Comment by cloverich
13 years ago
I understand, but "bankers in jail" is hardly focused, specific, or practically implementable. Which bankers - on what charges? And under what precedent? Did they want new laws set? If so, was there an agreed upon Bill or at least a roadmap to support? I casually followed the movement, and other than 'overturn Citizens United', did not find myself able to glean from the protests such information. Likely there were many people like msyelf whom, after reading up and finding (subjectively deemed) insufficient substance, simply stopped following it. Were violence added to the mixture, I'd not have felt more sympathetic to a movement I perceived to have no practical goals.
Im playing a bit of devil's advocate here, but I think followers of Civil rights movements, with relative ease, would be able to answer similar questions. I sympathize with the energy behind the Occupy movement, but like most people I'm not sure what to do about it - who or what to support, and how to act. And that, imho, is why the Occupy movement fizzled.
>Were violence added to the mixture, I'd not have felt more sympathetic to a movement I perceived to have no practical goals.
Occupy needed to remain peaceful, no doubt about it. But without a large alternative group that wasn't afraid to use violence, Occupy was always going to be marginalized away. They had coherent messages. You and most people don't know them because they were bottled up, discredited and shut down. Exactly what will happen to any peaceful movement.
Personally, I think there's still time for a peaceful alternative though: we all need to start getting directly involved in politics.