The Occupy Movement

 

The unavoidable inference that needs to be drawn from the economic realities that have gripped the United States and the majority of its people is that the country is in an undeniable state of decline.  In addition, the unsettling circumstances in the economies of the member-countries of the European Union (EU) strongly suggest that corporate-centered capitalism - driven by greed and the uncompromising desire for acquisition and profit - is essentially bankrupt.

 

The occupy movement is an expression of the degree of frustration and sense of powerlessness that the vast majority of individuals feel as a consequence of the erosion of what little economic stability that they once possessed.  Many have had their houses, their livelihoods, their health care coverage and the future education of their children taken from them.  Many look into the future and see a bleak and featureless terrain. 

 

As this reality grips so many of our people, they recognize that those entrenched members of the corporate class – the one percent that is now in the public imagination – who have wrecked havoc upon the so-called "American Dream" have remained unscathed.  Those who have done so well as a direct consequence of the mass transfer of public funds to private hands are now demanding that further cuts be made to the public services that provide some modicum of relief.

 

What history has repeatedly taught is that there is a limit to what individuals can endure before they begin to crack under the relentless strain.  There is no reason for a "free" people to accept suffering that has been imposed upon them by those who refuse to bear responsibility, and by those who are unwilling to share the wealth they have accumulated – a wealth that was often acquired through outright thievery.

 

The occupy movement has managed to draw national attention to the profound inequities that now grip our society, and resonates among those who recognize the obvious realities that the movement addresses.