What They Want*

By now I'm sure you've heard of the 'Occupy' protests, first on Wall Street in the city so nice they named it twice, New York, New York, then gradually all across the country and the globe. People from many different walks of life, with many different agendas, are camping out close to the places where people with power exercise that power, and they're not going to leave until they're heard.
   The media doesn't know what to make of this. Still, after several weeks and burgeoning numbers the news anchors and talking heads just can't wrap their minds around such a radical, populist uprising. It's kind of frightening to those who think they're in charge, when there's no central argument to try to refute, there's no effective way to marginalize and minimize these people. In my mind I had a bit of a role to play in this, given my appeal to the wealthy just a few days before the 'Occupy Wall Street' protest started. If I actually did, I can say I'm proud to have helped.
   But people still ask 'what do they want?' as if delivering one thing on a Santa-bound wish list could satisfy the protestors. 'What do they want?' really means 'how do we make them go away?' Well, I think I have some insight into this. Allow me to explain what I believe the 'Occupy' protestors really want:
   Everyone's encountered a bully in their lifetime. The big doofus-y kid in middle school who trips you going down the hall, and even though the teachers see it they don't do anything. That kid. The jerk, the kid who thinks he's beyond discipline, who thinks he doesn't have to follow the same rules everyone else does.
   So you confront him. You tell him to leave you alone. He asks what, specifically, has he done that you want to keep from happening. You tell him not to trip you any more. So he knocks your books out of your hands. And when you ask him not to do that, he hits your pencil while you're trying to take notes. And when you ask him to let you take notes in peace he aims for your nuts when you're playing dodge ball. You're dancing to his tune, until you realize that addressing things one at a time isn't going to get you anywhere. You realize that there is one over-arching consideration, one broad-spectrum request you can make that will cover every transgression this bully can throw at you.
   Stop being a dick.
   That's what the 'Occupy' protestors want. They want those people in charge of the economy - bankers especially but governments too - to just stop being dicks. That's a general enough mandate that people understand to mean any behavior that goes beyond the bounds of common decency. There's no need to list individual grievances because that diminishes the message.
   It's really straightforward, mainstream media. There's not much more to it, you wealthy few who hold the purse strings of the global economy. It is just as simple as that. You know what it means, don't pretend you don't. Just listen to the message, mull it over, consider it carefully, and then act on it.
   Stop being a dick.


* It's been two months since I last posted. I was kind of running dry there for a while and I needed to lay off. While I was not blogging I realized I came across inspiration at least once a day, proving that there is still water in the well.