My Thoughts …
After a heated discussion about my feelings regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement here are my thoughts.
First off let me preface this by saying that I believe in the people’s right to protest, and the NYPD did not handle things appropriately.
That being said.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is disorganized. While the Tea Party was able to create a clear and concise message “We want less government” and then they were able to mobilize and elect members to congress. The success of the Tea Party was due in large part to a clear and concise message.
The OWS movement does not have a clear thesis statement. There are so many people all protesting different things, forgive student loan debt, don’t cut arts education funding, universal health care, the banks have too much money, there are rich people controlling the economy, we can’t get the jobs that we want, ect. They are all over the place. If you want people to pay attention to you, don’t just camp out in a park and scream real loud over different things. Take a break, gather your thoughts, and come up with one overarching theme for your movement, then find one our kin to serve as a leader, and then try to mobilize around your new message.
Every major social movement in the history of the US has had a clear message, which helped them be successful.
Women’s Suffrage - Give women the right to vote (simple and clear)
Civil Rights Movement - Give blacks equal rights (simple and clear)
Gay Rights - Give gays equal rights (simple and clear)
Feminism - Give women equal rights and opportunities (simple and clear)
Tea Party - Less government control (simple and clear)
So OWS, we hear you yelling, but we don’t know what you’re saying. Get on point and you’ll have the ability to enact real and measured social change. Do you really only want to be known as the movement victimized by the police?
