We look for meaning, we find it

"Every human being has to be his own resistance movement. We can never wait for others to act. This frightful world needs every single one of us to make an effort. When there's a fire, no one asks where the water is going to come from. The fire simply has to be put out." — Henning Mankell

The #Occupy Experience Is In Tents

Occupy Wall Street might just make a difference.

“The problem with protests and the political process is that it is very easy, no matter how big the protest is, for the politicians to simply wait until the people go home,” financial blogger (and Tea Party co-founder) Karl Denninger observed. “And then they can ignore you.” *

“Well, Occupy Wall Street was a little different,” he continued. “And back in 2008, I wrote that when we will actually see change is when the people come, they set up camp, and they refuse to go home. That appears to be happening now.”

In any case, Honorable Occupyers, here are a couple pictures of your valiant forebears. 1932:

I can't think of many other instances in the US when people massed to demonstrate and just stayed. There is one, though: The Bonus Army. That one didn't turn out so well. Now that we have the relative protection of ubiquitous video documentarians and the internet, though, it is very unlikely that live ammunition will be turned on the #occupy armies. We hope.

*   Tea Party co-founder expresses support for Occupy Wall Street, by Muriel Kane for The Raw Story, October 14, 2011

On this we can agree

We are not alone.

I'm not talking about visitors from outer space here, I refer to "friends" responding positively to the many #occupy, #ows, #occupyetc links I've been posting to my Facebook account.

Having grown up in deep East Texas, quite a large number of the people I am networked with through Facebook are pretty damned conservative. Unlike my "friends" from the quarter-century I spent in the big city, the East Texas contingent seems heavily Christian—and I mean, obnoxiously, patronizingly, evangelistically Christian. Even more commonly, the people I was raised among are political conservatives—and I mean, obnoxiously, patronizingly, evangelistically conservative.

I am always pleased when anyone "likes" or comments favorably on my political posts and links. (And I even enjoy Facebook dialogues with the benighted, by the way.) Generally, which acquaintances past and present who respond favorably are unsurprising. Occupy Wall Street, though, has revealed a remarkable confluence of political opinion.

Perhaps the best example is a splendid piece written by that socialist Bernie Sanders published on Huffington Post. The article consisted of Senator Sanders explaining that the Occupy-ers do have an agenda. A list of grievances, certainly; but a list of grievances that clearly transmits a list of demands, a set of proposals.

In addition to posting the link to the article, I excerpted a slimmed down version of Sanders' main points. So even my Facebook "friends" who did not follow the link would still get the message. This is what my visitors saw:

1. ‎ If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist.
2. Put a cap on credit card interest rates to end usury. When credit card companies charge 25- or 30-percent interest rates they are involved in extortion and loan-sharking.
3. The Federal Reserve needs to provide small businesses in America with the same low-interest loans it gave to foreign banks.
4. Stop Wall Street oil speculators from artificially increasing gasoline and heating oil prices.
5. Demand that Wall Street invest in the job-creating productive economy, instead of gambling on worthless derivatives. The "heads, bankers win; tails, everyone else loses" financial system must end.
6. Establish a Wall Street speculation fee on credit default swaps, derivatives, stock options and futures.

I am delighted to say that people is never expect to agree with me "liked" or even posted favorable comments ... approving the opinions of the depraved socialist Bernie Sanders!

This remarkable development reveals, in my opinion, a broad and general acceptance of the #occupy movement. Doubtless there will be some bitter disagreements when—or if—our government starts translating the pervading anger into policy specifics. But the fact remains, this spontaneous eruption of protest reflects the feelings of a national majority: Big business and its political representatives are screwing the poor, impoverishing the middle class and destroying the economy. The game is rigged.

President Obama is already channeling the #occupy anger in his speeches. And not a moment too soon, let me stress. Other Democratic politicians are also showing some spine, now that the unwashed masses have given them some cover. Republican politicians too are sensing that something large has shifted in the American polity. Outrageous injustice and unconscionable crony capitalism are bad things. Wall Street and investment banking have driven this country not just into the ditch but clear over to the other side of the ditch. And we're fed up. Enough.

When even the Obama haters start agreeing with me, politicians will ignore our anger at their own peril.