Friday, November 18th 2011
Blogs: Occupy
Three Points Of Entry On The Occupy Movement
Jonah Matranga, frontman for post-hardcore legends Far as well as onelinedrawing, New End & Gratitude, has offered an honest & engaging perspective on the ongoing Occupy movement, as well as three points of advice for anyone taking notice of what’s shaping up to be the most relevant and potentially pivotal American uprising in our lives.
I’ve been stuck trying to write this piece for a while now. Like a lot of you, I’m sure, I’m overwhelmed by everything that’s been going on since Occupy Wall Street started. The last 4 years went by really quickly. I’m hardly sure what happened. I only know it hasn’t turned out well for our country. Truthfully, I’ve only really started to pay attention over these last two months. I have the Occupy/99% movement to thank for that. Whatever else becomes of it, I’m forever grateful. I’m happy we’re gathering in public spaces, hanging out, talking with each other, yelling at each other, arguing on Facebook, finally using this social networking tech to actually spread information beyond what we ate for breakfast or the latest celeb breakup. All of this, already, is a victory. My favorite slogan-y thing these days is, ‘You Can’t Evict An Idea Whose Time Has Come.’ That and, ‘I hate drum circles, but I hate corporate greed more.’
By the way, since people are still asking about this, here are three simple things that Occupy/99% is about:
1. Close tax loopholes for mega-rich people and corporations.
2. Repeal Citizens United.
3. Reinstate Glass-Steagall or something like it.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s okay – this is for you. More on all that later. For now, this is personal.
The Occupy/99% movement lit up for me when I stumbled onto the We Are The 99% Tumblr page. It immediately personalized the financial collapse for me. Story after story. Actual people. As I instinctively went to write and post my personal story & pic, I realized I felt some shame. I wasn’t nearly as fucked as so many people on there. I have a little money, I haven’t had some health nightmare, been laid off, gone underwater on a mortgage, been crushed by college loans. Maybe I was just being whiny and entitled thinking my story was worth telling. Maybe I shouldn’t bother getting involved, maybe it’s more complex than… All these thoughts raced. Before I knew it, I was ready to blow it off. But I didn’t. I wrote:
I’m 42. I make art for a living. I have a 17-year old daughter. We live in a small apartment. We live simply. I’m worried that we won’t be able to afford college. I’m worried that she won’t be able to find a job or afford health care. I’m worried that when I get older, there won’t be help for me.
I am the 99% and so is she.
When I followed through and posted my story in various places, I felt my stress and worry about all this in a way I never had.
Simultaneously, I felt more alive, more connected to all the worried, confused, angry people around me than I ever have. If you do nothing else with the Occupy/99% movement, at least write your story simply and directly. Whatever it is. See how it feels to share it with the people you call your friends, with your co-workers. I’ll bet it’ll scare you, and I bet it’ll open you up.
I’m someone that’s pretty skeptical of movements or groups of any sort; they mostly tend to feel just like scenes or trends to me, with exclusive language, fashion, ideas, all that shit. Occupy/99% immediately struck me as different. I loved how vague it was, and I loved the idea of just acknowledging that we’re part of a much greater whole, despite all our splintered beliefs and lifestyles that are given so much airtime in our media. After visiting several encampments personally and researching countless others, I continue to love it for those same reasons. Even if you still have confusion or straight-up disdain for this movement, you really are part of the 99%. It requires no belief or opinion. It’s just a fact. And by the way, if you’re part of the 1%, you’re just as big a part of all this. You’re not the enemy. The enemy is us forgetting we’re in this together. It’s ripping our society apart and wrecking anything that was ever cool about this amazing country.
I’m not going to drown you in numbers (this time, at least). Just trust me when I say that the level of wealth very few of us have
compared to the level of poverty so many of us live in is disgusting and beyond your wildest nightmares. The problems facing us – our wealth disparity, our dying middle class, our individual and collective debt, our failing schools, our rising unemployment, our skyrocketing health care costs – aren’t by accident. There are specific policies and choices that have led to this place. We can fix this. That’s what this is about.
To that end, I’ll just leave you with some simple ideas and some links to things that tell a straight story and give more simple, great ideas. Please use them in discussions with people wanting to spread more lies to divide us and blur our focus. I want to make this as easy as possible for us to get educated and involved in one way or another.
Okay, three things. Just try these. If you do this stuff, and you still think Occupy/99% is ridiculous and whatever else, well… just
try this stuff and we’ll talk.
1. Tell your story. Talk with your friends.
How are you doing, really? Do you have money? Do you have a job? Do you think things are going well for you and your family? For other families? What are you worried, angry or scared about? What would you rather see? Post it publicly. No opinions needed, no charts. Just how you’re doing. Really. See what conversations come from that. See how it feels.
