Skippy analyzes Occupy Wall Street

I asked the question, this is Skippy's answer. Thank-you skippy.

Skippy has left a new comment on your post: "UNITED States of America":

Ernie, how do we make sense out of this Wall Street protest and the UNITED States of America? I'll give it a stab.

I think we’re witnessing America's first true Internet-era movement. The mainstream media seem determined in casting these folks as a random, silly blather of an ungrateful and lazy generation of weirdos. As journalists have pointed out, kids are criticizing corporate America while tweeting through their iPhones.

Are they Communists, Ernie? Anarchists? The unemployed? Union workers? College graduates left hanging without jobs, saddled in debt? The ‘99%’? Those showing up just for the fun and camaraderie? All of the above— and more.

While the Tea Party movement originated from the ‘right,’ this movement centers more from the left, I think. Their common denominator is of being disenfranchised while demanding accountability. Unlike civil rights protests, labor marches, or political campaigns, this one doesn’t take its cue from a charismatic leader, express itself in bumper-sticker-length goals, nor understand itself as having a particular endpoint. It’s not a traditional protest-- or narrative arc-- as we’ve seen in the past.

As one protester explained, "As far as seeing it end, I wouldn't like to see it end. I would like to see the conversation continue."

Yes, there's a wide array of complaints, demands, and goals from the occupiers: the collapsing environment, labor standards, housing policy, government corruption, World Bank lending practices, unemployment, increasing wealth disparity, corporate excess and bailouts, and so on. Are they ready to articulate exactly what that problem is and how to address it? No, not yet, Ernie. But neither are the Congress, the President, corporate America and Wall Street.

Anyone who says they have no idea what these folks are protesting is not being fully truthful. Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they’re upset about. Occupy Wall Street is a social movement spreading through contagion, creating as many questions as it answers, and aiming to force a reconsideration of the way the nation does business. Yes, it’s as unwieldy, paradoxical, and inconsistent as those of us living in the real world. Precisely. This movement is merely pointing the way.

And we're watching it, Ernie, because it offers hope to those of us who previously felt alone in our belief that the current economic system is broken.

That's my two cents-- for the 99%, Ernie.

This is Ernie.
I was watching a news broadcast this morning and they were interviewing various people. It looked to me like they were purposefully looking for people to give dumb answers, which must have been true, because they put them on the air. But, they did ask one young man wearing a suit and a tie. He was involved in some way with the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. The question that they were asking is "Is this a Liberal Tea Party movement". He gave the answer (paraphrase) "It would be a mistake to label it as anything. The surface of this demonstration speaks for itself. People are unhappy with the way the country is being governed. Its not a "party" idea. it's a populace movement."