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Or, "One American Crying Out in Cyberspace The Wilderness".
Someone on my friends' page has shared that they resent being lumped in with "the 99%", because they don't feel that their personal financial situation or that of their family meshes with the picture that people are painting of what it means to be in the 99% (which they are) - at all. And, they don't agree with the attitude or actions people are taking as representatives of that 99%. Honestly? I agree. Completely. We are not even close to the upper crust of the 99% (making under $75,000 per year in a household of 8), and YET....
Grant lost his job in January - it sucked - but he had another one (in his industry and not minimum wage) within 3 weeks of looking. A few months later, he resigned from that job because he had a much better offer land in his lap. I'm going to college for free on the government. Elise is in a wonderful preschool for free because Florida pays for that for all 4 year olds. My four older kids are receiving weekly music lessons with loaned instruments for free through a program funded by The Children's Trust, and we go to those lessons on a free trolley system that my city's received grants for. We're going to a huge free costume-contest Halloween symphony for the second time in a row, on Sunday, also put on by The Children's Trust. I went to a freakin' yard sale a couple of weekends ago and got us a like-new King sized mattress, a bunch of pillar candles, a plant stand for the library, baskets for my closet shelves, and an adjustable top of the line music stand for the kids - ALL for $60. This was the same week Grant and I enjoyed a resort stay that was paid by his company O_O We have health insurance and life insurance and car and homeowner's insurance and are able to provide great birthday parties to our kids and carry fancy smart phones around.
I could quantify all this very differently. I could say, "Grant was out of work for 3 weeks in January and we had to sell our second car to survive, and then he was underemployed for months before he found a job that pays well enough - but it's SO FAR AWAY that he's driving two hours each way now, and we're digging out of a pit of being behind on our bills! We laid on a horribly fucked up mattress that contributed to back pain for over a year because we could never afford a nice new one! We have to rely on my rusty bicycle and a trolley that rides through the worst ghettos, and we're horribly underinsured!"
I could write that on a sign, ignoring all I said before it, get righteous, and say "I am the 99%!" Because it's also all true! But...it's not the whole truth.
I feel like part of what the protesters are missing, is that being in the "bottom 99%" of AMERICAN CITIZENS still puts you in a pretty freaking high percentile privilege rank as a human being. Average out the BILLIONS of starving Africans; media-censored, factory working and child-rationed Chinese; and homeless, poverty stricken Indian populations and then tell me what percent you fall under, here on this planet we all call home. This is to speak nothing of the crime riddled 3rd world country just south of us, where thousands of people are trying desperately to get in here and have it better every week, or the tsunami-ravaged Japanese that we've already forgotten are suffering... We can't ALL be the very richest of the rich, you know? Modern first world nations are so wildly, decadently spoiled that there is just no objectivity whatsoever - how did we get to a point where everyone feels it's an inalienable right to be guaranteed wild, immediate prosperity by their degree or to have stockpiled university tuition and unlimited orthodontics available for all their kids? And that they should be able to block traffic and sleep outside until somebody finally yells "Uncle!" and gives them everything they think they deserve?
Sometimes I think the problem is not that "we" (the 99%) are being denied so many wonderful things (on demand completely free high quality healthcare; rigorous yet fun free public education for all kids in every area, that parents don't have to do anything to facilitate; significant amounts of very enjoyable leisure time for every person) - the problem is that we - the American people - have bought into this totally bogus idea that Hollywood and advertisers are selling, that those things are even possible for whole societies to enjoy. Moreover - they tell us other people are already enjoying them. YOU SHOULD, TOO. If you aren't, something is WRONG and you shouldn't stand for it!
If it is possible - and I am not an economist here, obviously - for whole societies to reach those utopian levels of fair distribution and universal swag, well, it's NEVER been done before in all of history and so it's gonna take awhile to iron out the kinks as we figure out how to make it happen...we're all just fallible mortals here each with a different set of goals in mind, gradually staggering this species forward. When I read or watch anything historical I'm overwhelmed by how there has always been a LESS than 1% (royalty, nobility, whatever) who controlled everything - a castle for 5 surrounded by hundreds of shacks where all the people who work in the castle live. It's unprecedented and amazing that we've reached a point where everyone is entitled to sit around and have a break pretty regularly and even poor people expect to get to retire. How is anyone surprised that there is an elite class that's richer than everybody else, and where are they getting the idea that they deserve to take some of those elite individuals' stuff for themselves just to "be fair"?
