Thoughts on Occupy Wall Street

The big story of the past few weeks has been the Occupy Wall Street, um, occupation or protest or movement. It’s unavoidable. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has pictures to show, stories to tell. Some people seem to focus only on what the protesters are there to protest. Some people seem to keep a tally on the numbers arrested. Some like to judge. Fucking long hairs. Go out and get jobs.

And that’s all fine.

Yet I struggle with this whole matter. As a college graduate who went to film school, I never expected that finding a job would be easy. Not because times are bad, or there’s a hiring freeze, but simply because I chose to immerse myself in creative endeavors. There are little opportunities for filmmakers, or writers, or photographers in a good economy, let alone one drowning in despair.

I would be a hypocrite to complain about why I can’t find a job as a writer, or on a film-set working my way up from latte retriever to guy with a radio, to guy who gets to sit in a comfy chair with a latte. This was expected. I chose a good ten years of poverty, of invisible acceptance letters and non-existent calls from employers. Whether or not I prepared myself correctly for this time of struggle is a conundrum to me. I never expected to have a wife by this age, but I was lucky. Now my priorities are different.  I try my best to brainstorm, to build a portfolio, something to one day send out and then pray for publication. I also try, sometimes unsuccessfully, to not get perturbed by my unemployment. Getting this far with this story is all I have to go on to pat myself on the back and to hope for the best.

But there are thousands of fellow college graduates who didn’t go the liberal arts route in school and remain jobless. These were supposed to be our future doctors, scientists, teachers, and business barons. These were the generation of kids that were inundated with promises for bright futures and green pastures by our government leaders in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. Yet we have a generation lost in space. This is a generation living at home with their families. A generation struggling to even find a temporary summer job or temporary seasonal work at their local mega-marts.  This may, as some say, be a generation of the privileged. Young adults today may be spoiled, sure, with their iPhones and lightning fast computers. Spoiled with vast job search websites, made to help finding a job easy. This generation expects work. They expect that their college degrees, whether self-financed, or paid for by the hard work of their parents, should land them a good job.

Or even a bad one. Something to get their foot in the door. A job where maybe a few years of expert ass-kissing will be necessary. As a teacher or a doctor, start your residency or track to tenure in a struggling urban setting, only to advance later on to bigger and better things.

Fact is, not many of those jobs are out there any more. A lot of the ones that are out there are no longer entry-level. A few years or experience is required by employers for simple mail-room or office administration jobs. Yes, a few years of office experience needed, but for a fresh cherry cheeked college graduate, this is the appropriate setting experience that they do not have.

If one is lucky to come across an entry-level, then expect to make next to nothing to work hard and smooch on the rectums of your rich BMW-driving boss. Stipends are common now. Something small in return for work, maybe enough to get you to work on time (hopefully), maybe enough for that cheap Styrofoam cup full of sludge purchased at the dirty water dog stand parked outside your building. Hardly enough to afford an apartment, or an electric bill, or even the tuition that you hope will go into deferment.

There aren’t a lot of happy young people out there today. Not to say there are some who’ve managed to carve their way into a great job, and to all of them, congratulations. You should be grateful for the opportunity you have been given. Realize that not everyone has been as fortunate, and dare I say, as hard working as you have been. But be careful to judge those camping in Lower Manhattan. We are far from out of this recession, and no matter how long you’ve been at your job, consider yourself on probation.

One thing that bothers me about the Occupy Wall Street movement is what bothers me about the Hippie movement of the 60’s. The message is good, but naïve. The people are good, but its leaders are weak and close-minded. Rapid liberal change comes hard to this country. The Summer of Love’s high crest of free love and peace eternal never came to fruition. The hippie generation dissolved, and a new materialistic and drug-addled counter-culture was formed. Gone with the hallucinogenics and marijuana rock and roll, and in with the hard barbiturates turning the beautiful people into broke withered zombies.  The liberal thinkers in government were either killed (RFK) or were exposed for their own vices (George McGovern), and outside of much needed change in Civil Rights, little of what the hippies fought for in the 60’s would be enacted.

My problem with the protest is what bothers me about the government. No one in our government sincerely backs what the people camped at Wall Street are seeking to accomplish. Instead, we see politicians in the GOP and White House taking bits and pieces of the OWS movement in speeches and debates without giving them credit in an obvious attempt to entice some votes.

My problems with the protesters are with the ones who make it look bad for everyone else. This is a conservative minded country. People will never focus on what you are trying to say or even take you seriously when people are arrested and any form of violence occurs. Thankfully the protest has been non-violent to this point. But to the ones looking for trouble, the ones yelling “fuck you pig!” and stepping over lines created to keep you out, shame on you. You deserve a nightstick to the head, but this is America. Police need to hold back unless there is a threat of violence. Also, there have been reports of mass arrests in which people are simply loaded into police vans and taken to processing. If this is true, then shame on the police. Actions like that allow those outside the New York City area to judge the protesters unfairly. After all, violence sells on the nightly news.

To me, it seems that no one in government will get serious about what the people want. No corporations are looking out for its American people. After posting profits, they say that the numbers aren’t as good as they appear and that the bad economy is to blame, that profits should be better. But they are profits after all. It is these corporations, along with a greedy Wall St., a bickering government, and an expensive and vague war that are all causes for our economic and social trouble today.

And to the college graduates, the ones who feel betrayed and disillusioned and trying to figure out whether more school and more debt is the answer I say stay away. Don’t dig a deeper hole. Live for today. One thing that should be adopted from the Hippie movement is the emphasis on TODAY. Enjoy life. There is plenty to be negative about, sure. But take things in stride. Look for the little things. Take that idea for a story you had and put it to paper. Take that small passion for drawing you may have, and spend an entire day drawing all that you see around you. Be creative. Listen to something new. Watch a movie you’ve never heard of. Surround yourselves with friends and family, the two things that should matter most in your lives. Breathe in. Don’t think too much.

Don’t rely on any handouts. Don’t believe the promises of those seeking election. Don’t be content that the recession will end, that the world will become less greedy, that the rich will give up any of their money and power, that anyone will help you. Help yourself. Speak your mind.