The schadenfreude is palpable among those who think [the 2008 financial crisis] heralds the belated comeuppance of rich investment bankers who have been living easy on Wall Street for far too long—primarily by ‘racking up big profits and then sticking it to the taxpayer when things go sour’. And even though some glee over their pink slips is understandable, it is also shortsighted.
After all, it’s only a matter of time before this meltdown comes to Main Street, making daily transactions at commercial banks (e.g. getting a car loan or a mortgage) much more expensive [and precipitating massive job losses].
(Chickens come home to roost on Wall Street…, The iPINIONS Journal, September 16, 2008)
This, in part, is how I presaged three years ago the frustration that now has people from Main Street on an antic mission to “Occupy Wall Street”.
For several weeks a relatively small number of people have been attempting to spark a national revolution ostensibly against the hegemonic influence Wall Street bankers and big corporations wield over political and economic life in America. And just as one frustrated Tunisian worker sparked the revolutionary fires that have now engulfed so much of the Middle East and North Africa, these protests are gaining national traction. In fact, protests are now flickering in over 50 cities across the United States, and the thousands who marched on Wall Street in New York City just yesterday are bound to add fuel to many of them.
There is, however, one glaring and dispositive difference:
In each case, protesters in countries across the Middle East and North Africa were (and still are) unified around and galvanized by one cause: deposing an oppressive dictator. By contrast, protesters here are building up a lot of steam on a veritable Tower of Babel of causes ranging from clueless anarchists looking to overthrow the government to unemployed folks just looking for a job.
This is not to say that unity of purpose is the be all and end all. Here, for example, is the cautionary note I sounded when it became clear that protesters were going to have their way in Egypt:
With all due respect to the protesters, the issue is not whether Mubarak will go, for he will. (The man is 82 and already looks half dead for Christ’s sake!) Rather, the issue is who will replace him. And it appears they have not given any thought whatsoever to this very critical question.
The devil the Egyptians know might prove far preferable to the devil they don’t. Just ask the Iranians who got rid of the Mubarak-like Shah in 1979 only to end up with the Ayatollah—whose Islamic revolution they’ve regretted (and have longed to overturn) ever since….
(Army pledges no force against protesters, The iPINIONS Journal, February 1, 2011)
Sure enough, just as I feared, months after deposing Mubarak, protesters have taken to the streets (or Tahrir Square) again to protest the glacial pace of democratic reforms and, ominously, are challenging the authority of the interim military-back government with the same fervor and indignation with which they challenged Mubarak. Not to mention the looming specter of Islamic fundamentalists coming to power in Egypt when free and fair elections are held, just as they did in the Gaza Strip – and look how well that turned out. But I digress….
Perhaps the motley crew of protesters who greet annual meetings of the World Trade Organization and World Bank with a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing constitute a better analogy. For just like them, these protesters would be hard-pressed to articulate not just a coherent purpose, but any practical means of achieving it. Occupy Wall Street, and then what?
Instead, they would be well-advised to channel their outrage towards electing politicians at every level of government who champion workers’ rights and the kind of equitable distribution of wealth that Obama is only hinting at with his reelection stump speech about taxing billionaires and creating blue-collar jobs.
This is why I am so heartened that union leaders are muscling their way in to provide leadership. Because they are the only ones who can harness the rage that unifies these protesters and turn their protests into a political force that rivals the influence the Tea Party has had on politics in America over the past few years.
I have written numerous commentaries decrying the corporate greed and unconscionable income disparity that are the root causes of these metastasizing protests. Therefore nobody would be more pleased if they were to bring about real change in this context than I. But I’m not holding my breath….