Occupy Wall Street (OWS) Essay

Craig Calhoun’s article “Occupy Wall Street in perspective” comes into great comparison with Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street". They are both written works about protest and conflict. There is not a various amount of movement in either section, but there does tend to be the statement of “I would prefer not to” (Melville, 55). In “Bartleby the Scrivener” the readers have to try and understand for themselves why Bartleby would prefer not to since the answer is never given in the text. The article, "OWS" clarifies why Bartleby would prefer not to, in “Bartleby the Scrivener", through the setting, the 99% vs. the 1% contrast, and passive resistance.

Occupy Wall Street has been called many things including: unfocused, ungrounded, and silly. Others coin it as “America’s first internet-era movement” (Rushkoff). In quintessence, Occupy Wall Street is a series of protests and demonstrations that oppose the influence that corporate greed has on American Democracy. The protestors manipulate marches and nonviolent demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the state of American Politics and economy. This relates to the political science concepts of power, performance democracy, and protective democracy.

On September 17, 2011 hundreds of people began to gather in Zuccotti Park, New York which is Wall Street’s financial district under the banner “Occupy Wall Street”: these three simple words are causing an uproar in America (Engler). Additionally, these three words happen to be protesting the current status of America’s financial condition. With the economy in America being as terrible as it is, and the unemployment rate skyrocketing, it is absolutely necessary for some sort of change to occur. The Occupy Wall Street protesting is most positively a progressive step for the economic state in America and it is a step in the right direction.

In response to the growing inequality between rich and poor Canadians, and the growing wealth of the top 1%, the Occupy Movement took to the streets in order to protest against the accumulation of the majority of wealth by the minority of people. On October 15th, 2011, in 900 cities across the world, thousands of average citizens protested for their rights to wealth equality

stupid. Barry relates the story of driving through Tampa, when two people wearing furry pig suits say that they are trying to convert people to veganism. His mental response was not thoughts of meatless meals but of “these people are insane, I could go for some barbeque.” The author also shares his belief in the inefficacy of shouting in large groups. Occupy Wall Street was a prime example of this mentality. I do sympathize with many of their aims, because I am definitely one of the 99%. However, when they did a months-long protest in Philadelphia at City Hall, I went home the long way around because the protesters came across as dangerous and possibly unstable. As the late Terry Pratchett said, “The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in

Despite the inequality in the United States, many Americans have been determined to have their voices heard. Recently, movements such as Occupy Wallstreet and the Tea Party Movement have formed in response to the growing wealth and control by the “1%”. These social movements have become very popular at times due to discontent among the populace and the wide accessibility of social media. While these movements tend to have rapid success early on; lack of cohesion, results, and true direction

In the article, “Occupy Chicago 3 years later; activists’ passion still burns” is not bias and is a credible site because she has two statements from two different professors from different universities, she gives the location and what happened and also when Occupy started. Soon after Occupy Chicago was organized three years ago, at least 2,000 of its members assembled in Grant Park during a noisy protest. More than a hundred were arrested. But the scene was far different earlier this week when the group marked its anniversary. Standing outside the bustling Chicago Board of Trade, a symbol of American capitalism, a handful of Occupy Chicago members quietly chatted and held signs. It looked like a reunion of old friends. For them, the anniversary

The movement brought up many conversations about lack of upward mobility and economic inequality. The common phrase from the movement speaking of the ninety-nine percent versus the one percent reflects on the desire for this equality (pg 75). The Occupy Movement used this to make an impact in the realm of politics. President Obama was aware of the slogan the movement used, describing the ninety-nine percent versus the one percent, and he used it as ammunition. He explained that many of his policies would help the middle class while Mitt Romney’s, his opponent, would help the wealthier individuals. This helped the Democratic incumbent keep his position for four more years. Lastly, if one delves into the results of the Occupy Movement, he or she would find that the greatest success of the movement was its impact on Bank of America. This bank and other large banks halted their plans to increase debit card fees due to Occupy action. The movement had made an impact on many aspects of

To begin with, peaceful and violent protests can spark the change, or get the attention of more supporters until something is resolved for the equality. The article, “Making a Visual Argument:Inequality and the Occupy Movement” shows one of the most influential movement, the occupy movement. Occupy Miami showed a man with a dollar taped to his mouth reading “occupy.” Then, during the occupy Portland demonstration a young college girl Elizabeth Nichols is pepper sprayed at point blank. These acts caught the eyes of the American people, and rose in popularity. The occupy movement also showed American’s that there is a problem of economic equality through the occupy at Miami and Portland

These people protest on Wall Street in New York on an everyday basis. They sleep there, eat there and basically do whatever they want. This protest does not have a unified cause, but the general conclusion that can be drawn from everyone is

Nonviolent movements are widespread across America, but very little are effective enough to create monumental change or to have a lasting impact. In their article "Waging Nonviolence: What makes nonviolent movements explode", Mark and Paul Engler explore what makes nonviolent protests powerful enough to force change. Written in December 2014, the article uses modern and historic examples of protest movements, with the main focus on the Occupy Wall Street movement, to create the context as to what each of the methods discussed has accomplished. Using the main example of Occupy Wall Street, the article showcases two major points, disruption and sacrifice, that nonviolent protest movements utilize in order to have the greatest effect, as well as how those two points work together to create lasting impacts. Disruption relies on interrupting everyday life and preventing business from occurring, while sacrifice focuses on what people are willing to risk and give up in order to see the change they wish for. In their article, the Engler’s propose that while these two methods of protest can be effective, protests rarely become large enough to actually create any change, even if they are combined, simply because the major businesses, corporations, and organizations that are being protested hold incredible amounts of political power and therefore are able to very easily shut down protests with police forces. This argument, that protests are inevitably going to fail, is very realistic

September 17, 2011 is the day the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City. The main issues include social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government according to The New York Times. The mix of moral foundations based on ideas from the anthropologist Richard Shweder, outline six clusters of moral concern - care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority, or sanctity. OWS main moral issues include: fairness, care, and liberty. Fairness – the rich (the “1” percent) got rich by taking without giving. OWS protesters viewed the

Although Donald Trump won the presidential election, not too many people were happy about the outcome. The anger and disappointment of the people led to an outbreak of protests throughout many cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Berkeley. In order to make sense of the outbreak of protests after the elections, I will use Polletta and Gardner's ideas on narratives and collective identity, Karl Marx’s idea of a divided society, and my own experience and ideas.

One of the most renowned social movements since the civil rights movement was the “Occupy Movement”. This movement helped people see how big of a fraud the financial system was, at the the time. These occupiers demanded that there be a change towards the lack of real democracy and social inequality that was displayed within the economy during this time. Occupiers wanted economical justice, and through their protests they earned the economical rights they deserved. For example, “The occupy movement started as result of the great recession from 2007-2011. Due to the Subprime mortgage crisis, the stock market crashed and people on wall street began to rage with protest which led to this movement. Occupiers were resolute to make a change towards

The concerns of the majority Americans have no immediate solution as the answer lies in the separated divisions in government. Political stances of Democrat, Republican and Liberal views about Occupy Wall Street have separate and distinct ideals. But, one unified front from all three is that the movement has gotten out-of-hand; caught between the freedom of speech act, and the health and safety of the public from themselves. Michael Kirby Smith, of The New York Times, commented in an article that because of the anti-Semitism displays during Occupy Wall Street, President Barak Obama and House Representative Nancy Pelosi recanted their support for the Wall Street protests. Yet, recently in an article by Mark Whittington of Yahoo News, writes that even though President Obama