The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

Rebels without a Cause: Occupy Movement Still Has No Plan

Rebels without a Cause: Occupy Movement Still Has No Plan

The Occupy Movement has been underway for months, and it has spread like wildfire. At first glance, it shouldn’t be surprising: the protesters share a common hatred of big corporations and banks, who they blame for the economic collapse. They believe that the United States is on the wrong track. But that is where the clarity ends. Ask 30 different members of the Occupy Movement what their goals are, and you will get 30 different answers. The movement attracts all types of people, from communists and anarchists to liberal capitalists. It is this disunity that makes the movement weak.

Those who are a part of the Occupy Movement are essentially perpetuating a self-fulfilling prophecy. They refuse to leave their encampments until some social change is brought about. But by not specifying what change they hope to see, they have essentially ensured that they will remain camped out indefinitely, leaving tent cities still propped up all across the country, waiting for something. Just what that something is remains unknown. “Change” is far too broad a concept to start a civil disobedience movement.

This stubbornness on the part of the occupiers essentially forces police departments to act. The protesters have already said that they refuse to leave, and they view any police action as repression of democracy, or as police brutality. Whether or not these claims are true is subjective – and ultimately irrelevant. Police brutality doesn’t make the movement any more or less correct in their own actions or message. The protesters aren’t right just because the police were wrong. Police have used violence against anti-war demonstrators and Nazi sympathizers. That doesn’t automatically justify their causes. Why should it justify the Occupy Movement?

The protesters claim to be adopting the same tactics as the protesters in Egypt used at the start of this year to overthrow their government. It doesn’t make sense, however, that the methods used to end 40 years of dictatorship apply to trying to end four years of economic decline. Income inequality is a serious issue, but compared to a repressive government that kills thousands of its own citizens to protect its leaders, it’s minor. Even now, young people in Syria and Egypt are risking their lives for basic political freedoms while members of the Occupy Movement have the luxury to vote for whoever they want, to go to publicly funded schools and receive healthcare aid from the government. Protesters in the Middle East would die for these things. And they are.

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What started with good intentions has taken on a life of its own, unwilling to stop while unable to move forward. The Occupy Movement has only created doubt and confusion, harnessing public outrage against the financial sector while creating outrage against local police. But, at the end of the day, the protesters themselves are responsible for the chaos of their own making. They must either justify their actions by putting forth reasonable and attainable goals for the movement, or cut their losses and go home.

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