October 8, 2011 7:00 AM

One person's a crackpot. Thousands can reasonably be called a movement.

At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can’t.

  • Clarence Darrow

Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream.

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne

When the Occupy Wall Street movement began about three weeks ago, no one really knew what to make of it. The media largely ignored it, ridiculing the movement when they deigned to acknowledge it at all. Within the last week, it’s become clear that the movement which the corporate media dismissed as a collection of disaffected rich kids is anything but. Something’s happening in New York, and now all over the country, including here in Portland. What it is that’s happening isn’t exactly clear yet, but as it happened during the Vietnam Era, young people are leading the charge to change the world. Again.

It doesn’t take anything resembling genius to recognize that things are horribly out of whack. We are where we are in large part because of the greed and avarice of our financial sector. Wall Street had been channeling Gordon Gecko unchecked until 2008, and since then…well, not much has changed. The question becomes how much Americans can be expected to absorb and how long we can be expected to absorb it. It would seem that Wall Street’s reign or terror may well be coming to an end.

It is, therefore, a testament to the passion of those involved that the protests not only continued but grew, eventually becoming too big to ignore. With unions and a growing number of Democrats now expressing at least qualified support for the protesters, Occupy Wall Street is starting to look like an important event that might even eventually be seen as a turning point.

What can we say about the protests? First things first: The protesters’ indictment of Wall Street as a destructive force, economically and politically, is completely right.

What seems to be happening, at least in part, is the spontaneous and coordinated expression of widespread dissatisfaction with a system skewed to the advantage of the wealthiest among us. Wall Street’s greed and avarice continues seemingly unchecked and Republicans work to protect the oligarchy at the expense of the vast majority of Americans, all while the poor and middle class are increasingly squeezed. Unemployment hovers around 9%, foreclosures continue at record levels, and 45 million Americans (myself included) have no health insurance. You can only keep the lid clamped on the pressure cooker for so long before it explodes…and perhaps Occupy Wall Street represents that explosion.

Earlier this year, we saw the Arab Spring sweep across North Africa and the Middle East, a part of the world not previously known for restive populations and revolutionary fervor. With the advent of the Internet and social media, it’s become increasingly difficult for despots to control their subjects with an iron fist. When those who live under a tyrant can see what’s happening in other countries, it becomes more difficult to repress a collective desire for freedom and equality.

Perhaps Occupy Wall Street will ultimately come to represent our “Tahrir Square moment”. Perhaps those now referring to themselves as “The Other 99%” have finally had enough of seeing the scales tip in favoring of the richest among us. The good news is that those politicians who have been purchased by the wealthy are feeling threatened. Even the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof was struck by the similarities between Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring:

I tweeted that the protest reminded me a bit of Tahrir Square in Cairo, and that raised eyebrows. True, no bullets are whizzing around, and the movement won’t unseat any dictators. But there is the same cohort of alienated young people, and the same savvy use of Twitter and other social media to recruit more participants. Most of all, there’s a similar tide of youthful frustration with a political and economic system that protesters regard as broken, corrupt, unresponsive and unaccountable.

“This was absolutely inspired by Tahrir Square, by the Arab Spring movement,” said Tyler Combelic, 27, a Web designer from Brooklyn who is a spokesman for the occupiers. “Enough is enough!”

The protesters are dazzling in their Internet skills, and impressive in their organization. The square is divided into a reception area, a media zone, a medical clinic, a library and a cafeteria. The protesters’ Web site includes links allowing supporters anywhere in the world to go online and order pizzas (vegan preferred) from a local pizzeria that delivers them to the square.

It’s far too early to know what, if any, impact Occupy Wall Street will have. Can the movement outlast those aligned against them? Will they be persistent and committed enough to defeat the wealthy, the corporate media, and the GOP sworn to protect the interests of the oligarchy? Will Occupy Wall Street be the wedge that makes it possible to change the direction America is heading and create a more fair, equitable, and humane system? There are still far more questions that answers, but I’m excited to see what’s happening. I’m in awe of young people who’ve created an organized, cohesive, nonviolent protest movement that’s growing and spreading nationwide. I’m reminded of one of my favorites quotes, from Margaret Mead:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

Occupy Wall Street began with a small group of thoughtful people who wanted to change the world. They may well be on their way to doing exactly that. Those of us in “The Other 99%” owes those thoughtful, committed people a debt of gratitude. The movement they’ve given birth to may well be our last, best, and only chance to change America and take it back from those concerned primarily with their own self-interest and self-aggrandizement.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 8, 2011 7:00 AM.

A movement comes to Portland was the previous entry in this blog.

Isn't it time to ensure that there are enough cookies for "The Other 99%"? is the next entry in this blog.

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