On short, succinct descriptions of what the Occupy Wall Street protesters want:

[xiphias]

One of the ongoing criticisms of the Occupy Wall Street movement is, "I sort of get what they're angry about, but what do they actually want DONE about it? What are their demands?"

So I've written a chant for OWS

"What do we want?"

"A GENERAL SOCIETAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT THAT OUR CURRENT REGULATORY AND TAX SYSTEM HAS AN ANTI-DEMOCRATIC BIAS FAVORING THOSE PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS WHICH ALREADY HOLD POWER, AND THAT CERTAIN PARTS OF OUR FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY HAVE GOTTEN SO ESOTERIC THAT THEY DO NOT, IN FACT, FULFILL THEIR BASIC, INTENDED PURPOSE OF FACILITATING ECONOMIC GROWTH, FOLLOWED BY CAREFULLY RESEARCHED AND DESIGNED REGULATORY AND LEGAL CHANGES TO HELP CHANGE AND AMELIORATE THOSE BIASES, ALONG WITH A SOMEWHAT STRONGER SOCIAL SAFETY NET, WHICH, TOGETHER, WOULD HELP CREATE A FREE MARKET WITH LOWER BARRIERS TO ENTRY, ALLOWING MORE PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS INVOLVED WITH STARTING THEIR OWN SMALL BUSINESSES, WHICH ARE THE DRIVERS OF ECONOMIC HEALTH, THEREBY, IN THE LONG RUN, LEADING TO A STRONGER ECONOMY, AND STRONGER COUNTRY!"

"When do we want it?"

"OVER A REASONABLE PERIOD OF TIME, SUBJECT TO A TIMETABLE WITH MEASURABLE GOALS, WHICH WILL ALLOW FOR CAREFUL IMPLEMENTATION TO AVOID UNEXPECTED NEGATIVE EFFECTS!"

I hope to hear people chanting this in the streets, soon.

Comments

[daharyn.livejournal.com]

Except, um, that's not what #OWS is about at all, for me or a lot of other people.

[seventorches.livejournal.com]

Well, sure, but the cool thing is you can write your own chant. :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

What would your chant be, then?

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I like it.

[sethg]

Wait a minute, what do you want? Exactly which parts of the financial services industry have this problem that you are referring to? How should the social safety net be made stronger? Until you can chant a 31-page position paper describing the program you want implemented, complete with footnotes and graphs, you are proving yourselves to be nothing more than lazy hippies who want everyone else to give you money.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Have you posted this in FB? I'd like to share it over there, especially with one friend who's deeply involved in Occupy Atlanta.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It ought to propagate over there in a bit; all my public LJ posts are supposed to repost themselves on FB.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

ran across this the other day...

https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/