It is harder to organise a political movement to help young people than old people. Young people are less susceptible to being organised and they lack the patience for the hard graft of a long political campaign. They are more likely to be seduced by the weak ties of social networking and the false promise of slogans like ‘We are the 99 per cent.’ Nonetheless, these are the victims who need the most help and who lack the clout or visibility to be heard among the more pressing demands being made by the more militant elderly. They are the 5 per cent and we should do something for them.
London Review of Books has an excellent critical analysis by David Runciman of the Occupy movement and the 99% versus 1% narrative.
David Runciman
London Review of Books, 25 October 2012
- The Occupy Handbook edited by Janet Byrne
Back Bay, 535 pp, $15.99, April, ISBN 978 0 316 22021 7
EXTRACT:
So how were we duped? Mainly by not paying attention. The 1 per cent didn’t conspire to rip everyone else off. They got their way by walking through the door we left open for them. We were too distracted and disorganised among ourselves to put up enough resistance. What the 99 per cent have in common is that they don’t have enough in common to make a difference politically, compared to the very rich, who are a well-organised bunch. The 99 per cent are a lot more numerous than the 1 per cent; they are also a lot more divided, and it’s the second fact that counts.
Phi Beta Iota: To this we would add the fact that the existing third parties are equally myopic and parochial, and their presidential nominees more focused on themselves than on the collective. IndependentVoting.org is part of the Bloomberg four-ring circus, and the unions have become totally corrupt and allied with predatory managers rather than the workers. In this environment the USA has become a cheating culture, everyone out for themselves, with the result being that less wealth is created, and such wealth as is created is generally rooted in corruption, lies, and misrepresentations – fraud.
See Also:
Graphic: Ethical Evidence-Based Decisions
Journal: Reflections on Integrity UPDATED + Integrity RECAP
Matt Taibbi: GRIFTOPIA – RECAP
Search: solutions for prosperous world
We the People Reform Coalition
Worth a Look: Books on Ethics and Democracy
