OK, Wait....

Occupy Wall Street is gaining momentum, which I think overall is a good thing.  But wasn't it started by a bunch of 20-somethings who were complaining that they had recently graduated and couldn't find work?  And didn't they largely organize through social media?
 
I'm just wondering how many of those young people used Macs, and contributed to Steve Jobs' billions, or used PCs with Microsoft products and contributed to Bill Gates' billions.  I agree that huge corporations should not be treated as people and should not have unfair lobbying or tax advantages.  But wouldn't an effective way to send a message to those huge corporations be to stop using their products?  Are we making the connection that we, as consumers, drive the culture of greed that has produced the mess we're in? Or is it OK to drive the culture when we're consuming products we like?  Is it OK for Jobs and Gates to be billionaires because we like their computer products, but not OK for Wall Streeters to be millionaires because we don't like or understand their money products?  But didn't we, in many (but not all) cases use those money products and incur debt that helped make the WallStreeters or Jobs or Gates wealthy?

Going back to the youngsters.  And it's not my  intent to pick on them, but as I see them enter the  third (?) week of protests and it's only now starting to have a direction, I can't help but wonder if these are kids who've lived sheltered lives, playing sports where "everyone wins," and going to schools that don't give grades or that pass you for being able to write a sentence in marginally-intelligible English.  It seems like we've raised up a generation that's been incredibly coddled (the pre-school admission process at birth, the helmets, the general overprotectiveness that includes a lack of taking risks, the failure to point out areas for improvement and the constant encouraging, even in the face of weaknesses) -- I can't help but think we've raised up this generation that's oblivious to the forces of a competitive market and now that they're in it, they find themselves not only unprepared, but completely unable to cope (um, I went to school.  I studied art and nature.  How could you grade that, man?  I graduated and now I deserve to work.  I'm not prepared for the workforce and can't compete with some folk who have prepared, so I'm going to protest.  Against what, exactly?  That some people have had to work for things and you've had everything handed to you all your life?)

I know the above does not characterize everyone in the Occupy Wall Street Movement.  In the past week I've seen or posted pictures of librarians, WWII vets, and an 83-year-old woman, all of whom were part of the #occupyWallStreet movement.  I'm not arguing with the fact that rampant greed exists, and is encouraged and rewarded on Wall Street.  I'm suggesting that it's not just the Wall Streeters who perpetuate that condition; it's all of us.  WE are the ones who assumed debt we knew we couldn't handle before the collapse of the housing market, but we want to make them the bad guys for having made us the loans.  They were making a buck, yes, but our greed fueled theirs.  And vice-versa. It is a malevolently co-dependent existence, that of the American penchant for consumption and American corporate greed.

Now we want to sit back and make them the bad guys, but what do we bring to the table?  What part do we play in the solution?  How are we willing to adjust our patterns of obscene consumption in order to change the norms that allow these injustices to happen?  Yes, some people in the occupy Wall Street movement are searching for a sustainable economy -- but what does that look like?  What happens to the entrepreneur?  What do you do with the person who's a loyal functionary for 20 years but shows little growth or incremental productivity?  Should they merit the same reward and compensation as one who's a real go-getter?  How is this decided?  Without the market forces of supply and demand, what sort of economy are we projecting? We're already seeing the effects of artificially altering the parameters f the supply/demand relationship.  If artificially imposed limits are imposed, if the pendulum swings in the other direction, then what happens?

Yeah, America realizes there's a problem.  We're quick to point the finger at others, but we need to remember that when we point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at us.  Rather than occupying or changing Wall Street, what, other than protest and complain,  is each of us prepared to do? 

It's great that we are concerned enough to #occupyWallStreet.  But don't the folk who work on Wall Street go home to Main Street?  I think we need to look at the values we encourage and embrace on Main Street. I mean, maybe I've become a conservative in my old age, but look at this: our kids don't respect their elders.  They don't even respect themselves enough to get completely dressed before they come out of the house.  We don't get along with our neighbors (most of the time we don't even know them). We've turned our backs on the God of our understanding, We are contemptuous of and can't agree on basic family values.  We've taken God out of our schools and our daily lives.  We use "God" as an excuse to exact hatred upon those who are different from us.  We're so afraid of offending anyone's religion that we fail to practice our own.  It's like we're a ship that's lost its rudder and is just going around in circles trying to find a direction. 

So as much as Wall Street is a symptom of the problem, it's not the CAUSE of the problem.  The cause of the problem is that, along with our direction and our way,  we as a nation seem to have lost our collective mind.  Until we find that mind (and I am reminded here of the assertion that the root of religion is from the Latin ligare, or to tie or bind together) until we find that mind, it won't matter if we #occupyWallStreet, or #occupytheWhiteHouse, or #occupyCongress -- if we cannot collectively occupy some baselines of civility, concern, and caring for one another, then we will never again occupy our collective "right mind."  Or anything else.