Occupy movement still hard for some to define

            In a recent report from South Dakota Public Broadcasting, a respected, former politician and political observer said that the Occupy movement was beginning to form an agenda, implying that the movement has not been focused.  Is a group unfocused because it has have numerous, equally important, political or social issues that concern the group?  Apparently so, if you listen to the descriptions or explanations of the Occupy movement provided by any number of news and political commentators in the media today.  These pontificators claim to represent the voices of much of what passes for political thought in the world.  These self proclaimed expert observers vocalize or write about political and social issues and they are used to finding convenient pigeon holes to put people and groups of people into simplified, definitive categories.  By categorizing people and groups, their views on issues are replaced by simplistic, generalized labels that effectively mask the underlying issues.

            The pigeon hole categories are labeled as black or white, right or left, good or evil.  What does the Internal Revenue Service, Netflix, insurance companies, Visa Card, Facebook, most political pundits, and countless other data collecting or data interpreting entities have in common?  They like to keep track of what people and groups of people are doing by identifying trends.  Trend predictions are developed by observing how many people like a certain thing, how often do people buy certain things, how do people in target markets react when they hear certain words, what kind of movies have people watched in the past; polls, purchase records, movie rentals, everything people do that can be quantified and measured.  All these observations of repetitious behavior tend to indicate what can be expected from individuals and groups in the future. 

            What a bother it is when you have a group of people that don’t follow the normal trends.  It makes it difficult to pigeon hole a group of people that forms together because they share ideals and concerns on a wide variety of issues.  This group of people appears to be able to do what America’s elected politicians cannot; this group has come to a consensus large group of issues and they are taking action.  Those that would like to vilify this movement have not figured out how to give the movement a simplified, attackable, negative label.  The group is too diverse since it really does encompass the majority.

            Something else is very bothersome about this Occupy movement.  They don’t rely on fear as their unifying force.  On the contrary, they prefer to rely on optimism and hope that they can bring about a better society by voicing the concerns that many in society have been afraid to admit.  There is something wrong with the current level of wealth disparity in world.  There is something wrong with the degree of corporate influence on government.  There is something wrong in many areas of society today and it should not be allowed to continue and, at some level, everybody knows it.  The majority of society (the 99%) just hasn’t realized that it doesn’t have to be this way.  The Occupy movement’s focus has been on raising society’s awareness of the many things that are wrong with the social and economic conditions around the world.

            Don’t wait for the poll numbers, think for yourself.  Stop defending the politicians you voted for and start demanding that they come to a consensus on ways to bring about wealth parity and ways to curb the unfair influence and power of large corporations on governments and the worldwide society or get out of the way and let somebody else do it.  Public opinion has to overcome the power of money.