The Occupy Protests: courageous stand or cul-de-sac?

The following is my first article for Uni. Essex's newspaper, the Rabbit. I'm not too thrilled about the small word count I had to work with- I guess readers of the Gleaner have higher attention spans after all- but trying to get my ideas into 400 words is actually a reasonably fun challenge. This was rather well received by the newspaper staff here.

It seems prudent that I stress that this article is technically property of The Rabbit, the school paper for the University of Essex.

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It only takes a cursory glance at our history to see that there are certain points in time when, for reasons of injustice, the peasants, commoners, lower classes- the 99% as it were- collectively clash against the barriers set up by the ownership of the world. When we speak of the ownership, we of course speak of that upper 1%, that ruling class that owns more than all of us combined. The 1% control the corporations behind our governments, the secret revenue behind our plunging economies, and, yes, the leaders behind the puppets we elect.

These statements are not so liberal or controversial under the lens of history; even in a country where her majesty reins more as a figurehead than a politician, has the power of her class ever vanished from this society? She or those like her are still capable of great influence. And similarly, in America, is the embattled presidency of Barack Obama not evidence that even in the so-called land of the free, the president has become little more than a rubber stamp for the industry around him? Many Americans think their country has only recently lost its ‘innocence’ (an unfortunate phrase often conflated with 9-11), but would not the fate of JFK suggest otherwise? Indeed, a black or American Indian would advise to look back even further.

But at certain points in time, the commoners are inspired to rebel. Women’s suffrage. The enlightenment. Yes, the 60s. And right now, from New York to Rome, from Philadelphia to London, thousands are joining the so-called ‘Occupy’ protests. Many believe these peaceful protests will inspire change. And perhaps they will. But history suggests that success is deceiving. The movements of the 60s ended with conciliatory changes that didn’t erase racism; it just created ghettos. Women’s suffrage did not defeat sexism; it merely gave the ruling class a whole new population to tax. For the Occupy protests to avoid a mediocre dead end, we the 99% must not buy into that illusion that the injustice around us is a recent phenomenon conjured by one side of the political spectrum. Rather, it is a fundamental part of humanity, from kings to church to Rockefeller. We cannot accept institutional changes; rather we must demand changes in how we as a species think.

Then my friends, we will have a revolution.