https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlRVwoMtYUQ
The Occupy movement that began in NYC on September 17, has now reached a global tipping point. With any global event, you can usually find synchronicities. In 7 Secrets of Synchronicity, we called these kinds of synchronicities The Global: When synchronicities manifest themselves through global events, the universe seems to be addressing us as a collective.
Here’s the synchro, as tragic as it is:
On October 26, Iraq War vet, Scott Olsen, 24, suffered a fractured skull during Occupy Oakland in California. He was hit in the head with a projectile during a violent confrontation with Oakland police.
He was on a ventilator for several days while physicians debated about whether he needed surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain. He is now in rehab. The man who was critically injured for exercising his first amendment right to free speech is still unable to speak. So this young vet, who did two tours in Iraq and wasn’t injured, came home and was seriously injured by an Oakland cop, on American soil.
In a larger sense, this synchro addresses the bottom line of this movement. For way too long, the 99 percent simply suffered whatever hand was dealt them. They lost their jobs, their homes, they went bankrupt. They voted Obama into the White House in overwhelming numbers because they believed his slogan, Yes, we can. They believed he was the agent of change. But after three years, it became apparent that he was interested only in bipartisan deals with right-wing Republicans.
And things in the U.S. went from bad to worse. While corporations recorded record profits, the middle class began to shrink.
In recent weeks, Obama’s tone has changed somewhat. Perhaps he has been influenced by the Occupy movement, maybe he’s simply in campaign mode. But one thing is for sure: the movement has changed the political discourse in Congress. It also prompted Bank of America, the largest bank in the country, to forego its $5 a month charge for using your debit card.
The 99 percent are being heard now. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, and a handful of Democratic senators are introducing legislation for an amendment that would overturn the Supreme Court ruling that said corporations are people, entitled to the same rights as people under the constitution, and notably, enabling corporations to give unlimited sums to political organizations. Hence, creating a scenery that essentially has resulted in a country in which we now have all the democracy that money can buy. As Bernie Sanders so eloquently and bluntly expressed it, the idea that Exxon Mobile is a person is “insane.”
If such an amendment passes, then the 99 percent and the Occupiers who became their voice, will have been heard. And Scott Olsen’s voice will echo across time, reminding us that Democracy still works, that it didn’t end with a massacre like that in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Tooooooooooooooooooooo slowly…………………
Well, the one thing we have no choice but to remember is that the U.S. Constitution gives all of us, except minors and felons, etc., the right to vote as we wish. Many folks vote foolishly; many folks vote judiciously and with good intent and purpose. We can’t legally impose a black-list-no-vote on those who vote foolishly without repercussions for the Whole. Sad, but true. It takes time for postive change to evolve. We’re working on it, slowly but surely.
Very slowly.
Zack, I take umbrage at your continuous statement that the common man doesn’t understand economics, indicating that people in general lack the sophistication or intelligence or even the awareness to recognize what’s happening in our world. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to comprehend it, and it’s an insult to indicate that the 99% are too dumb to know what’s behind the Occupiers . Sorry, but this needed to be said.
Have you seen the tea party people?!? It alarms me that these people vote! We have them to thank for the Republicans taking back Congress two years after Americans rejected the Republican Party in a landslide. I don’t trust these people to vote in the best interests of all. I mean, these are people who have said that they don’t want the government to touch their Medicare and Social Security!!!
Re:
“Leaving a decision this important to be made by citizens who are ignorant of its consequences is insane. Their leader is being replaced because of his failure to lead, not because of some underhanded attempt to take power away from the people. Leaders have to make hard decisions, and he didn’t. He ducked instead.”
Isn’t that what democracy is all about ? Letting the people choose…right or wrong ?
I don’t think the Greek citizens are as dumb as you make them out to be.
In the state where I live (Queensland) the politicians decided to put fluoride into our water supply because us ‘dumb citizens’ might not have voted it in,thinking that maybe there is more health risks having fluoride in the water than not having it in.
