Occupy THIS

 “The world is watching” seems to be the slogan for this Occupy movement that has taken place in the past month and spread throughout the United States.

Let me begin with the fact that the world is not watching, the United States is watching, the media is watching and they are well aware of what is going on. However, is the world really watching, and should they be? Yes, some of the world is watching. Some watch with great interest, others barely look. Should they be? Yes, because the people are speaking and when people get together to speak, it means something. 

Finally, the 99% has gotten fed up with the system that is in place and has begun to rally, unite and act. Or have they? The Occupy movement seems to be extremely controversial due to its lack of direction and purpose. I first heard about this movement through Lupe Fiasco’s twitter. Lupe, one of my favorite rappers, was counting down the days to the Occupy Wall Street movement. What was this? According to Lupe, it was a way for people to demonstrate their discontent with the fact that 1% of the US population has control over the majority of the funds while the other 99% share whatever’s left.

Fair enough, seems like a good reason to be upset. Problems like student debt, the economic policies that are in place, lack of equal opportunity and economic inequality overall are all very disturbing. However, what should we do about it? This is what Occupy doesn’t really quite have pointed out yet. We are upset, we know this. We are barely making it day by day while the 1% spends in a day what I won’t even make in my lifetime, very good reason for me to be upset, but... what do we do about it?

The movement prides itself in being leader-less, but this leaves room for a lot of diversity, diversity that can even damage the credibility of the “movement.” Don’t get me wrong, I am a supporter of the people. I support the workers, the students, the people of the United States who are just trying to live as well off as they can. I support equal opportunity, education, and social reform overall. However, not all of the

Occupy participants strive for the same thing. They all agree there is something in our system that sucks, but they can’t pinpoint what it is. Some are focused on the immigration issues, others on the economic ones. There are people in the Occupy camp that are promoting socialism, others democracy and some even communism.

This movement can be described as a teenager. Very loud, so they are heard, whiny about something, but not fully mature enough to know what they want. They are still in the evolution process beginning to find their way to a mature state. The movement is just getting starting, just finding the way that will lead it to where it wants to go.

Whether you think it is just a bunch of “hippies” and “homeless people” or a bunch of educated individuals with enough willpower and fervor to create change, one thing is for sure: awareness has been raised. Questions that weren’t asked before are being asked now; discussions that were held off are now being had by all types of individuals. That is what a great social movement is, people coming together and trying to strive for a common goal.

Another thing that the movement is doing is demonstrating leader-less co-existence. There are people camping together and working as a real community. Occupy has no leader, no dictator and no elected individuals. The people of this movement have managed to live together, feed each other, fix each other’s bikes and learn from each other. There is nothing more beautiful than that.

So I leave you with the following: I have no idea what exactly Occupy is fighting for, I have no idea what they will achieve, but I know this, the people are raising their voices. The people are finally speaking about a system that has brought some people way up to the top, but limited most of them causing them to remain where they are. The people are speaking so loud that they are creating noise that makes people turn their heads to see what’s going on.

The people are waking up, but most importantly, they are also waking those around them, not to fight, or necessarily act, but at least to open their eyes; and that’s a pretty damn good start if you ask me.