6 Things That Occupy Wall Street Has Already Accomplished

OWSers have turned Zuccotti Park into a hotbed of bacterial and viral diseases - which are now occupying the occupiers - let's hope the diseases stay there and don't "immigrate" into the general population. With wintry weather poised to swoop into the cramped outdoor quarters of Occupy Wall Street protesters, it may not be long before more campers catch what's being called Zuccotti lung. That's what demonstrators have dubbed the sickness that seems to be spreading among them at an unpleasantly high rate these days: It's a real thing, Willie Carey, 28, told the New York Times. With little sleep in cold conditions, cigarettes and drinks being passed from mouth to mouth, and few opportunities to wash hands, Zuccotti Park may now just be the best place to catch respiratory virus, norovirus (also known as the winter vomiting virus) and tuberculosis, according to one doctor. The damp clothing and cardboard signs wet with rain are also breeding grounds for mold. Some protesters are urinating in bottles and leaving food trash discarded throughout the campground, providing further opportunities for nastiness. Pretty much everything here is a good way to get sick, Salvatore Cipolla, 23, from Long Island, told the Times. It'll definitely thin the herd. - Occupy Wall Street: Protesters Coming Down With Zuccotti Lung, AOL Message Boards and NBC News, November 10, 2011



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6 Things That Occupy Wall Street Has Already Accomplished

November 3, 2011

Activist Post - Just 2 months into the Wall Street protests bureaucrats nationwide have already began to crack down and demand an end to the occupation. Little do they know, this is only the beginning. The establishment didn’t bat an eye when we demanded an end to their many occupations across the world, so now it’s time for us to pay them the same respect that they gave to us.

Regardless of which form the movement takes from here, there are already several victories that have already been won for the “99%”. A successful revolution doesn’t seek to create more laws and government action, but is aimed at creating a shift in the public consciousness that will hopefully render the status quo obsolete.

Occupy Wall Street has opened the door to that shift; a door that could very soon become a floodgate if those of us who have been focusing on these issues for years are able to step up our game and rise to the challenge.

1. NOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Although the movement against big banks and government corruption has been steadily growing for a number of years, many people who have found themselves in this struggle still felt incredibly isolated from the rest of society. Now, with hundreds and thousands of like-minded people getting together in various cities across the world, activists are beginning to realize that they are not alone. There are now events in thousands of different cities, where you can go to meet other people who are concerned about the future and want to change the status quo. The Internet has exploded with activist information and those of us who were once looked upon as a “fringe community” are now becoming a strong force in the political landscape.

2. THE ACTIVIST COMMUNITY IS RE-ENERGIZED

Since there are so many different issues that are being championed by this movement, a lot of activists are still on the fence when it comes to Occupy Wall Street. However, even those who may not entirely agree with some of the ideas coming out of the Occupy camps are still stepping up their own efforts and getting more serious with their activism. This is similar to the situation that one witnesses when they show up to a nightclub too early. They will typically find an empty dance floor, with a bunch of nervous wallflowers waiting for someone to make the first move. Once someone is brave enough to make that first move, the dance floor erupts within minutes because everyone then becomes less self-conscious. This is exactly the kind of energy that activists worldwide are starting to experience -- now that the first move has been made its time for the wallflowers to dance!

3. IT'S COOL TO PROTEST AGAIN

For some reason there has been a huge social stigma attached to civil disobedience for a number of decades. Since the late '60s and early '70s the visible activist presence had diminished considerably . . . until now. Polls nationwide are showing that more and more people are showing support for Occupy Wall Street and are sympathetic to the anger that the protesters are experiencing. This is actually a huge victory, considering the fact that most of the protests that have taken place in the past few decades were vilified by the media and public alike. Now we are starting to see a fracture between the media and the American public, which is illuminating just how out of touch the mainstream media is.

4. MAINSTREAM MEDIA CORRUPTION HAS BEEN EXPOSED LIKE NEVER BEFORE

The coverage (or lack of coverage early on) that the mainstream media has been giving to the OWS movement has majorly backfired and has exposed the dying institution for the fraud that it is.

Many of your average hard-working Americans who spend most of their lives just trying to make ends meet have long relied on the evening news to let them know what’s going on around the world.

When thousands of people were camped outside of Wall Street for months and half of the country still didn’t know about it, it raised some new concerns in the hearts of those who still trusted the word of the mainstream media. The fact that the pundits on the news only say what their paid to say, and what they are allowed to say, has been proven on a daily basis since these protests started.

5. THE NEW AMERICAN POLICE STATE IS EXPOSED

For the most part, these protests have been entirely peaceful. The majority of the violence that we have seen has actually been unprovoked police assaults on innocent protesters. Thanks to advanced technology, images of peaceful protesters being maced and roughed up by police went viral on the Internet and showed the world how police brutality works in America.

As the independent media began to investigate the details, it was uncovered that J.P Morgan chase alone “donated” 4.6 million dollars to the NYPD. When we follow the money it is plain to see that the police officers aren’t here to protect us, but here to protect the highest bidder. This has been going on for some time, but luckily we now have cold hard proof and documented evidence of the corruption that exists between the financial sector and law enforcement.

6. WE ARE FINALLY STARTING TO LOOK BEHIND THE CURTAIN

After watching Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., and Obama systematically destroy our economy and take away our freedoms over the course of various Democratic and Republican presidential terms, it has become apparent to the American people that they really have no say in their political system. Americans now realize that going to the polls at election time is going to do absolutely nothing to change the foreign or domestic policies in this country. These policies are dictated entirely by big banks, multinational corporations and international think tanks that operate through Wall Street and the financial district in London known as “the city”.

The worst of these organizations -- the Federal Reserve, committee of 300, the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and the world’s dominant banks -- are not being specifically called out enough yet, but you can rest assured that they are starting to get extremely nervous. If we can keep up the pressure and continue to educate those around us about the intricacies of this struggle, then we have the potential to create an unprecedented change for the better.