A rampant protest group recently swept America, capturing headlines everywhere and generating nonstop opinions. It started with a group of New York activists protesting the opulence that members of Wall Street live in while the common man is stuck in less favorable conditions. The Occupy protest quickly turned into a nationwide movement, with thousands of people participating in sit-ins in cities across America. The media has picked up on the protests and turned it into the story of the year. The movement itself, however, decided to focus on reforming every issue imaginable. This lack of focus has lead to the media, the protesters, and perhaps most importantly, members of government that could create a change, all asking the same question:”What do they want?”
Somewhere along the line, it seems the group completely lost focus why they banded together in the first place. Without a clear leader or leading party, all of the different ideologies have created a big mess of ideas that is ultimately never going to get anything done. Topics being protested range from tax reform to conservation efforts. It’s almost become more about individual beliefs than a group’s effort to make a change.
The problem with having so many goals is that it eventually becomes too much to handle. The protesters need to focus on one idea at a time. Since the movement was started in response to the wealth of Wall Street, and there’s been so much talk about “The 1%”, it makes sense that they should focus on something that would reshape the economy in the working-class’ favor, such as reforming the tax structure. But, as I stated earlier, with so many goals, nothing is ultimately able to get done. If the Occupy movement wants to be successful, it needs a leader to dictate the course of action, and to narrow down the agenda of the movement.
I feel that the Internet and the age of technology that we live in are the biggest reasons that Occupy cannot get change in the way it wants to. When everyone is able to blog, or tweet, or post a YouTube video, everyone is able to have a voice which is ostensibly a good thing in our democratic nation. Unfortunately, when everyone has a voice, the people that deserve one are sometimes drowned out by people who just like to talk.