Don't get me wrong. There are shady dealings and misguided uses of funds in our governnment that need to be addressed (bailouts, big banks, corporations running the govt, big pharma controlling things like birth practices and medical marijuana staying illegal) and doing things to make a difference in areas you care about is ALWAYS a good thing....
But how does camping out in parks and tweeting about it make a difference?
I want to see a PERCENTAGE of how many of these "Occupy" people bother to VOTE in their local, state and presidential elections, or bother to participate in sending letters to congressmen or writing editorials for newspapers or even putting their money where their mouths are - in small banks or local credit unions, not in unethical companies, etc. Because when enough people do them...those things matter. And, in the spirit of Capitalism (which I do think I am still a fan of overall), they're examples of earning something, rather than this totally entitled hoohaw where people believe they can rush home to edit and upload more protest video every few hours before heading back to the "protest", where city officials are cleaning up their trash, local businesses are allowing them to use their restrooms, and the ultimate martyrdom comes if you get arrested and held in a clean jail that provides regular meals and a free attorney, for a few hours - maybe even a WHOLE NIGHT with a bed and air conditioning before you go back to the tent with the food trucks and news vans O_o I mean...this is not hardcore! I find it embarrassing when people try to draw comparisons with the protests in Tel Aviv - Israelis are coming out in radically stronger numbers with much more unified, specific goals, and they are putting aside religious and political bickering to achieve them. They're obviously responding en masse and in unison to much more serious oppression. I understand how inspiring and beautiful this is, but it's not the same thing that's happening in Boston, or California.
That would be pretty amazing. Maybe it's really the dream some people in this country have in mind. I'm sorry if sincere protesters are reading this and hurt by anything I have to say; as always, I am ready to listen to comments.
Here in my corner of the world, though, I've asked multiple participating individuals who are doing "Occupy (insert Florida city)" and they can't even give me a clear view of what they hope to accomplish - they say things like "you can read about it online" and "this country started after a snowball effect from people protesting in a similar way in England" . These are EXTREMELY privileged people who don't normally express much sympathy for, say, single moms, or those with menial jobs. The best guess I can venture based on their posting is that they reads things online that get them riled up in a validating way. It seems to me that it's more about being a part of something. Something, in this case, being YouTube.
I wonder why more people aren't talking about the privilege necessary to Occupy anything. If I miss class to protest, I end up back on academic probation, lose my financial aid, and can't afford school anymore. But I know that leaves me light years ahead of the women who barely know what's going on because they work two jobs and can't miss a shift because every dollar is accounted for. There are adults in my college classes who do not have internet access in any form, or gas money to get up into Miami. This may be part of my irritation with the Occupiers; they seem to me to be overwhelmingly white, healthy, able-bodied, middle class people with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. They get to feel like they're downtrodden because they're using the MASSIVE grouping "NINETY NINE PERCENT" that means "the A-list movie stars and really big time CEOs are ruining it for the rest of us common folks!!" and nevermind that they have no idea what it's like to be in a public assistance line or would be mortified to get their debit card declined at the checkout. I have a strong feeling that people with tents and iPads at these protests are almost never in the bottom 30+% - you need some kind of safety net and/or support system to be able to go live in a park for a month without your kids starving or your landlord kicking you out of your place, you know? It makes me want to go slap stickers on their foreheads that say their individual global rank, with their more specific US number factored in - "I'm in the top 8%". Ideally without them knowing, because it would make the videos so much more ironic.
*sigh*
There are major problems with our economy, and I see huge and steadily escalating financial trouble in the future of the United States. I just wanted, I suppose, to point out that for my little circle of loved ones, for now - life is pretty good. And for most people I know, online and off - their lives are pretty good, too. I don't feel represented by 99%-ers. And I don't think anybody is going about making changes that need to happen, happen, by "occupying". I'ts kind of like breast cancer "awareness" - you know, where you just buy pink things and reblog stuff that makes people "aware" that breast cancer is, like, totally a thing, and nevermind any true information or policy change that could lessen actual rates.