2. Educate yourself.
Watch Inside Job and/or Capitalism: A Love Story. They’re both direct, entertaining and very well-researched. They are the quickest way I’ve found to get real about what has happened to our economy (and therefore our country) in the last 30 years. Inside Job gets pretty heavy and dark. Capitalism gets a little Michael Moore goofy. Both of them drive home so clearly and poignantly the truth; that so many of us (just about all of us) really have been ripped off over the past few years, over the last few decades.
Watch and share the YouTube clips made by The Story Of Stuff folks. Brief and brilliant.
Read any or all of these short, fact-based articles:
http://inequality.org/census-and-capital-gains/
http://www.occupydemocracy.org/thebanks
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3505
There is so much more, but these are all a great, simple start.
After those first two steps, I can almost guarantee that you’ll want to…
3. Do something, anything, whether for yourself or someone else.
This is my favorite list of stuff you can do to Support The Occupy Movement, in both content and tone. None of the items on the list are too big a deal. They don’t involve drum circles.
Consider this: Beyond whatever problems you may or may not be experiencing, whatever you think of all this, 30 million of us are in households that exist on less than ten thousand dollars per year. Consider how much your voice, when joined with others, could help people living lives you will thankfully never have to. Of course personal responsibility is always worth discussing… and it’s an easy wedge used by the mega-rich and the politicians they pay, used to upset, distract and divide the middle and upper-middle class. It plays on and exacerbates our selfishness and lack of compassion. Don’t fall for it.
Finally, while we’re here, a coupla personal rants that have been bouncing around in my head:
To President Obama and the Democrats: There’s a seriously fun party going on, being attended in large part by people that were really excited about you in and about 2008. You’re late. President Obama, I wrote a song for you, sent more money than I could afford, made phone calls, hassled my friends, defended you from Right and Left extremists alike. Here is the inspired electorate you requested. You need to stand with us now. Now.
To Occupy folks that don’t vote and/or rant about revolution: That’s silly. Voting isn’t the be-all end-all, but when the Left didn’t turn out in Wisconsin, Wisconsin ended up with Scott Walker and workers got fucked. Hopefully that’ll get fixed, but I guarantee you if voters had just shown up for the Democratic candidate, all that awful stuff wouldn’t have happened. I’m still annoyed at people that say Gore or Kerry or Obama were/are just like Bush, etc. I have big problems with the Dems too, but it’s just irrational and apathy-producing to say they’re all the same (they’re all fucked, and therefore so am I, so why bother). I’m similarly annoyed when people say that capitalism is inherently broken and awful, and the only way to fix this is to tear the whole system down and start fresh. That’s silly. We humans have been pretty great at screwing up any number of ideologies. Mostly, your exclusivity and extremism sound just like Glenn Beck to me.
That’s all for now. It’s a start. It’s a mess. It’s nowhere near finished. It’s fun. Just like Occupy/99%. Let’s do this.
Keep up with Jonah Matranga at his official site.
This is a great primer, Jonah!
Thank you for doing the research.
Thumbs up on The Story of Stuff.
I guess if he wanted financial certainty for himself and his kid, he should have chosen a career other than “starving artist”. Best blame corporations instead!
Steve, why on earth do you insist on muddying the message. He didn’t say he wanted financial certaintly–just that the system was not working for most of us and that it CAN be fixed. I’m not a starving artist–I have a decent job, own a home and have a pension (although it is rapidly losing value, same as my home) and I am worried about the same things he is–opportunities for my kids and for my grandkids. Maybe you grew up, as did I, in a time when jobs were available to those who wanted to work (jobs that you could live on–not McJobs) and college was affordable if you worked part-time and lived frugally. That is not the case today and that is wrong. People who are willing to work should be able to do so and should be able to be compensated well enough to survive and thrive. There IS enough money–there ARE enough resources–they have just been stolen away bit by bit while we weren’t paying attention. I’m not opposed to people who work hard getting rich–I’m opposed to people who work hard being forced to live in the streets and starve. There is no one on this planet who works a billion times harder than any other person. There is no one who is a billion times smarter or who is a billion times more valuable to the world. The folks who control things didn’t EARN their money–they just seized control of it. Time to re-instate rules of fair play.
It’s pretty clear you’re just lookin for a fight, Steve… Ironically, my income over the years has been more stable than many of my friends with ‘regular’ jobs, as they’ve been subject to all sorts of downsizing and other instabilities so often caused by top-heavy greed of some sort, whereas I’ve been my own boss and made things work for me and my daughter via living simply. I feel very proud of (and grateful for) that. So no, my solidarity with the Occupy/99 movement isn’t about being a ‘starving artist’; I’m relatively privileged and successful, really. It’s about being aware that our country is in serious trouble… and me giving a shit about many tens of millions of us that aren’t doing well at all, that have had their lives ripped apart. This is me being a good neighbor and a patriot.
