^I'm not opposed to the end of the disparity, I'm opposed to radical action. The situation may be urgent, but you still need to put aside your morality and indignation and emphasize strategy…
Touting socialism as the answer actually undermines your credibility. Most Americans don't want socialism. Even if the corporations are inherently evil and greedy and destroying the world, which they are, taking their money away from them on the premise that 'other people need it' just isn't going to work... it's not an argument that most people are ready to hear. Some people definitely are... but unless the protesters can convince the moderates (they're around, I promise) that they're not unstable radical socialists, then they're never going to succeed in bringing about any type of change. When people propose outright revolution, it's wayyyy too terrifying for most of the country… especially since things still haven't hit rock bottom. Demanding that 'corporate America must go' is still too scary for the average person to accept…
Meh, not scary. Just totally untenable to most people. I think a lot of the innate American objection to socialism is based much more on pragmatism than anything else,
particularly from moderates. It's not as much of an issue of ethics or ideology as some people seem to think. I think don't think it's that the United States is just not "ready" to take that next progressive step into socialism, or something. I think that system is fundamentally incompatible with American culture--just as, conversely, socialistic ideals are quite compatible within certain other cultures, like Sweden or Finland. Of course, if you're a Marxist, I believe revolution of the workers is supposed to be inevitable in all societies, which is a pretty narrow way of looking at the world and all its infinite possibilities, in my opinon.
What Occupy will probably end up accomplishing, realistically speaking, is to make sure that rebuilding the economy on a more solid foundation than it's rested on in recent history becomes the hot topic in the 2012 election. They're doing a great job of painting a visceral picture of the distress many young Americans are in because of economy. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if
that focus ultimately engendered a lot of support for Republicans, who sort of have the reputation in America for being strong on the economy. Check out what just happened in Spain--MAJOR conservative victory in their recent election after weathering a sh*tty economy where something like 20% of people in their 20s-30s are unemployed. I'm no expert, but it looks like the rest of Europe may be revamping its entire system along much
less socialistic lines (I'm thinking of England's cuts to its government spending last year as well). I could see that taking off in the United States as well, because the individualistic work ethic is so culturally embedded there.
And the thing is, with hilarity's point, more referendums and more citizen involvement with their representatives and leaders via the Net and other technology is completely possible and probably inevitable, regardless of whether the power dynamics shift left or right next year. I would love to see more of that come out of Occupy, instead of people trying to capitalize on it as a platform for a socialist agenda which frankly, to most moderate Americans, is not so much scary as overly simplistic, and well . . . sort of tired and outdated.
