Capitalism (Not) : 167 Million People Support Occupy Wall Street

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, October 17, 2011

167 Million People Support Occupy Wall Street

Click here to access article by Kevin Young from Indypendent.

This article focuses on recent US mainstream poll results of public opinion regarding the OWS movement. As carefully designed as they are to influence the results in favor of ruling class interests, they still suggest that OWS events all over the US are having a major impact in shaping public opinion. No doubt, the ruling class political operative are watching these results carefully and thus, are currently causing them to limit the use of their police enforcers from stirring up more of a public backlash.

The author's insights about the function of such movements to educate the public is particularly useful. The ruling classes all over the world are in a real bind because if they react to harshly they stir up more public reaction; but if they allow the Occupying movement to go on too long, they risk not only a public that becomes more in sympathy with the movement's messages, but also a weakening of resolve in their police state enforcers to execute the orders of their bosses.