Occupy Wall Street
As Occupy Wall Street is shut down and their Canadian counterparts are likely closely behind, let us take this opportunity to reflect on the whole situation and receive the lessons that these events may bring us. Perhaps most striking to me is the polarizing effect that these protests had for the general population.
1. At least in Vancouver, even if the majority agreed with the initial Occupy Wall Street/OccupyVancouver (OWS/OV) principles, it was the rowdiness, the eyesore, and the inconvenience that ultimately turned popular opinion against them. There is a very fine balance when protesting/advocating social change: one needs to be enough of a pain-in-the-ass to be noticed but not so much so to stir resentment.
2. Appearances count. The OWS message distilled down – of course this is my interpretation – is that “I do my part but the ‘system’ will not let me succeed; therefore we need to change the system.” If these people are ready to work, if they’re educated and if they represent the vast majority of the population, why do they look like squatters? There are all kinds of good reasons for this, but our ape brains aren’t particularly good at judging books by things other than their covers.
It is ironic that people would taunt the group ‘Go occupy a job!’ when much of what OWS/OV was protesting was the unavailability of jobs. I would submit that the reason was based on appearances as the protesters don’t look particularly job-ready.
3. Society is a system. Ours is designed to optimize the total well-being and wealth by encouraging and rewarding excellence and hard-work while providing a minimum standard of living to all. This system is far from perfect, the question is how badly broken is it?
If I may present an analogy. Society is a computer and the OWS participants are not getting the computer to function as they want. What are the possible explanations?
- The user is unwilling to put in the work execute or learn the functions.
- The user can’t figure out how to operate the program.
- The user can’t figure out the program but the program is so unreasonably complex that they need special training to use it.
- The functions of the software are limited and you need an access code for full functionality.
- The computer uses a neural interface implanted at birth and cannot be operated otherwise.
- The computer is broken.
OWS/OV is proposing that we just throw out this computer – or at least rewrite the operating system. What is your opinion of this frustrated user who’s ready to hit the screen with the keyboard? Perhaps you’re learning how to use the system and don’t want it to change now, imperfect as it is. Are you a computer geek who sneers at the noobie (n00b) users? Are you a senior that looks on with sympathy as you can’t get it to work either?
If nothing else, these protests have brought the discussion to the surface. Lets have a discussion whether we want to recycle the computer, install Linux, write some new code or just invest in some computer lessons.
As much as we want to polarize the world – to differentiate us from them, the slackers and the workers, the l33ts from the n00bs, the 1% from the 99% – this is a world of greys. To think otherwise gives one a very distorted picture of the world.
