Thursday, October 6, 2011

Occupy Wall Street Needs More Plastic Bins

When I graduated from Georgia Tech in 1989 former UN Ambassador Andrew Young gave the graduation speech. I don't remember anything he said except, "You are now in the top 1% of the world population." And I had this tremendous sinking feeling. Great. That's fucking great. 99% of the world population is what? Less educated than me? Less capable? Less responsible? What does this mean? I have to take care of them now? I distinctly got the feeling that's what he was saying. It was up to us to be responsible for the other 99%. Like their parents or bosses.

So I guess that's related to this 99% campaign and the Occupy Wall Street protests. People telling their stories of woe as they try to convince Wall Street's 1% to... well they haven't decided, but they're organized as hell and they aren't going to take it anymore. They're going to camp out on Wall Street until they come up with some demands and then they demand them? I'm a little fuzzy on the plan. (Here's the website.)

Andy Young put me the 1% in 1989, but I'm pretty sure I'm not anymore. It could be that in the last 22 years it's become 99.4% and .6% and I fall in the rounding error. I definitely identify with the people occupying Wall Street, not the bankers. But I am incapable of participating in that kind of activity. I watched a video on that website and I got twitchy just imagining what it would be like to be in those crowds. It was nononono cat all over again. Their event planning skills are amazing though. I'm very impressed. But they have smokers there! I can't be around tobacco smoke. I will have to support them through in my own idiom -- something totally solo.

The protestors seem to be pretty sure about what they don't like but I think they're having a hard time coming up with any solutions. I made a little video about my personal solution for unemployment, bankruptcy, lack of health care, and the other myriad complications of modern life. I'm abandoning Austin to move back to my tiny house in the woods to be a hermit and here's how I cope with that transition. Plastic bins.

4 comments:

  1. I got a comment in email:

    ************************
    "What does this mean? I have to take care of them now? I distinctly got the feeling that's what he was saying. It was up to us to be responsible for the other 99%. Like their parents or bosses."

    Did you really say that? Wow.

    That's exactly how conservatives feel when liberals get on the stump about Obamacare, welfare or pretty much anything else that involves forceably (sic) taking the fruits of their efforts to hand it over to people without any sense of personal responsibility.

    There's hope for you, yet. :-p

    ********************

    That's not really how I meant it. I didn't think he was asking me to hand over the fruits of my labors. I always knew that as an engineer I was responsible for being sure the public infrastructure was adequate to provide fresh water and take the dirty water away, that the electrical appliances were safe, antennas didn't give people brain tumors, roads were designed to keep the cars on them, that sort of thing. I just didn't know it was 99% of the population depending on us to do that stuff! I never saw myself getting any wealth to distribute.

    I think the problem with bankers is they aren't engineers. They weren't educated in how to develop the world to support the people in it. They were educated to exploit the people. And now the engineers have lost so much power that the infrastructure is inadequate. It's shameful.

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  2. I enjoyed the commentary in this post, but the video was totally effing great. I've now watched it three times. Other than spending the past two hours reading Wil Wheaton's blog and the "PR Debacle" he and The Blogess have been enjoying, I haven't had this much fun recently. I love the videos you come up with.

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  3. The Bloggess is really on a mission to teach PR peons how to do their job. If she keeps weeding them out like that what will happen? Good PR? What's the fun in that?! I'm relieved I don't get pitched stuff by morons like that. I have a hard enough time dealing with the two sentence emails from reading comprehension challenged people responding to my ads on Craigslist. "Available on October 20th" seems to confuse the hell out of people. I think they're used to "OMG I need money RIGHT NOW! Buy my crap, PLEASE!" Perhaps the concept of somebody planning ahead to get rid of something right after they finish using it is not Craigslist compatible. Kind of like the idea of researching a blogger before pitching them pantyhose is not PR peon compatible.

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  4. I think I accidentally deleted the Thank You! From the beginning of that comment. Still, not as bad as an accidental Reply All. Thank you!

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