For a month now the world has witnessed (or perhaps even participated) in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests and has seen the radically different reports of the movement by various media channels.
There is an overwhelming amount of news broadcasted today through television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the internet. Interpreting OWS has become difficult as these news sources all report sharply different perspectives on what OWS is about, what they’re doing, and it’s legitimacy in the American political system.
What’s even more interesting to note is that some news sources have neglected or hardly reported on the protests at all. What the news has portrayed in their content is an unorganized circus-protest with leftist, liberal nutcases arguing for an unknown cause.
To a large extent this imagery isn’t totally uncalled for. We’re seeing protest participants dressed in costumes (Guy Fawkes is a crowd favorite), dancing, singing, playing in drum circles, and yelling unclear messages through megaphones. That kind of imagery of the movement structures the protest as illegitimate or inauthentic and makes it difficult for many people to sympathize with OWS. [pagebreak]
If we look beyond the spectacle of Halloween-dressed and seemingly clueless protestors, it’s possible to see something very real and very special about OWS. I argue that while the Occupy Wall Street movement is unorganized and needs to work on identifying a clearer and more concise objective, it is re-politicizing America and encouraging people to demand more from their government. The group is using technology and the power of social networking to reach out to sympathizers globally and those tools are responsible for revolutionizing political and social movement in the last few years. Using Twitter, Facebook, and live streaming, OWS has been able to reach to hundreds of thousands of people who feel similar frustrations about government bailouts, unemployment rates, labor rights, and the increasing gap between the rich and middle-class.
OWS is re-politicizing a huge sector of people who have felt a massive discontent with the American (and international) political and economic system, but either felt alone or didn’t feel capable to do anything about it.
For the most part, Americans are quite disengaged from politics today. This apathy isn’t hard to empathize with as political jargon and the complexities of legislative policy can be overwhelming. With the unemployment rate high at 9.1% according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the big government bailouts of 2008, and a growing wage gap between rich and poor people have begun to stand up for change. It’s been realized that it’s not enough to hope for change or expect our representatives and senators to create the changes we desire, the people must demand it. With social networking, blogging and a variety of news sources to choose from (including more entertaining, satirical choices like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report), political engagement and awareness is becoming easily available to everyone. We need to stop making excuses not to care, not to question, and not to reexamine the political system we are in today. We have the ability to demand, compromise, and change the current political and economic policies that are being passed by Congress.
Occupy Wall Street has the potential to be a powerful grassroots movement. Organizing a clear objective, making room for compromise and less theatrical stunts (please.) will be needed for success, but in the meantime the protestors are being heard and the movement is growing. The ability of OWS to re-politicize America and generate so many participants is very exciting and I look forward to see what kind of results the protests produce.