Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Occupy Congress!

I've been watching the Occupy Wall Street protests and the media coverage. It is sadly predictable.

The people involved are either socialist mobs trying to destroy America or the next coming of the Tea Party.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle, as usual. But that's boring, so the media ignores it.

Finding someone to either look up to and admire (they are making a stand!) or to sneer at (dirty pot smoking college kids) gives us an emotional hit.

And we Americans are so addicted to our emotional hits that we don't even know that we are responding to them.

This is why the media has to become more and more outrageous in the stories they produce or the slant they give them, just as an addict needs more and more to get the same high, we need more to get that emotional high.

The problem with emotional hits is that they short circuit reasoning. So we don't think about a situation or a problem to look for solutions, we just react emotionally, then walk away and do nothing.

I support the Occupy movement but hope that they target the real problem: the money of the super rich buying politicians. Then the politicians write laws to support the super rich at the expense of the rest of America.

This is what people are angry about. They are not anti-capitalism. They are not against working hard and reaping the rewards. They do not want to seize the bank accounts of the wealthy to distribute to the poor.

They are angry that the politicians put into office by the money of the super wealthy have re-written the tax code, the rules of regulation, and the laws of our land to stack the deck in favor of those who already have advantages over the rest of us.

They are angry when a company cries poor mouth and wrings its hands that it just can't create jobs for American citizens then see that company rake in record profits, send jobs to India, and donate millions to political groups.

Turn off CNN, turn off MSNBC, turn off Fox. Go online, read the stories at We are the 99%.

Read the story. Don't look at the person. It's the story. Not what you can find to criticize about the person.

Loki sez: They aren't going to occupy my cat bed, are they?

2 comments:

Andra Watkins said...

Amen and amen and amen.

JanetLee said...

Thanks. I'm really worried that the positive message - that of ending the control of Washington and state government by the super wealthy - is going to be lost among all the other voices starting to be raised.

Those in power are looking for a way to discredit the entire idea of the movement.