I visited Zuccotti Park yesterday, site of the Occupy Wall Street demonstration. It was like being back in college in the 60's. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people gathered, of all ages, colors and religions, and you could smell marijuana wafting through the air (I'm told!) It was very peaceful, cooperative, and politically correct - recycling cans everywhere, kids preparing and distributing healthy food, playing guitar, drums, accordion, singing, listening to workshops, meditating. It was kind of "soft" politics, not strident, just expressing the frustration of the average person (the other 99%) who are suffering from the excesses of the last 10-20 years. And college kids who are in debt and un- or underemployed. It's a worldwide phenomenon, and mostly peaceful, though evidently the Rome demonstrations were hijacked by Anarchists who started burning things. But the movement itself is adamantly against that. Whether this will have any effect on U.S. politics and government, which I think people any political persuasion find frustrating, unresponsive and impotent, remains to be seen. It's not anti-corporate, it challenges whether the present political climate is representative of the majority of Americans who are not rich or powerful, and the near economic disaster caused by the financial excesses and greed of the financial firms, many of whom reside at nearby Wall St. The tsunami engulfing U.S. society is a man made disaster, not a natural one.
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