Tuesday, October 11, 2011

So What's up with the Occupy Wall Street/We are the 99% Folks

So, you may have heard of the "Occupy Wall Street" thing that has been going on up in NYC. What's up with that? I took a quick look around on their website, and it appears they are protesting to restore democracy. In their own words:

Occupy Wall Street is a horizontally organized resistance movement employing the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to restore democracy in America. We use a tool known as a people's assembly to facilitate open, participatory and horizontal organizing between members of the public. We call ours the NYC General Assembly and we welcome people from all colors, genders and beliefs to participate in our daily assemblies.
Ok, Mr. Cool Guy, you're standing around in the street to "restore democracy"? Good luck with that. The last time I checked, you just vote every once in a while, and it's all good. Also, they keep using the phrase "We are the 99%" to differentiate themselves from the 1% who are....evil or something. Anyway, the evil 1% of people are keeping 99% of the people down because...ummm...that's what the 1% do. You know, evil stuff. Think sharks with freakin' laser beams on their heads.

Anyway, I ran across a 99%'er posting this:

"I graduate college in 7 months with a “useless” degree in Classical Studies. I have worked very hard and am on track to graduate with highest Latin honors. I am in a Greek organization with many volunteer hours under my belt.
MY JOB PROSPECTS?
0
I am one of the lucky ones, but I am still the 99%.
Welcome to the American nightmare."

OK! This person is going to graduate from college in the spring. Good for them, right? Not so fast my friend! They're going to graduate with a degree in "Classical Studies" with "highest Latin Honors" which the evil 1% of America doesn't value. So who forced this poor soul to major in Classical Studies? Oh, you mean they chose to do this? Why would they do this? Really, who majors in "Classical Studies" and then complains about not getting a job? That's a...how do I put this.... classical major for people who aren't going to immediately go out and get a job. I would be really interested to know where this person applied for jobs.

Getting to the real fun: Who is to blame here? Well, I guess we could blame the University for leading you down the primrose path of having you study whatever you want without advising you that being a Classical Studies major isn't going to impress anyone. Maybe you should have thought more about that expensive college degree you were buying, and what the point of getting it was. Were you going to college to just "check a box" on your life's to-do list?

So what does this classical studies major event want? I don't really know. I guess they want the government to take money from people like me (the gainfully employed) and give it to them because they failed to get a job. The key thing here is that this person is college educated but still isn't capable of taking the responsibility for their own actions.

Time to learn how to take people's dinner orders, bro. Maybe you can write their orders down in Latin.

[Update: Welcome, readers from The Well-Trained Mind!]

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