I suppose I should be grateful that "slactivism" is movin' on up and becoming more action-oriented than this, at least, which is all my generation has seemed capable of previously:
Someone on my friends' page has shared that they resent being lumped in with "the 99%", because they don't feel that their personal financial situation or that of their family meshes with the picture that people are painting of what it means to be in the 99% (which they are) - at all. And, they don't agree with the attitude or actions people are taking as representatives of that 99%. Honestly? I agree. Completely. We are not even close to the upper crust of the 99% (making under $75,000 per year in a household of 8), and YET....
Grant lost his job in January - it sucked - but he had another one (in his industry and not minimum wage) within 3 weeks of looking. A few months later, he resigned from that job because he had a much better offer land in his lap. I'm going to college for free on the government. Elise is in a wonderful preschool for free because Florida pays for that for all 4 year olds. My four older kids are receiving weekly music lessons with loaned instruments for free through a program funded by The Children's Trust, and we go to those lessons on a free trolley system that my city's received grants for. We're going to a huge free costume-contest Halloween symphony for the second time in a row, on Sunday, also put on by The Children's Trust. I went to a freakin' yard sale a couple of weekends ago and got us a like-new King sized mattress, a bunch of pillar candles, a plant stand for the library, baskets for my closet shelves, and an adjustable top of the line music stand for the kids - ALL for $60. This was the same week Grant and I enjoyed a resort stay that was paid by his company O_O We have health insurance and life insurance and car and homeowner's insurance and are able to provide great birthday parties to our kids and carry fancy smart phones around.
I could quantify all this very differently. I could say, "Grant was out of work for 3 weeks in January and we had to sell our second car to survive, and then he was underemployed for months before he found a job that pays well enough - but it's SO FAR AWAY that he's driving two hours each way now, and we're digging out of a pit of being behind on our bills! We laid on a horribly fucked up mattress that contributed to back pain for over a year because we could never afford a nice new one! We have to rely on my rusty bicycle and a trolley that rides through the worst ghettos, and we're horribly underinsured!"
I could write that on a sign, ignoring all I said before it, get righteous, and say "I am the 99%!" Because it's also all true! But...it's not the whole truth.
I feel like part of what the protesters are missing, is that being in the "bottom 99%" of AMERICAN CITIZENS still puts you in a pretty freaking high percentile privilege rank as a human being. Average out the BILLIONS of starving Africans; media-censored, factory working and child-rationed Chinese; and homeless, poverty stricken Indian populations and then tell me what percent you fall under, here on this planet we all call home. This is to speak nothing of the crime riddled 3rd world country just south of us, where thousands of people are trying desperately to get in here and have it better every week, or the tsunami-ravaged Japanese that we've already forgotten are suffering... We can't ALL be the very richest of the rich, you know? Modern first world nations are so wildly, decadently spoiled that there is just no objectivity whatsoever - how did we get to a point where everyone feels it's an inalienable right to be guaranteed wild, immediate prosperity by their degree or to have stockpiled university tuition and unlimited orthodontics available for all their kids? And that they should be able to block traffic and sleep outside until somebody finally yells "Uncle!" and gives them everything they think they deserve?
Sometimes I think the problem is not that "we" (the 99%) are being denied so many wonderful things (on demand completely free high quality healthcare; rigorous yet fun free public education for all kids in every area, that parents don't have to do anything to facilitate; significant amounts of very enjoyable leisure time for every person) - the problem is that we - the American people - have bought into this totally bogus idea that Hollywood and advertisers are selling, that those things are even possible for whole societies to enjoy. Moreover - they tell us other people are already enjoying them. YOU SHOULD, TOO. If you aren't, something is WRONG and you shouldn't stand for it!
If it is possible - and I am not an economist here, obviously - for whole societies to reach those utopian levels of fair distribution and universal swag, well, it's NEVER been done before in all of history and so it's gonna take awhile to iron out the kinks as we figure out how to make it happen...we're all just fallible mortals here each with a different set of goals in mind, gradually staggering this species forward. When I read or watch anything historical I'm overwhelmed by how there has always been a LESS than 1% (royalty, nobility, whatever) who controlled everything - a castle for 5 surrounded by hundreds of shacks where all the people who work in the castle live. It's unprecedented and amazing that we've reached a point where everyone is entitled to sit around and have a break pretty regularly and even poor people expect to get to retire. How is anyone surprised that there is an elite class that's richer than everybody else, and where are they getting the idea that they deserve to take some of those elite individuals' stuff for themselves just to "be fair"?
