On October 6, “Occupy Austin” took place at city hall. This is one of many protest around the country aimed at large corporations, Wall Street and politicians. I watched some of the activities and wondered to myself if these youngsters had a clue of what was happening or how to even fix the problem.
While most of them get how large corporations wield such great power in politics and our own personal fate, they don’t get that to change the corporation’s behavior the youngsters need to stop giving them their money.
Every penny given to a large corporation should be given to a small business. The large corporations will cream that by doing this, they will have to lay off people, thus this type of action ill hurt many more Americans. That is a bunch of crap!
The millions of dollars they would lose would go to small business who actually feed the economy, and then they would hire more people, even those laid off by the large corporations. In addition this growth would then generate completion which would lead to lower prices and better service. Instead, the large corporations via Wall Street and Madison Avenue would have you believe that their (protesters) actions would be dangerous to our economy. And sadly, people will believe their slick talk and fancy ads.
While their hearts in the right place, their lack of a true connection to people like myself and those who have suffered even more then I have, keeps them from truly ‘getting it”, from truly understanding what is happening in America.
To further prove this point, I was listening to a conversation between two 20 something year olds and their thoughts about the protest. A couple of points that were stated were as follows: The young girl was asked why she was there since she was supporting the big corporations. The young girl didn’t follow the question. It was pointed out to her that she was wearing a pair of Nike shoes, thus she was supporting the big corporations. The girl was made at that statement replying that she was not going to stop buying from them, if she enjoyed the shoe and the fashion, why should she give up buying their shoes.
Another part of the conversation was this: Someone in the crowd said they should take their money out of Bank of America one of the biggest banking crooks around, the young man replied, that it was insane to do that since it would cause a financial breakdown of the banks. He added that his money was with Compass, so it really didn’t apply to him.
Thus you have two examples of why they don’t get it. One continues to support fashion by buying what she has been taught to be fashion with a company who has spent millions of dollars to educate her through commercials. The young man chooses to do business with a bank that is owned by another country. Neither of them really looked at how their money was being used or could be used. Why not support a small tennis shoe company and still get “Fashion”, and why not support a smaller bank that was owed by Americans?
The fact was based on the rest of their conversation was that they supported the “cause” and enjoyed being at the event, but they still didn’t get that they are part of the problem and until they change their behavior, the big corporations will continue to do as they have always done.
Life goes on…I go on.
I appreciate this posting...I do understand that there are a great number of "kids" out supporting Occupy Austin right now who aren't necessarily capable of tracing these issues and potential solutions back to the root of the problem. This in itself, is a problem.
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, I find it necessary to point out that there are, indeed, many people out there who DO understand that their choices as individuals are the most important element to creating change.
There are also people out there who are working tirelessly to set up educational forums that they hope will inspire the masses to more closely consider the way they shop & where, the way they store their money, etc.
I had to make this comment because it is no less hurtful to make generalizations of a movement than it is for individuals to be ignorant of their personal choices. Do not lose faith in this movement because a couple of 20-year-olds have not yet been challenged to make these kinds of changes in their daily lives. It is up to all of us to challenge and inspire each other to be better at an individual level! This is exactly the beauty within Occupy Austin.
Stay strong.
Namaste.