Color Me Conflicted - Bill's Occupy Dilemma

By revbill on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 2:26pm

Lord knows that I often stray from the path of writing about audio and the audio business. But I am about to do something I have avoided for a long time… I am entering the political fray…

(My old friend Baker would be proud. Although I'm sure he'll disagree with me and maybe write about it elsewhere in words much more eloquent than mine.)

First some perspective. I think it is important to be straight up whenever talking about stuff like this including being straight about one's leanings in the spectrum of political thought. When i take the enhanced version (supposed to be more accurate) version of the World's Smallest Political Test (http://www.quiz2d.com/quiz/) I come up as left-of-center but still in the "libertarian" quadrant and outside of the area labeled as "centrist." It looks like this…

Point Counterpoint October 2011: Rev Bill's Political Map

If I had to label my political beliefs I would probably call myself a Jeffersonian. So now that we are all clear on where my biases lie… I am looking at the whole Occupy Where Ever thing and am feeling conflicted.

My first inclination is to identify with the "We Are the 53%" folks.(http://the53.tumblr.com/) If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't feel sheltered. It is a smallish group that I found out about by accident. But the basic gist is being among the 53% of wage-earners in the U.S. who actually pay federal income tax. (And, no, I don't know if that figure is accurate. I don't care. Please don't flame me about it. Whatever the number, there is no doubt that there is a large segment of the population who don't pay any income taxes.)

I had my first job at age 10. Paper route back when there still were such things. And I have been employed either by someone else or working and making money doing my own thing ever since. I got no government help with college (and money is one reason I only stuck around long enough to get an associate's degree). In the '90s after a big earthquake in L.A., we needed to come up with about $8 grand to cover the deductible to get the damage fixed. We were able to get an SBA loan to cover it. I have been paying on that loan for for more than 12 years and have at least eight to go and I have not lived in or owned the house for the past six years. I could have likely walked away from it but I didn't. I was raised to believe that I had to work hard and take my commitments and responsibilities seriously.

But…

While I agree with many more libertarian voices in believing that the vast majority of those protesting have no real idea what they are talking about and that the sense of entitlement is overwhelming, I also agree with the stated idea of some of the clearer voices. The income divide in this country has gotten way past anything that could possibly be considered healthy. And a government established for and by the people is run for and by corporations whose only objective is to increase their power and wealth. All of the power in the hands of the moneyed elite is not a system I am interested in supporting or living under.

But I don't have an alternative because as far as I can see, our government is running the same scam from a different angle. I'm sure there are some individuals in government who are there for the right reasons and who really desire to make things better. Just like I know there are those among the very wealthy who put their money to good use and try to make the lives of others better. But most government types are out to increase their own power first and foremost. Sound familiar?

And the really hard part is that I fear we are way past the point of being able to reform the government or the economic system short of tearing it all apart and starting over. There are too many entrenched interests who will fight any kind of reform that threatens their power or position.

Like I said at the top. I'm conflicted. I identify just as much with the "99%" crowd as I do with the Tea Party. Which is to say I agree with the stated principles of both groups. In fact, this will really get me in trouble. THERE IS VERY LITTLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OCCUPY PEOPLE AND THE TEA PARTY. Very little. Both are born of frustration with the f'ed up state of government and corporations and who is really calling the shots that has become the status quo. Where the occupy people are pissed about their birthright being taken away. (That whole government for and by the people IS a birthright and it IS being taken away), the Tea Party folks are pissed that the life they were promised by the system if they worked hard and obeyed the rules is, in their eyes, being taken away from them. I think there are elements in both sides that would welcome a real revolution. And there are the same ratio of nut jobs in both groups and the Tea Party's penchant for attracting racists and homophobes is easily matched by the classism and --by some people's accounts-- anti-Semitism of the Occupy people. And the hardcore in both groups really want to do just what they are complaining about. They want to control.

The Tea Party wants the private sector and business to control to the point that they are blinded to the fact that is already happening in a big way with the huge amount of control corporations already exert over the economy and law. The "99%" want government to control to the point that they are blinded to the fact that has been happening to greater and greater degrees since the 1940s and it hasn't worked out so well so far. And hypocrisy is rampant on both sides. The irony of the number of seniors involved in the Tea Party who are screaming for smaller government while they cash those Social Security checks is matched only by the whiners in the Occupy movement who want the government to regulate and control everything and everyone except themselves and whatever it is they do.

The people on the left don't want to deal with the fact that the housing thing that tanked the economy started with a requirement that banks make loans they knew were bad in the name of economic and racial equality and that requirement was the product of a Democratic administration. They would rather just blame everything on Bush and Cheney. Those on the right do not want to deal with the fact that the problem was made much worse when a Republican administration allowed banks and other financial institutions to package those crappy loans into exotic financial "products" that were worth less than zero but sold as if they were the best investment going. They would rather blame it all on Obama.

I want to live in a society where people take responsibility for their own actions but also have the compassion to help those who are in need. I want to live under a government that does what it is supposed to and leaves me alone to as great a degree as possible. I want to be sure that my vote means something and that the course of events is not bought and paid for well in advance. I want a world where people do the right thing not because they are forced to by those with money or power or the government via laws and regulations but because, well, it's the right thing. I want to see education taken seriously in terms of both funding and holding those doing the educating accountable for meeting performance standards.

Oh, and we can throw in the parents who know more about the latest habits of the Kardashians or the "Teenage Moms" than they do about what is going on their their kids' classroom. I want to see everyone who wants to be able to get a higher education. I also think that asking anyone who gets help paying for that to put in a couple of years of public service is a really good trade off. I want to live in a world where a stranger helping someone in need is not such a rare occurrence that it makes the nightly news. I want to see the fiction of treating a corporation as it it were a person to end. I want to see the money of both wealthy individuals and deep-pocket organizations from both sides of the political aisle OUT of the political process.

Right. And in the immortal words of Wayne, the Mike Meyers character from SNL, "And monkeys might fly out of my butt."

I want to see a lot of things change. But I know that the only thing I can really change is my own mind and actions. The Buddhist saying "If you want to change the world, change your thoughts." is the best philosophy for living that i know of and it works no matter what your political or religious leanings are. And I figure my time is better spent split between making cool publishing stuff, playing music, being with my family and friends and reading about the subatomic place where science and spirituality become indistinguishable form each other.

In the words of a band from the '90s "If you want a revolution baby there is nothing like your own."

I wonder what percentage that makes me?