99% + 1 % = ?: A Reflection on Occupy Wall Street
An Occupy Wall Street protester sleeps in Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street in New York. Source: Reuters.
Without a doubt I meet the criteria for being part of the 99%. Although my family and I are not part of the 99% that has been hit with foreclosures and unemployment in the recession, I still identify with the goals and zeitgeist of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The occupation of Zuccotti park in my hometown of New York City made me reflect on the dynamics of my particular case as an interesting one because I am part of the 99% that is being herded into the 1%.
The aggregate of things such as our news and entertainment media, the lack of ethical restraint in a dog-eat-dog capitalist, consumerist culture make for the foundation of many of the ills that OWS are attempting to give a voice to; however, not from culture critics as has historically been, but from everyday people. And these societal observations and diagnoses leave me in solidarity with OWS. Having said that I also recognize my unique position within the 99% as someone who is being groomed for a career and life within the 1%.
My life story is not a particularly remarkable one. I come from an urban environment and a single-parent household; however, I have, throughout my life, been the exception because of my scholastic aptitude and achievements. After entering college I began to realize that I am being prepped for a world that I was nearly oblivious to only a couple years ago. The constant bombardment of seminars, workshops, programs along with the proliferation of countless collegiate societies, organizations and the like is at odds with the world I am a part of outside of school. Before Occupy Wall Street these notions were not fully formed and articulated, but rather were just inklings in the back of my mind. After OWS began it prompted me to reflect and realized that I wanted to at least be there once and be a part of the occupation. I wanted to participate and say that I was a part of something historic. I wanted to participate and feel what it was like to actually be there instead of reading about it; unfortunately, I had to stay at school. My inability to attend the protest in my hometown provided the contrast that I needed to come to the realization that these four years in which I will earn a college degree is actually a transitory process from the 99% to the 1%. At the moment I feel like a part of both. My sympathies and allegiance is pledged to where I came from, but it would be dishonest to say that I have not consciously decided to make a play for the 1%. This also begs the question of how realistic is it for someone from the 99% to break through and enter the 1%? The answer to this question, in my opinion, is important to beloved American notions such as the “American dream.”
"We are the 99%" Protest badge. Source: Flickr. net_efekt
To put it as as clearly as possible it is the amount of scrutiny that we apply to the lives of celebrities and other forms of public persona that skews our view of how much of an anomaly their fabulous wealth and influence is. The influence of those who reside within the 1% is extremely pervasive by way of their grossly disproportionate share of wealth and property ownership. As a natural consequence of their influence a certain osmosis between the 99% and 1% occurs. As the price of wielding such economic and social influence means encouraging the notion that one can achieve such things through hard work and good fortune. Wanting to be part of higher socio-economic classes drives most of the motives of the 99% and because of that there an exceptional few who make it out. We hear stories of cultural icons (the recently deceased Steve Jobs is a good example) from humble beginnings who, despite many setbacks and hardships, made it to the top. Those people are farther and more few between than many realize.
Setting aside the Marxist chest-thumping, when taking into account American population estimates we see that the people who embody such examples are not only smaller than the 1% that they now reside in, but their entry into said 1% is more or less statically negligible. So, in a sense, the most exclusive group within the ‘99%’ and ‘1%’ is a tertiary group: those rare few who make the transition into the top percent. This in turn makes aspiring to be part of that group a near hopeless mission, but such overwhelming odds are never strong enough to beat back the gamble for greatness that self-exceptionalism encourages. Most subconsciously accept the the truth of the unlikelihood of their success, but secretly hold onto the belief they can be one of the privileged exceptions. It is a logic that everyone buys into at some point in time, but when an entire society concurrently believes such things it is easy to see how we have ended up in our current predicament.
"I am the 1%. Tax Me." http://www.trendhunter.com
Returning to my situation in particular it is generally accepted that not all colleges and universities make for smooth transitions into the 1%; especially in rough economic times such as these. Many are left with outrageous debt and too few job opportunities. This also includes many graduates of prestigious schools, including the Ivy League. This fact is something that is usually ignored or explained away. Step back for a minute and examine what failure to enter the 1% means. If these people have failed in their attempt for the 1 %, then they must have had to try for it in the first place. And that is my dilemma in a nutshell. The same thing that has propelled me into the world that I am currently in is the same thing that tells me that there must be a better way of doing things: my head. My conscience cannot allow me to simply join the part of society that unfairly socializes the risk on the masses, especially when that is where I came from. Occupy Wall Street has made me reflect on my life and its trajectory as much as it makes me hopeful that substantive changes are possible in our society and country.
My faith is that Occupy Wall Street will continue to give voice to the discontent that many have been silently feeling for quite some time. It is giving multiple faces to the problems we face as a nation instead of dealing in abstractions such as the inevitable troughs and peaks of the business cycle. The lines that have historically been used to depict the stories of many people abstractly on a graph are now being used to write their stories all over the Internet; and hopefully, the history books.
this andrew dude is still not nice at fifa tho
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