The new counterculture (part one)

I wanted to break this up into two because I got half way through and realized it would be too much for one post.  I also think it's worthy of two posts just because it is an interesting topic and can be so much more in the end. 

One of the greatest things about this country is in the first amendment of the constitution.  The rights to free speech and the right to assemble.  Since the first movement of Occupy Wall Street took form in New York I have been passively following it just because I'm obviously not in New York and cannot participate.  Occupy Minnesota has been going on for a few weeks, but it has not had the coverage that some of the larger city occupations have gotten.  Mainly because it isn't as interesting as some of the others.  All across the country there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of arrests of protesters for various infractions and at Occupy Oakland there have been violent clashes with the police.  This is just the latest case of violence and I'm sure there have been minor clashes throughout the country and the world.  

I can't help but feel like the occupiers are the new counterculture.  Just like the hippies of the sixties who were out and about protesting the government, Vietnam, civil rights, and whatever else they felt like, those protesters had a voice and a cause and were willing to clash with the government over it.  The occupiers are starting to find that same voice and that same fight.  They have found something they think is worth fighting for, worth getting arrested for, worth getting their skulls bashed in for.  

The occupiers and protesters feel wronged by the top tier (or one percent) of this country and are sick of the greed that they have used to their advantage.  This is where the 'We are the ninety nine percent' theme came from.  Groups of people have unified under one banner that most of us can identify with.  This isn't something that the normal person hasn't thought about before.  Everyone wants to shake their fist at the government in a public place.  They want to be seen, they want to be heard and that is what the Occupy movement has allowed many people in cities throughout the country to do.  New York, Columbus, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Oakland.  It has gone global.  London, Madrid, Melbourne, Berlin.  That's the beauty of the internet within this movement.  It's allowed for worldwide unity against the rich.  

But there is a downside to this movement that I will get into next post.  Before I get into that, I have a quote from Gangs of New York which I think is appropriate for the movement.  'The earth turns, but we don't feel it. And one night you look up. One spark and the whole sky is on fire.'  Just think on that for a little bit.  Absorb the context.  Until the next post.   






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