by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
This blog is a companion piece to Chris’ Occupy blog he posted yesterday. Chris makes some good points… in fact his well thought out ideas are probably the ideas that these hippies would come to if they just stopped their free hate festival and really sat down and thought about it. His ideas certainly give me pause for thought.
Chris states that he is a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. I am more of a social and fiscal conservative. I have a few skewed ideas that don’t belong in one camp or another but for the most part you can label me a conservative.
The first knee-jerk reaction to these protests is negative. The comments Chris relays from certain conservatives are fairly accurate as far as those initial thoughts go. When I see them all I am seeing is a bunch of unwashed young people who want a handout. They want government to come in a punish rich people and give it to them. That initial reaction from me is that they want the government to give it to THEM, not the poor in general, but them specifically.
If you take a few minutes and go online and look up some of the ‘interview’ videos of these youngsters you will find mostly ‘Jay-walking’ type videos. They give the most ridiculous and uninformed answers as to what they are doing and why they are even there. Now, just like Jay-walking segments I am sure the people who post these have to discard many correct and well-informed interviewees to get the popular, funny stuff. BTW I remeber Howard Stern used to have segments like that Jay-walking (which I’m sure is where Jay Leno got the idea). These videos (of the Occupy crowd) only further enforce the idea that these kids are ill-informed and are just wasting time.
The steps that Chris outlines in his blog are right on the money. The biggest one that stuck me was idea that we should be shopping at more mom and pop types stores (or at least, not the big powerful chain stores). This use of the power of the consumer would really cripple mega-conglomerations and make them change their ways (or loose too much business). I don’t think twice about shopping at Walmart, Home Depot, or eating at McDonalds. Imagine how much money I spend at these places combined. If I spent that money at smaller establishements (and other did too) that would really change things.
If you notice in my last paragraph that that idea and many of the ideas that Chris puts forward rely on MANY people changing their ways. Chris talks about voting for who you really want, not along party lines. That’s fine and all but you have to get others to do the same. I voted for Chris (no lie) in the 2008 Presidental election becasue I didn’t think either real candidate was worth it. Some would say I threw away my vote and it’s all my fault we have one of the most useless Presidents of all time in office but I disagree. I am doing what I should have done but is it useless most other people do it. The real difficulty is getting others to realize and take that step… oh no here it comes again…. and get out of our comfort zones and thing can and would change. Looking for the government or a President to change things for you will never work.
The Occupy movement is the symptom of the issue of unbalance in our nation. It will never be a solution. Not that everyone should be ‘balanced’ and have the same amount of money etc.. but that those rules and laws in place that have been abused and incorrectly used (including our lawmakers) should be brought back into line and corrected so this nation will function in a way that give eveyone something… opportunity. Not money, not an unfair advantage but the opportunity to do what they can to make their lives mean something and be successful (in which ever form that may take).