Some things that Ruggie and then MJ struck a chord with me, whilst at the same time I agree with Nic and Slick in general.
Ruggie said :
The mentality of these morons is proof that you can't raise kids and tell every one of them they are special. You can't have them play organized sports and not keep score, and give everyone a trophy because they participated. You can't not give them grades in school, even failing ones. Because in real life in the real world there are winners and losers. And if you've never experienced both then you will have no idea how to navigate thru life. This is why they're blaming all the ills of the world on capitalism. They want a hand out, they want what they haven't earned. They're adult children.
Apart from the part I put in
Bold.
Your comment applies not just to protesters but to wider society, with the caveat that if you are not good at some things and therefore a "loser" in society's eyes, it doesn't mean you can't be good at something else. Some people can paint or draw, others are good at maths or science, others should be leaders and others followers etc. The problem is that most people's actual worth is measured in what they have not what they can do. So the guy with the 5 bed house and swimming pool and 4 door garage looks like he has worked the hardest for it. Which might be the case, or he has been lucky and had the right connections all his life from high school to college etc. But he will feel that he is entitled to feel like a "winner" even if you or I know he is just a lucky bastard with the intellect of a newt.
Secondly, when all kids at school are given prizes regardless, then the actual smart kids, or the one's who worked the hardest, are not being rewarded when they should ( although this could be a good life lesson too as it happens as life is like that sometimes ). So will I agree with you in part, I think that it can be a bit more complex.
MJ said :
Another thing I noticed -in the crowd of the occupiers over here at least- that the ones with real social issues such as being homeless or others that have fallen on hard times (long term unemployment, e.g) are strangely absent or doing the captalist thing: They try to obtain money by activity. I've even seen some of the above collecting soda/water bottles/cans from the scene and cashing them in for deposit and profit. Anecdotal evidence for sure, but kind of reinforced my view on the "Movement".
The people with real social issues etc, may not have access to social networking via PC/Internet/Smart phones etc. Thus their absence. Collecting cans and bottles is what homeless people do as a way to generate a few bucks for food or whatever, not to pay for mobile phones and nice houses and internet connections. The people at the bottom of the scale in the West will see stuff like that as a luxury they can't afford, and the time to protest for them also would take away from their day to day struggle to find enough money or food to survive or buy clothes or find a warm place to sleep. Long term unemployed people also do not have the luxury of being political as again it is a daily struggle just to get by ( I've been in that position myself and the last thing I would be doing is wasting time with a protest sign.)
To an extent it is up to those with the spare time and economic security to actually take part in protests. Be it retired people, ex service people ( yes there were a few of them too as well as the commies and hippies ) or people who do live a comfortable life but want to show support against the inequality we have in the West right now. Frankly I think it is great to see people motivated to protest instead of waiting outside Apple stores to buy a new gizmo.
On the much larger picture ( as the image Rez posted shows ) even the poorest in our society have more than people in other parts of the world. But I think Nic alluded to the fact that both are caused by the same type of people, ie the 1 percent of the Western world who to you or I are super rich, but to people in the third world are almost unimaginably and obscenely wealthy. No one really needs to have a net worth of several billion unless it is merely to use as a way to control society.
The mistake being made by people who actually earn their money or run their own businesses etc, and perhaps earn several hundred thousand a year, is that these protests are against you. They are not at all, you are just as shit poor as the rest of us compared to the true 1 percent crowd. And the gap between working people in the west and people on benefits widens just as much as the gap ( maybe even less ) as the one between the middle class and the super rich. If I was running a small/medium business right now I'd be out protesting too at the people who make more money in interest in one day for sitting on their ass, than most of us would make working our butts off all year.