So now people like myself who would not have voted it into the water supply,have to drink the corporate poison waste…and pay for it. I call that Fascism…not democracy.
And I personally think that the Greek Prime-minster is making a hard decision, because by taking on the corporate pirates he is gambling with his political career if not his with his life. Decisions don’t come much harder than that.
100 percent in agreement, Daz.
Isn’t that what democracy is all about ? Letting the people choose…right or wrong?
No. At least not representative democracy. It’s about letting the people choose their leaders, right or wrong. You can’t give the people a vote on every issue, because the people don’t have the time to fully educate themselves on every issue, and they shouldn’t have to. And decisions based on ignorance are dangerous for everyone. You have to count on your leaders to do the right thing. And when they fail to do that, you have to vote them out – that’s the part we keep missing, I think. Bad leaders get reelected because the voters aren’t well-informed enough to realize how bad their leaders are. If the voters can’t get THAT right, how can they be expected to micro-manage the economy of an entire nation, and a decision that has consequences for most of the developed world?
I don’t think the Greek citizens are as dumb as you make them out to be.
I didn’t say dumb, I said ignorant. There’s a big difference. It’s not about being smart or dumb, it’s about being informed and fully understanding the consequences (both intended and unintended) of your choices. The general public can’t (and shouldn’t be expected to) do that.
And I personally think that the Greek Prime-minster is making a hard decision, because by taking on the corporate pirates he is gambling with his political career if not his with his life. Decisions don’t come much harder than that.
He’s taking the easy way out. His political career is over either way, and he knows it – if he does the right thing, services will be cut and he won’t get reelected. And if he doesn’t, his country and most of Europe will be an economic disaster. He loses either way. By letting the people decide, he gets to deny the responsibility for being wrong, and that’s cowardly.
Zach, your view is really simplistic of the world in the 21st century. With Google as a fetcher, it’s easy these days to educate yourself on just about anything – whether its politics or literature or economics. The occupiers are informed. That’s why they’re out there. They get it.
They get that the 99 percent are getting screwed. The right thing is what your conscience dictates – not the direction in which the political wind blows. There’s nothing cowardly about following your conscience. The Republicans want one thing: to see Obama as a one-term president. That’s it for their
jobs agenda, for their economic agenda, for their everything agenda. They are catering to their 1 percent base, just as Bush did when he gave that speech to the upper crust of his base and said something to the effect that the very rich were his base. Capitalism has descended into a kind of indentured
servitude – the 99 percent are pummeled so that the1 percent can thrive and flourish. I suspect that in the 2012 election, the shocker will be in how many republicans who adhere to the extremist agenda are kicked out. Fired, just like you said. But even when they’re fired, they continued to have access to great health care, pensions, all the benefits. When you or I are fired, we lose all that.
But if we had a vote on every issue of importance, think of all those teabaggers and their ignorant vote. It would be far worse if we were a direct democracy because of the masses of idiots who vote from a standpoint of ignorance. If we could find a way to only allow informed voters to cast a vote on every issue of importance, it might be a step in the right direction. But with our universal voting system, there are simply too many proud-of-their-ignorance rednecks who vote.
The problem is that if the public are not allowed to vote then control is lost. In the UK, for example, in 1975 there was a referendum to see if ‘we’ wanted to join the European Economic Community. It seemed a good idea to make trade between the countries easier so we voted in the majority in favour. But the European Economic Community has now turned in the the EU – the European Union on which the population had no choice. We were just signed up to the rules, laws etc. and are now dictated to by unelected officials in Brussels. It’s easy to get bamboozled into something we never wanted. As far as the UK is concerned thank goodness we never joined the Euro – but the pressure was on. The only way a combined currency can work properly is if there is one country – a United States of Europe. This is basically the aim and then, perhaps, one world government and currency and then …
I hadn’t heard about Scott Olsen, very sad. I guess the reality is that violence – no matter who starts it – will lead to casualities. But the general public still have to make their views known. In Greece I see that the government is likely to be overturned because the powers that be don’t want the people there to vote in a referendum. So the peoples’ view is squashed. So much for democracy.
greece may be where the U.S. is headed at some point.
