Luke wrote:And I apologize for not knowing what is going on, but other than protesting, are the protestors united on a handful of solutions, or are a bunch of people protesting about the 1%?
The Occupy movement started from some ideas brewing at Ad Busters. The original idea behind the protest was that there be one demand: "ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington". (Adbusters from July 13th, 2011)
It's ironic now, but this was their initial poster for the protest.
The main criticism of the movement now is that there is not a clear central message. No one, not even Ad Busters, has really taken a leader position and as the protests have popularized and spread to over 900 cities across the world, that single vision has somewhat been lost. There are people with varying degrees of knowledge about what is going on; however, most people there at least realize that it is protest about economic disparity. The complexity of the issues has led to many related causes being tacked on to the growing list of complaints, but that has led to more confusion outside and inside the group about what the protests are actually about.
Luke wrote:
All I do know is that the statement is "Occupy Wall Street". Is there an "Occupy DC"?
As I mentioned above, the initial complaint was lobbed at DC, but in regards to how Wall Street is regulated and the role this plays in creating a class divide. While there is certainly a desire for change from DC, they picked Wall Street for the location as it is iconic for the source of the problems.
Luke wrote:I'm not taking any sides on this issue, as there are so many assumptions on both sides of the coin, but JT, or anyone: can you recommend a unbiased source to read more about this situation? I read the WSJ, but I don't think they'll provide an unbiased opinion.
As with most complex political issues, it's hard to find just one unbiased source. I usually read across sources both for and against and figure the truth is somewhere in the middle. I do feel like Wikipedia has been a good resource for learning about the movement and the subprime mortgage crisis that prompted much of this. Wikipedia is always subject to change of course, but I think there has been more concern for objectivity there than in the news media.
I've been there all too often. In fact, I'm in the middle of an eBay dispute for a game that was insufficiently packaged. Ticks me off so bad.