Why I’m Not On Board With OWS
I don’t expect anyone to be particularly interested in my 2 cents, but I decided this was too big for a comment, so I made it a page.
This is a point by point break down of where I differ from the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City.
We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
Problem 1. One can “feel wronged” with or without actually being wronged.
Problem 2a. “Corporate forces of the world” — although I’m tempted to make a poetic interpretation of this phrase (the physical laws of the universe made flesh?) I assume it’s meant as a catchall term for all incorporated organizations in the world. This group is far too big and diverse to have a beef against. I can’t get my head around the scope and complexity it encompass.
Problem 2b. There’s nothing inherently evil or offensive about an organization being incorporated.
Problem 2c. This term leaves out unincorporated entities. Are limited partnerships not going to be held accountable as well?
…that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth…
Problem 3a. This sentence is just a big bowl of wrong for reasons I’ve previously stated. I can understand what extracting wealth from the Earth means, I think,… exploitation of natural resources? But what does it mean to extract wealth from people? Pull out their gold fillings? Sell their organs?
Problem 3b. And surely some of the world’s corporations have sought consent to do whatever the hell it means some of the time, which would invalidate the sentence.
We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments.
Problem 4. And now we’re into an even bigger bowl of wrong. The Superbowl of wrong. Do we have evidence that all the corporations in all the world place profit over people, self-interest over justice (btw, this phrase seems to confirm that corporations are, in fact, people because only people can possess self-interest) and opression over equality? It would take a hell of a landmark study to prove. (And again, unincorporated entities get tacit approval by omission.)
Problem 4b. All the world’s corporations run all the world’s governments (or however many governments “our governments” refers to)? Hard to prove. One thing I’m sure of — corporations don’t run the US government. They influence it. There are many forces influencing it.
Problem 5. The laundry list of vague grievances that follows suffers from the problems I’ve already explained. They list every beef in the book, and A.) it’s improbable that every corporation in the world is guilty of all or any of their beefs, and B.) there are tons of unincorporated organization and individuals who are guilty of said beefs and this declaration lets them all off scot-fucking-free.
From that point it just disintegrates into a total fucking mess. For instance:
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.
Is this a beef with corporations or universities?
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.
What about corporations investing in alternate forms of energy?
They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.
What about corporations that manufacture generics?
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
These beefs could also be called “why I hate people in general”.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
I have no clue what this means.
…Create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.”
Where and when is this part going to happen?
Best part:
*These grievances are not all-inclusive.
Yes, because if we’re being honest, this list should just be called Declaration Of Why People Suck.
And the art that follows the declaration genuinely gives me the creeps. Like a cross between Glenn Beck’s chalkboard and Arthur Gopnik’s Mentaculus in A Serious Man.