Don't get me wrong. There are shady dealings and misguided uses of funds in our governnment that need to be addressed (bailouts, big banks, corporations running the govt, big pharma controlling things like birth practices and medical marijuana staying illegal) and doing things to make a difference in areas you care about is ALWAYS a good thing....
But how does camping out in parks and tweeting about it make a difference?
I want to see a PERCENTAGE of how many of these "Occupy" people bother to VOTE in their local, state and presidential elections, or bother to participate in sending letters to congressmen or writing editorials for newspapers or even putting their money where their mouths are - in small banks or local credit unions, not in unethical companies, etc. Because when enough people do them...those things matter. And, in the spirit of Capitalism (which I do think I am still a fan of overall), they're examples of earning something, rather than this totally entitled hoohaw where people believe they can rush home to edit and upload more protest video every few hours before heading back to the "protest", where city officials are cleaning up their trash, local businesses are allowing them to use their restrooms, and the ultimate martyrdom comes if you get arrested and held in a clean jail that provides regular meals and a free attorney, for a few hours - maybe even a WHOLE NIGHT with a bed and air conditioning before you go back to the tent with the food trucks and news vans O_o I mean...this is not hardcore! I find it embarrassing when people try to draw comparisons with the protests in Tel Aviv - Israelis are coming out in radically stronger numbers with much more unified, specific goals, and they are putting aside religious and political bickering to achieve them. They're obviously responding en masse and in unison to much more serious oppression. I understand how inspiring and beautiful this is, but it's not the same thing that's happening in Boston, or California.
That would be pretty amazing. Maybe it's really the dream some people in this country have in mind. I'm sorry if sincere protesters are reading this and hurt by anything I have to say; as always, I am ready to listen to comments.
Here in my corner of the world, though, I've asked multiple participating individuals who are doing "Occupy (insert Florida city)" and they can't even give me a clear view of what they hope to accomplish - they say things like "you can read about it online" and "this country started after a snowball effect from people protesting in a similar way in England" . These are EXTREMELY privileged people who don't normally express much sympathy for, say, single moms, or those with menial jobs. The best guess I can venture based on their posting is that they reads things online that get them riled up in a validating way. It seems to me that it's more about being a part of something. Something, in this case, being YouTube.
I wonder why more people aren't talking about the privilege necessary to Occupy anything. If I miss class to protest, I end up back on academic probation, lose my financial aid, and can't afford school anymore. But I know that leaves me light years ahead of the women who barely know what's going on because they work two jobs and can't miss a shift because every dollar is accounted for. There are adults in my college classes who do not have internet access in any form, or gas money to get up into Miami. This may be part of my irritation with the Occupiers; they seem to me to be overwhelmingly white, healthy, able-bodied, middle class people with an overwhelming sense of entitlement. They get to feel like they're downtrodden because they're using the MASSIVE grouping "NINETY NINE PERCENT" that means "the A-list movie stars and really big time CEOs are ruining it for the rest of us common folks!!" and nevermind that they have no idea what it's like to be in a public assistance line or would be mortified to get their debit card declined at the checkout. I have a strong feeling that people with tents and iPads at these protests are almost never in the bottom 30+% - you need some kind of safety net and/or support system to be able to go live in a park for a month without your kids starving or your landlord kicking you out of your place, you know? It makes me want to go slap stickers on their foreheads that say their individual global rank, with their more specific US number factored in - "I'm in the top 8%". Ideally without them knowing, because it would make the videos so much more ironic.
*sigh*
There are major problems with our economy, and I see huge and steadily escalating financial trouble in the future of the United States. I just wanted, I suppose, to point out that for my little circle of loved ones, for now - life is pretty good. And for most people I know, online and off - their lives are pretty good, too. I don't feel represented by 99%-ers. And I don't think anybody is going about making changes that need to happen, happen, by "occupying". I'ts kind of like breast cancer "awareness" - you know, where you just buy pink things and reblog stuff that makes people "aware" that breast cancer is, like, totally a thing, and nevermind any true information or policy change that could lessen actual rates.
I suppose I should be grateful that "slactivism" is movin' on up and becoming more action-oriented than this, at least, which is all my generation has seemed capable of previously:
