“A man’s greatest work is to break his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all the things that have been theirs, to hear the weeping of those who cherished them.”
But Occupy Wall Street will not spark that rage. The poor are where they are because they are uneducated, and that won’t change this year. Low end workers are angry because they aren’t highly skilled, but they must understand no amount of marches could increase demand for their limited talents enough to make themselves highly compensated. The upper middle class knows their own greed contributed to the housing debacle as much as the Wall Street fat cats, so they will cut their losses by trying to regroup their wounded portfolios, and enjoy the prosperity of their own achievements while helping to galvanize the GOP platform of reduced taxes. So for now, the wealthy of this world are safe. OWS will fizzle and be laid to rest beside the Tea Party, as they had no clear goals and you can’t write a moral script as you go and expect that anyone other than fools or lost souls will follow.
WHEN I hear news about Occupy Wall Street, I just smile and shake my head. Apparently some Americans feel hopeless, helpless, and desperate over their place in the world’s largest economy, but these conditions may be treatable, because few Americans have ever seen real poverty except to watch charitable foundations parade pictures of bloated belly African kids on late night TV to solicit donations, much less experienced it.
The current movement seems like spoiled brats jealous that someone outmaneuvered them in the stock or realty market. The OWS agenda is unclear, their messages scattered, their actions lack focus, their political alliances and allegiances confusing, their tactics poorly calculated, and their membership is perplexed as to “the cause”.
The less educated poor never vote in masse so their opinions are irrelevant. The lower middle class and unions think they’ve been cheated by Wall St. and while they vote Democratic, they also oppose immigration reform because they don’t want to compete with cheap labor for jobs even though their liberal party favors expanding its voter base. The upper middle class knows they’ve been cheated but they still don’t want to raise their own taxes to fund more bureaucrats or offer equality to the unemployed masses on their dime. The rich watch as the story unfolds to better understand the enemy, although they must be quite entertained by this folly.
The story happening in America is quite simple, just like the end of a Monopoly game. When the industrial age blossomed the captains of industry owned the board and were the royalty of the new world. But FDR was a clever fellow who saw opportunity for power by reeling in poor workers, farmers, and miners via radio, and the middle class grew in size, total wealth, and power for a half century. Ronnie (Reagan) saw workers mad over double digit interest rates and inflation and capitalized by blaming their problems on minorities, gays, immigrants, and ungodly liberals that were ruining America, which coincidently secured the Christian right vote. The economy grew while Union membership fell and the gap between the rich and poor widened for three decades.
The bad news is the situation for the lower end Americans will become increasingly worse, it is simple economics and a mathematical certainty.
America sends an extraordinary amount of her wealth abroad because buyers believe the Walton’s of this world are offering a better deal, so it should be no surprise the wealthy are rapidly increasing their investments abroad. The questions are “a better deal for whom” and “what could reverse the trend”. Marches and sit-ins are not direct actions, they are symbolic threats. If the middle class wanted to show teeth, they would organize a tax revolt, of course that wouldn’t work either, but politicians may again see a power angle in supporting the masses in a symbiotic relationship. Candidates could promise the sheep a less global economy of “build American”, “buy American” and a general return to the protectionism that made our country great!
As the worldwide economy worsens and Americas place in it deteriorates, Americans may get angry enough to do something. They will be irate over illegal aliens working in America while their family and neighbors are unemployed, livid about corruption from politicians they pay, outraged about corporations sending work abroad while paying no taxes, and fuming over foreign aid with homelessness and hunger in the land of plenty, but again, real poverty hasn’t struck America yet.
If we could show Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon our powerful armies of today, they may be speechless. If we also told them our country was near bankruptcy they may smile and say “corruption”. If we told them weaker nations are growing against us, they might laugh and say “weak leadership”. Would the masses ever elect a fanatical leader to command that mighty army by promising to restore America’s perceived former glory, even by the sword?
The poor in America have the same concern as the poor in China or the Philippines, it’s that they don’t know the enemy, and they aren’t equipped to do anything about it even if they did. Someday the masses will realize the enemy lives among them, and once they figure out who the enemy is, the appropriate quote for their rage may belong to Temujin, who said:
“A man’s greatest work is to break his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all the things that have been theirs, to hear the weeping of those who cherished them.”
But Occupy Wall Street will not spark that rage. The poor are where they are because they are uneducated, and that won’t change this year. Low end workers are angry because they aren’t highly skilled, but they must understand no amount of marches could increase demand for their limited talents enough to make themselves highly compensated. The upper middle class knows their own greed contributed to the housing debacle as much as the Wall Street fat cats, so they will cut their losses by trying to regroup their wounded portfolios, and enjoy the prosperity of their own achievements while helping to galvanize the GOP platform of reduced taxes. So for now, the wealthy of this world are safe. OWS will fizzle and be laid to rest beside the Tea Party, as they had no clear goals and you can’t write a moral script as you go and expect that anyone other than fools or lost souls will follow.
RON HODGES
Island of Saipan