What is “Occupy Wall Street”? It’s a collection of unhappy individuals. Understandably you’d want a more specific description, but unfortunately I can’t provide that – and neither can the protestors. Because Occupy Wall Street is less of a protest and more of a destination for people who wish to protest – once they get there, the protestors set up shop and object to whatever they are upset about. Occupy Wall Street is a protest convention, in which people set up booths that have little to do with each other, each with their own fandoms and philosophies.
However one can’t discuss Occupy Wall Street without mentioning the discussion about the “one percent”, that the richest one percent of Americans have too much financial control over our country, and that this is “unfair.” How is it unfair that rich people are allowed to use their money how they want? How would you feel if, all of a sudden, you were awarded a million dollars then promptly told that you had to use almost all of it to fund the wants of a hundred other people? Or worse, what if you worked for years and diligently saved up all that money, and then people banged down your door telling you it wasn’t “fair” that you had all that money you worked so hard for? This is the truly unfair way of thinking, and it’s un-American to boot. What happened to the right to the pursuit of happiness? What if happiness is working hard and earning money?
Note the word “pursuit.” We are not entitled to happiness. We are not entitled to money if we don’t work for it. This is the mistake that people participating in Occupy Wall Street are making. With all the instant gratification we are used to as citizens, the idea of having to wait to get a job is maddening and causing many to lose sight of how the system is supposed to work. So they got up, “occupied” the symbol of “corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process” (from their website, occupywallst.org), and created an unnecessary media frenzy that has done nothing but annoy hard-working Americans and spawn a few jokes on the Internet.
Steffi Morris is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering.
