The OTHER 1%

--- by Micheal

When I walked to South Station in Boston on Monday, I noticed all the "Occupy Boston" folks, and tents and signs were gone. All there was were policemen, barricades and fresh green sod.  I'd seen the crudely made cardboard signs on my evening commute. "We are the 99%" some said.  Since they, the 99, seemed to have nothing to do with me, and I wasn't the evil rich 1%, I had to wonder what percent I was. Zero maybe?

The whole "Occupy" movement was crafted to resemble the popular uprisings in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.  What was totally lacking, however, was any kind of a similar coherent message. As demonstrators, they had no demand that could be granted. The arab youth demanded that Ben Ali, or Mubarak or Kadafi be removed. The old anti-war protesters of the 60s had a demand: stop the war.  There was something the authorities to could do. Some action to satisfy the protesters. The Occupy groups, had no collective demand.  The could never be satisfied.

Instead, they seemed to have had a bunch of pre-existing demands -- Capitalism is Bad, Stop Greed, Free Healthcare For All, Legalize Marijuana, Stop Global Warming, End Nuclear Power, Stop Wars, Stop Supporting Israel, etc. etc.  Google "OWS Signs", and see some for yourself.  There is no coherence to them.  There is also nothing new to them.

It occurred to me, riding the bus back home, that these were all the old "Progressive" agenda items from the past forty years. These people have always been with us. There has always been some small percentage of our population which rants about something or other. 

They are the other one percent. Not the richest 1%, but the angriest 1%. 

They don't agree on what their issue d' jour is: whales, nukes, healthcare, war, weed, greed, whatever. What they agree on is that they're angry the world isn't doing things the way they want. These are the vocal, angry one percent who were sufficiently funded from somewhere, to camp in city squares, chant and hold cardboard signs.  When they held up their signs declaring they are the 99%, they were apparently very wrong.  They are not the 99%, They are just a different 1%.  The lack of any popular uprising, as in the Arab Spring countries, should prove this out. The real 99 did not rally behind this other 1%.

Speaking as one of the real 99, I don't mind that this other 1% are submerging again.