In Greece I see that the government is likely to be overturned because the powers that be don’t want the people there to vote in a referendum. So the peoples’ view is squashed. So much for democracy.
But here’s the problem with the Greek referendum: The average Greek citizen doesn’t understand the first thing about macro economics. The country is in a dire situation and needs money from the EU to avoid defaulting on its national debt. In order to get that money, they have to accept certain austerity measures in exchange. Those austerity measures will mean dramatic cuts in social services, public pensions and entitlements. The average Greek citizen, who doesn’t understand the Big Picture, will almost certainly vote against it because they can’t see beyond how it affects them personally. They don’t realize that if they fail to make those cuts, their country will default on its debt and the entire economic system throughout most of Europe will collapse because of it. That will be Bad for the whole world, not just the 1%. And God help the people of Greece if that happens. A 90 percent unemployment rate would not be out of the question.
Leaving a decision this important to be made by citizens who are ignorant of its consequences is insane. Their leader is being replaced because of his failure to lead, not because of some underhanded attempt to take power away from the people. Leaders have to make hard decisions, and he didn’t. He ducked instead.
The G20, the most powerful summit of world governments, meets tomorrow to discuss the global economic crisis, and who is sponsoring the meeting? Banks and corporation. That’s like holding a meeting to discuss the problem with chickens being stolen and eaten during the night and only allowing foxes to attend. The French city of Cannes is completely locked down to keep ordinary citizens out while banks and large corporate CEOs all have access passes so they can tell the governments what to do.
Are you seriously suggesting they should open the summit to anyone and everyone who wants to attend?
Where will they find a room big enough to hold all those people, and how will any work get done when they all want to have a voice and most of them don’t understand how global economies work?
That’s why we have representative democracies, so all of us don’t need to study the intricacies of macro economics and monetary policy. We just need to elect leaders who understand it and speak for us.
It’s not all a Big Conspiracy by the banks and corporations. We elected the people who got us into this mess, and we have the power to fire them. So the question is, why haven’t we?
gets harder to fire them when redistricting is going on. Capitalism is broken.
Let’s not forget that Bush threw a monkey wrench into the entire financial system. Clinton left office with a surplus. Bush’s two tax cuts and his decision to launch two expensive wars on borrowed money was not smart fiscal policy. But, what do we expect from a guy who had bankrupted three companies that he was the CEO of before he became governor of Texas. It was a repeatable pattern that got worse and worse for more people.
Vietnam should have taught American presidents that wars kill the domestic economy, because all the money spent on weapons to destroy the enemy nation is money not spent on schools, infrastructure, and health care in the U.S. Plus, who had the brilliant idea to fund a war on borrowed money instead of new taxes?!?
Re:
“as long as the demonstrations remain peaceful, a large percentage of Americans are behind the movement.”
The powers that be know that, so what they then do is stick their Agent Provocateurs
into the mix to make the occupiers look like out of control anarchists to scare the begjeebees out of Mr and Mrs A.Citizen who see it all over “reliable” media outlets like Fox News.
Take a look at this video to see what I mean;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbLU9tdDwxo
…or see the movie “Battle in Seattle” starring Woody Harrelson,to see an example of it as well.Great movie BTW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbPufXnFOh8
Good link, Daz, thanks!
While the average American might be fearful of violence and side with the government if the movement turned violent, I’m more of the French Revolutionary variety or the South African anti-apartheid movement. Non-violence is preferable, of course; but if changes don’t happen and martial law happens, then the movement might not have any choice. I would not abandon the movement if it came down to an unfortunate turn of events. People in power don’t want to lose power at all costs and when you back a wild animal in the corner, its going to get ugly and dangerous. Revolutions aren’t predictable and the ruling class does need to experience some fear if things are going to change for the better. We outnumber them, so they need to support a fairer economic system. If a few stubborn corporate capitalists end up like Nicolae Ceaucescu, I don’t think that would be a bad thing.
