Whenever I read or watch the offshoots of Occupy Wall Street, I am reminded of Howard Beale, the newscaster-gone-mad in the 1976 movie classic “Network.” He got everyone to go to their windows and shout into the night air: “I’m mad as Hell and I’m not going to stand for it anymore.”
People say there is no point to the Occupy movement, but I think there is. People say that the spontaneous worldwide protests against … well, against the status quo, against politicians and banks and authorities who talk in homilies while abusing office, the banks, the foreclosures, the rich getting richer and the homeless getting hungrier … .
Most of us do not know what to do about all of these things, but over time, we have grown mad as hell at our leaders who are supposed to do something about it but they either are unwilling or unable.
People say it started on Wall Street, but ironically, I think what is happening started earlier than that. The Occupy people are generally perceived to be on the left side of the political spectrum, but the issues seem to me to be the same issues that led the right-wing Tea Party Protest.
I chatted on Twitter about Occupy with a few Tea Party protesters yesterday. The dismissed the more than 30,000 leaderless and segmented Americans who have so far assembled in protest in more than 20 American cities and in larger numbers all over the world. They talked about health, and one rape incident and even shabby clothing. One speculated that the protesters are unlikely to vote.
But no one from the Tea Party I spoke with disagreed with the issues that the Occupy people are shouting about.
Me too. I tend to be in the center politically. I find myself as uncomfortable with the Occupy folk as I do the Tea Party people. But, I find myself mad and frustrated as hell on the same issues. I don’t like the solutions the Tea Party offers, and I ave an essential fear of large and leaderless mobs because they have a tendency to turn violent.
Occupy, it seems to me, needs a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King to succeed. If one does not soon emerge, then I fear it will either turn violent or dissolve with the winter colds that have come early to a large portion of the US.
But Occupy is no longer just a US movement. It is worldwide. Perhaps, it is a descendent of Arab spring, which did turn violent. Diverse people with conflicting agenda found a common ground. They wanted regime change–and as we have seen, they got it in unexpected places.
In fact, we may have entered into a new era of global, grassroots citizen protest. Issues and approaches vary from place-to-place, but in every case, people are mad as Hell and they want to do something about it-even when there’s difficulty defining “it.”
I’ve traveled a lot in recent years. I have spoken to people in about 20 countries about their lives and countries. When I ask people what they think of their government, they almost always role their eyes and then speak with passion about how screwed up the people in power are when it comes to solving the needs of everyday people.
The one exception is Estonia, of all places. And I think I know why. Estonia is the second smallest democracy I have visited, with 1.3 million people. My hosts managed to arrange for me to have coffee with the president, then meet up in a public cafe with the former prime minister. We were interrupted every few minutes with people who came up to chat with him.
Estonia, it turns out, has been a world leader in e-government. Most Estonians pay taxes online and few people seem upset by the amount they pay or by what government does with the money. The reason is they feel they have access to government. They feel they are being heard and people get a lot less pissed off when they feel you are listening.
Being small and accessible let citizens engage in effective ways with government, or so it seems to me. We just can’t have that in large countries like the US, China, India, the EU, Indonesia and elsewhere. Maybe someday, we will use the internet to make our public officials engage with us and be accountable to us as is supposed to happen in a democracy.
If we did, people might not be mad as Hell like Howard Beale.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Don, Thanks for what I think is a very astute comment. Are you the Don Bradley I worked with at Miller Communications so many years ago?
Don, Thanks for what I think is a very astute comment. Are you the Don Bradley I worked with at Miller Communications so many years ago?
Yes Shel, I always held our friendship in high regard. And, I’m sorry, we’ve lost touch over the past years. It’s great to see how you’ve developed your writing career and commentary on new media. And your long list of followers. I still remember being back at Ricky’s Hyatt and going out to dinner and trying to outdo one another by how many olives we requested in a Martini. Great to reconnect. I’m still living in Andover, MA, same as back in the day at Miller. My daughter is an actress/producer in Hollywood, so I sometimes get to L.A. Haven’t been to San Francisco or Silcon Valley in a long time. All the best, Don
Hi Shel, great column… In a similar manner, I too find myself in the middle between Tea Party/GOP zealots and the Occupy protesters. And based on what I see, the Occupy movement has been slurred by the right. I’ve gotten chain emails with doctored and distorted accounts of the Occupy movement and the emails demand that I forward to all my contacts. Funny, I never get the message: “foward to all your contacts” in emails from more liberal friends. But, the mad as hell is a great methaphor. Both sides are angry. From my viewpoint, we are all starting to understand what has happened to America. We never thought it could happen here. We have been taken over by the 1% financial oligarchy in a high tech, K-Street, manner that is just as effective as the tanks and jack-boots Blitzkrieging into Poland. If the Bankers, Oil, and big Pharma can keep us fighting with one another, they win. As Howard Dean said in the last election: “if the election is about guns, gays, and abortion… we lose.” As long as what’s left of the middleclass and the working class fight with one another about social issues and the scraps left on the table…the 1% financial oligarchy will remain in power with no restraints on anything they do.