Occupy Reality
I've tried to stay out of the "Occupy Wall Street" hysteria mainly because I have lots of things to say that aren't very nice. I found this post on Facebook that sums it all up very nicely. The original post was written by a guy named Chris Handford and can be found here.
Here are five things the OWS protesters' mothers should have thought their children but obviously didn't:
• Life isn’t fair. The concept of justice – that everyone should be treated fairly – is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said. “You can’t always get what you want.” No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.
• Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots, because college and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical. While I’m pointing out this obvious fact, there are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.
• Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don’t require loans, or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization.
It’s a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for – literally.
• A protest is not a party. What isn’t evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations; Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social political change don’t dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and don’t seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.
• There are reasons you haven’t found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. (I too have this problem with life choices I made when I was younger) Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn’t a virtue.
Occupy reality:
Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among the 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It’s not them. It’s you.
Here are five things the OWS protesters' mothers should have thought their children but obviously didn't:
• Life isn’t fair. The concept of justice – that everyone should be treated fairly – is a worthy and worthwhile moral imperative on which our nation was founded. But justice and economic equality are not the same. Or, as Mick Jagger said. “You can’t always get what you want.” No matter how you try to “level the playing field,” some people have better luck, skills, talents or connections that land them in better places. Some seem to have all the advantages in life but squander them, others play the modest hand they’re dealt and make up the difference in hard work and perseverance, and find jobs on Wall Street and eventually buy houses in the Hamptons. Is it fair? Stupid question.
• Nothing is “free.” Protesting with signs that seek “free” college degrees and “free” health care make you look like idiots, because college and hospitals don’t operate on rainbows and sunshine. There is no magic money machine to tap for your meandering educational careers and “slow paths” to adulthood, and the 53 percent of taxpaying Americans owe you neither a degree nor an annual physical. While I’m pointing out this obvious fact, there are a few other things that are not free: overtime for police officers and municipal workers, trash hauling, repairs to fixtures and property, condoms, Band-Aids and the food that inexplicably appears on the tables in your makeshift protest kitchens. Real people with real dollars are underwriting your civic temper tantrum.
• Your word is your bond. When you demonstrate to eliminate student loan debt, you are advocating precisely the lack of integrity you decry in others. Loans are made based on solemn promises to repay them. No one forces you to borrow money; you are free to choose educational pursuits that don’t require loans, or to seek technical or vocational training that allows you to support yourself and your ongoing educational goals. Also for the record, being a college student is not a state of victimization.
It’s a privilege that billions of young people around the globe would die for – literally.
• A protest is not a party. What isn’t evident in the newsreel footage of your demonstrations; Most of you are doing this only for attention and fun. Serious people in a sober pursuit of social political change don’t dance jigs down Sixth Avenue like attendees of a Renaissance festival. You look foolish, you smell gross, you are clearly high and don’t seem to realize that all around you are people who deem you irrelevant.
• There are reasons you haven’t found jobs. The truth? Your tattooed necks, gauged ears, facial piercings and dirty dreadlocks are off-putting. (I too have this problem with life choices I made when I was younger) Nonconformity for the sake of nonconformity isn’t a virtue.
Occupy reality:
Only 4 percent of college graduates are out of work. If you are among the 4 percent, find a mirror and face the problem. It’s not them. It’s you.
I've been reading about the Occupy Movement. On Halloween I got approached by some of the protestors, and they were exactly what this article talked about. They were tattooed and ear-piereced like crazy. I felt the same way and thought the same stuff.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have talked to a few people who have truly suffered/are suffering. So I've been conflicted over how I really feel about this movement. It's a good idea, but its just one of those things that I think we'll eventually get out of over time.