Great points, Nicholas!
The thing about Scott Olsen is that the truth has been all but drowned out by the noise of the protesters. What is the truth? No one really knows for sure. Was he really “shot by police”, as the protesters and those who support them say? Or was he hit in the head by something thrown at the police by the protesters behind him, as can be seen in video footage of the incident? No one really knows. Either way, his head injury didn’t result from the projectile, it resulted from hitting his head on the pavement when he fell. But characterizing it as “shot in the head by police” makes it sound much more menacing than it really is, and the protesters like it that way.
The fact of the matter is, Scott Olsen was in the middle of a protest that turned violent, and in the ensuing chaos he got hit in the head by “something” thrown or fired by “someone”. Whether the “someone” was a friend or foe, we’ll never know for sure, but really he’s just a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And those of us who say he wouldn’t have been injured had he not been there in the first place get drowned out by the rallying cries of the protesters who have turned him into a martyr.
My heart goes out to Scott and his family, and I hope he recovers fully from his injuries. But he’s not a martyr for the cause, he’s just a guy who got in the way of a flying projectile during a violent protest. If anything, I think the protesters should use this experience to learn about what can happen when their protests turn violent, and avoid violent confrontations at all cost. That would do more to help their cause than rallying behind a martyr.
I think he’s an accidental martyr, Zach. The fact is that the occupiers will continue occupying because of the disparities in this country, not because he was injured.
Also, whatever the truth about the incident, it really doesn’t matter. As we’ve seen in the Boston Massacre that was one of the grievances that led to the Revolutionary War, the facts were not so one-sided as we’ve been taught to believe. The British soldiers weren’t as coldheartedly guilty as historians made them out to be. The larger point is that its a trigger for something greater to happen. Just like how the Tunisian revolution began when a young man burned himself in protest to being mistreated by the government. His death two weeks later caused enough outrage that it engulfed the entire Arab world this past Spring. Its just amazing how these things happen. What triggers a movement? Its the whole “butterfly flapping its wings…” thing.
The chaos theory…that god ole butterfly!
The Occupy movement should adopt the butterfly as its symbol! Its very appropriate since we are trying to transform our country and to allude to the chaos theory as well! 🙂
Agreed! Wonder how you send them suggestions for logos!
Attend a General Assembly and bring up the idea then.
If you watch the video in which the demonstrators are coming to Scott’s aid and surrounding him, you will see another tear gas canister tossed from the police line and landing near the huddled people. There’s no doubt the perpetrators of that evening violence confrontation were the police. I also wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the ‘masked anarchists’ turned out to be right-wing thugs attempting to disrupt the movement.
While a global synchronicity has played a role in the growing awareness of the corruption of democracy by corporate power that has turned elections largely into Dweedle Dee or Dweedle Dum, we should add that regular everyday cause and effect is also at work in a big way.
Ironically, those who are opposed to the Occupy Movement probably would like to call Bank of America’s action to nix their plans for a monthly $5 debit card fee as a mere coincidence or even a synchronicity. However, the fact is people getting out in the streets day after day has made a dent in the corporate elite’s shiny armor, and has changed the tenure of our political debate.
We are no longer talking about how we must immediately cut the national debt by trouncing on the middle class and poor and eliminating jobs to cut taxes. Even if Congress does nothing in the near future to create jobs, or raise taxes on the top 1%, or regulate Wall Street, there is growing pressure that will eventually result in change.
One other note: as long as the demonstrations remain peaceful, a large percentage of Americans are behind the movement. On the flip side, as we said in the post, violence perpetrated by forces trying to stop the movement have served to garner more support for it.
The worm has turned. The Supreme Court needs to sit up and take notice, the President needs to pay attention to who put him in office, the GOP (which is imploding on its own) had best count the 99% in their ranks, and the rest of us need to pay close attention to who is responding – and who isn’t – come election time. Regardless of party. There is really only one party anyway. The party of the 0.09%.
Good point! One party.