Seriously, try those first two steps. It’ll take you a few hours, tops, and that’s including a movie. See you how you feel after that.
Jonah,
I would like to let you know I took your 3 ideas seriously. I questioned what you asked and I still do not support OWS. I volunteer at soup kitchens and food banks. I make an effort each day to learn something new about anything in the world. I keep an open mind while discussing these ideas with friends and family. I guess I am just old school in my belief in the American dream. While I sympathize with many of the OWS folks and agree completely with them on the issues of a corrupt government I disagree with their resolution. Who on earth has the right to what I earned with my own blood sweat and tears? Who has the right to just take from me what I made for myself through my own personal struggles and sacrifices? I made my life what it is and no one has the right to take that from me just because they are unhappy with the outcome of their life.
it is time for personal responsibility and a real understanding that Americans are entitled to only 3 things. Dont make poor financial decisions. Not everyone is meant for college or homeownership. Know that when you start you will start as the low man before you EARN your way up.
And yes our country is in serious trouble. It is in trouble because of entitled politicians and citizens. So if you have a problem with the way the country is going do not only look to DC but also look to your left and right at the OWS protests and realize those standing next to you with their hands out are just as much to blame.
The blame game works both ways. So stop playing it and do something. Protest correctly. Stop infringing on others rights. Use the system. Vote.
In a free society people should be free to pursue that which they endeavor. If your passion is art, business, medicine, or to just go with the flow, opportunity should always be out there. That is the promise of America, that Everyone has a shot at a good life. But the leaders of our country have driven us into a ditch, dug for us by a wealthy elite, blinded by greed, and out of touch with the average citizen. Although politicians lie, and grownups realize this, our elected officials have failed miserably in defending the constitution, and keeping a level playing field. I feel the 99% movement has it’s heart in the right place, and I give them alot of credit for standing up to be heard.
No Pete,
The promise of America is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What you choose to do with these 3 fundamental things is your own choice. There is nothing that says the playing field should be level. You get what you put in. If you want more then you must work more. If you are satisfied with the minimum then you must put in the minimum. The majority of these so called “RICH” fat cats you all keep talking about are men and women that worked very very hard for what they have earned. They saw the American Dream and they went out and grabbed it by the tail. There is no substitute for hard work.
The greed everyone talks about trying to change is also a two way street. Folks crying out for more and more when they did nothing to earn more is greed. Just like large corporations taking advantage of the poor. The fact of the matter is that we live in a free market society which works much like evolution. THE STRONG SURVIVE!
Now I know most of you have forgotten your history lessons because suddenly you have all forgotten the truth about communism and socialism. But let me just enlighten you one more time. On paper both ideas are PERFECT! But when you apply them to real life situations they fail miserably and have each and every time they have been tried. No one wants to be the janitor when they are making as much as the doctor and vice versa.
It is very easy to say damn the man and the man caused all my misery. But maybe it is time we all looked at our own personal choices and how we got to where we are.
You say, “There is nothing that says the playing field should be level. You get what you put in,” but if you get what you put in that would mean the playing field is level. Unfortunately neither of these things are true. Please educate yourself for the benefit of the rest of us.
The OWS movement is funded and created by the major communists, Obama, George Soros, and The Federal Reserve… and those same players ARE the ones responsible for our financial situation, with equal blame to the republicans before them. As this is a music board I do not expect everyone to know their terms so here it is, communism defined: “Any system in which political and economic power is concentrated in a single party or ruling class.” That ruling class in America is The Federal Reserve which has an endless supply of fiat “money” to outfund any candidate that doesn’t toe their communist line. It also controls the mainstream media by maintaining a controlling interest in their stock.
So when I see an unemployed OWS protestor sucking up public resources, spitting on the Constitution, and promoting communism while sticking that hand out for the government freebie I say what a worthless person, you’re not the 99%, you’re ZERO PERCENT. You don’t speak for me. You don’t speak for people willing to work hard to make it. You don’t speak for capitalism or freedom. If you want real change then BECOME THE CHANGE, make something of yourself and stop whining.
yyyyyyyeah, obama is funding fucking civil unrest while gunning for re-election. sure buddy.
Skwel,
Why would that be so hard to imagine? It’s not like many many many other political leaders throughout history haven’t tried the same tactic. Create chaos and unrest then you can slip on in unnoticed.