"There's something happening here"

"There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear, but we may, at long last, be seeing the rise of a popular movement that, unlike the Tea Party, is angry at the right people."  --Paul Krugman

This blog is an examination of the recent events occuring nationwide called "Occupy Wall Street."  It is an attempt at disambiguation of the mixed messages, a forum for unedited discussion/comments and a quest for clarity as to where individuals stand with respect to this movement. 

Submissions for photographs, video and audio will be accepted via email at occupiedblogger@gmail.com

I am in no way affiliated with Occupy Wall Street and the only 2 connections I recognize as being representative of this movement are:

http://nycga.cc/

http://occupywallst.org/

After attending the protest at Zuccotti Park (which is now dubbed "Liberty Square" by the protesters) on Friday, 10/7, from 12:30pm - 10:30pm, I am compelled to write. 

The vibe on the sidewalks, as well as inside the park (an area which has been turned into a modern version of a hippie commune), is something I have never felt in my 29 years on this Earth.  I imagine this is as close to a 1960s protest as America has come since the audaciousness of the 1967 "Levitate the Pentagon" demonstration.
 

This protest was spawned by Abbie Hoffman and a coalition of 150 loosely intra-connected organizations, with a goal of levitating the Pentagon into the air, turning it a different color and exorcising "evil spirits."  However unlike this remarkable event, the goals of Occupy Wall Street have yet to be established and the initial organization of todays demonstration were minimal. 

Occupy Wall Street began when a protester named Bob, along with about a dozen members/enthusiasts of the Canadian Culture Jamming group AdBusters, setup sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park, on September 17th, 2011.  Over 3 weeks, it grew exponentially in New York City, garnering support from unions such as 1199, the UFT, Transit Workers as well as Pilots.  It is now ground zero for the largest American movement since the anti-war efforts during the Vietnam War era. 

The median age amongst protesters appears to be 30.  Many protesters are gainfully employed, while some are students and all are unified by a cohesive rage, which has been building for the past decade.  These are people who pay taxes, vote and have seen their economic security shaken, since 2008 (and possibly before).  Unlike the Levitate the Pentagon demonstration, the US is now engaged on two warfronts.  Trillions of taxpayer dollars have been used to wage war in an unstable region of the globe.  These wars have questionable intentions and grew from a single event, on 9/11/2001. 

This event, half of which occurred a mere block away from Zuccotti Park, has now defined a generation of American's experience with our nation.  It lead to the enactment of The Patriot Act, whereby government grew while civil rights and privacy eroded.  As America plodded along during the early-mid 2000s, with flags flying high, our economic prosperity, closely tied to the housing sector, blossomed.  The War Machine revved and the Dow Jones Industrials Index soared, as a result of exploitation of the deregulation during the 1990s.  While America flew 1960s era warplanes over the Middle East, state-of-the-art financial instruments, particularly derivatives, set new benchmarks in the equities, real estate and commodities markets.  Control over the international and domestic agendas narrowed to the squint of shortsightedness. 

Suddenly, in September 2008, the party ended.  Large insurance, banking and financial institutions came to the realization that the numbers on their statements, systems and blackberries did not add up to anything positive.  Intrabank lending, the heart of America's financial system, ground to a halt.  Our government was informed that unless a limitless amount of cash was immediately infused into the financial sector, ATMs would stop spitting out bills, credit cards would not function and there would be martial law.  The fear was reaffirmed, when on Monday, 9/28 2008, the "bail out" plan was rejected by Congress--the Dow lost 777points. 

During 2009, the housing sector--the anchor for the most popular derivatives--plummeted.  Hard working homeowners soon realized that the value of their home was less than the dollar amount on their mortgage statements--they were effectively underwater on their homes.  This became known as the bursting of the housing bubble.  Worse yet, during 2010, unemployment began to skyrocket to a point of immeasurable levels--persons underemployed, those who had given up looking for work and those whose unemployment benefits had lapsed were left out of our equations. 

2011 saw an uptick in all markets, except housing.  This flash of hope was leveraged by Quantitative Easing ("printing" funds backed by the auction of treasuries to foreign nations) and cheap money.  For a few months, unemployment numbers tapered.  This anomaly occured irrespective of systemic economic problems, such as fractional reserve banking, recently retweaked derivatives and general insolvency. 

On September 17th, when the occupation of Wall Street began, a new bubble burst.  Today, America is entrenched in a call to action that is growing so rapidly, that specific goals and demands cannot yet be established.  This bubble cannot be measured by computers, it cannot be quantified by quarterly reports and it cannot be captured by the mainstream media.  Occupy Wall Street is the explosion of average American frustration, leveraged by the age of digital information.  It is the plurality of disaffected citizens, who are now finding parities of this movement close to their homes.  Occupy Wall Street has put the idea of demonstration back into democracy.  As Marshall McLuhan stated, "The medium is the message."