THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT: RESPONSE TO "OCCUPY WALL STREET"
www.occupywallst.org
On Sept 17th 2011, a grassroots expression of contempt was launched in
the heart of the world's financial center in lower Manhattan of New York
City, also commonly known to the world as the institution of "Wall
Street". As of Sept 26th, there have been over 80 arrests and many
recorded instances of what appears to be violence and abuse coming from
the police and security forces there. However, the protesters remain
vigilant in what could very well be a landmark event that will resonate
for some time to come.
The Zeitgeist Movement would like to extend its public support to this
basic expression.
As the world awakens to a failing financial system with growing civil
unrest emerging without the bias of sovereignty, religion or political
loyalty, a new, unifying perspective is slowly taking hold which
transcends the framework many of us falsely assume as empirical to our
way of life.
With the slow grind down of the global workforce as machine automation
continues to replace human labor for the benefit of corporate cost
efficiency, simultaneously reducing purchasing power and hence
inevitably stifling so called “Economic Growth”; with the ever
expanding Debt Crisis born out of the Fractional Reserve Lending System
and the simple reality that money is created out of debt and sold as a
commodity in exchange for Interest - Interest that can only again come
onto existence through more loan sales; with the looming military
programs growing in virtually all major powers as the financial crisis,
coupled with a pending hydrocarbon energy crisis, begins to suggest a
stage of global conflict possibly never before seen; along with the
market psychology of Infinite Growth Consumption that continues to
pervade and distort our values and what it means to live in harmony with
nature on a finite planet...
...it might be time we begin to see that the social problems at hand are
not specific to any general policy, administration, or even so called
"corporate greed". The real problem at hand is actually systematic via
the very core foundation of what defines our Economic System and the
psychology that is supported and rewarded.
The historical illusion that continues to this day is that someone or
some group is explicitly to "blame". Rather than focus on the 400 people
who have more wealth than 150 million in America or the fact that globally
1% of the world's population has more wealth than 40%, let's instead ask
ourselves how such a manifestation is even possible and, more critically,
why we would expect anything less? Think about it.
After all, it's the "Free-Market", isn't it? Contrary to the
statistically void efficiency assumptions made by most Market
Economists, the Free-Market simply means anyone can do whatever they
want and maximize however they want within the confines of legal
legislation; legal legislation which, make no mistake, is also for sale
in the Free-Market as well; as are political officials, regulatory
institutions and whatever social entity you wish to consider.
Nothing but maximizing monetary gain is sacred and anytime a person or
group brings some detrimental social or environmental consequence of
this system to the forefront, pejorative distinctions are usually
branded upon their forehead to stifle such concern and frighten other
detractors – such as being called a “Socialist” or “Communist”.
Furthermore, while people in protest today across the world continue to
condemn monetary influence in social dealings such as the legal reality
of Corporate Lobbying, even using such colorful terms as "Corporatism",
“Crony-Capitalism” and even “Fascism”, they seem to misunderstand
what
this system is and always has been.
The Free-Market model of Economics is a haphazard, unscientific anarchy
of organization which assumes that any person or group with
enough money and hence power will be “responsible” in their actions
both socially and environmentally. The problem is that the very
definition of being "financially responsible” actually means to be
socially and environmentally exploitative, manipulative and negligent,
for the main driver of this system is Inefficiency. The more problems in
society in general, the more jobs are created and the more rich the
upper 1% become. There is an empirical decoupling from what actually
supports life and no alteration of the core configuration of the
monetary-market Incentive will likely change that.
On a different level, this system, as an historical evolution, is
actually based on a culturally hegemonic pretense. Once economic
advantage is obtained, it will likely be kept. This is why everything in
the system favors the wealthy by its general structure and inherent
logic. While the public might complain about the fact that top Hedge Fund
Managers bring in over 300 million dollars per year, they often do not find
objection with an Interest system that rewards those with high deposits
and essentially taxes those using credit. While you may buy your home
with a loan, paying thousands in interest a year, a person of wealth can
make a CD Investment and gain free interest income simply because they have
the money to spare.
Class separation and perpetuation and the growing wealth divide is not a
byproduct. It is inevitable. In the Free-Market, one is actually
“free” to take away the liberty of others through the mere economic
pressures generated from the game. You are only as free as the size of
your wallet. The term “Institution Racism” was coined by civil
rights activist Stokely Carmichael in the 1960s referring to how often
unnoticed underlying policies and structures within the social system
undermined African-American prosperity and equality. What we have today
is a mere variation: “Institutional Classicism”.
Wall Street itself, which is the ultimate manifestation of the pursuit
of money as a commodity rather than any form of true creation or social
contribution, is naturally a ripe entity for symbolic objection for, at
a minimum, it shouldn't exist at all and most certainly not have the
grand effect it does on the stability of the global economy today,
regardless of the inherent shortcomings denoted.
However, that stated, it must again be made clear that Wall Street and
the Banking System are not the source of our problems. They are only
symptoms of an Economic System which will continue to fail by the very
gravity of its outdated and false assumptions of human conduct and
environmental relationships.
The question then becomes, what do we put in its place? ~Z
About:
The Zeitgeist Movement is a global sustainability activist group working
to bring the world together for the common goal of species
sustainability before it is too late. It is a social movement, not a
political one, with over 1100 chapters across nearly all countries.
Divisive notions such as nations, governments, races, political parties,
religions, creeds or class are non-operational distinctions in the view
of The Movement. Rather, we recognize the world as one system and the
human species as a singular unit, sharing a common habitat. Our
overarching intent could be summarized as “the application of the
scientific method for social concern.”
To learn more about our work, please visit www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
