It started as most age-defining movements do, somewhere in the wind. Some unrest, some recognition of what is right and wrong. Some people willing to take a stand against rampant injustice. And then some more people join. And then some more. Next time we look it is in another city, then another country. Sweeping across the globe the civil unrest known as Occupy Wall Street has started to capture the attention of everyone, despite the attempts of the machine and their media conglomeration to pooh-pooh it, discredit it, and lie about it.
You have to realize that there is a cabal of ultra-powerful people that control the vast majority of wealth in this world and in particular this country. They have fed us fat on American Idol while they tampered with voting rights, stole elections, repealed sensible regulations designed to protect us, and enacted laws while shipping jobs overseas with a specific goal in mind. That goal is the redistribution of wealth and consolidation of power to the 1-2% elite while squeezing the once proud middle class into the new working poor caste. You can already hear the screams of "class warfare!" Absolutely but I didn't start the war, they did. You have to understand that the ones screaming class warfare the loudest are the ones who are waging the war. Their goal is not an even America. It is not a fair America. It is an America essentially of two classes. One George Bush once referred to as "his base" and the other is the rest of us -- which is now becoming known as the 99.
I think when the OWS movement first started it didn't register with the power elite. They probably misunderstood the outrage. In their arrogance, they could not imagine that people had caught on to the scheme. But as it has grown to pandemic levels, they are faced with a need to marginalize the movement until such a time that the people simply go home in frustration. They tried to ignore them at first and the movement grew. They tried to intimidate them by sending in their police squads in full riot gear with pepper spray but that backfired on them too as it only served to garner more sympathy for the cause. Next up was an attempt to mock the group and pretend they were somehow uneducated and clueless about why they were protesting at all. Armed with the talking points the fake media machine went into action only to find that in the age of the Internet, the truth is more difficult to contain. Turns out the group did know why they were protesting. If you want it simplified. They do not think that they should have to go into hock for $100,000 to get a Bachelors Degree only to be offered jobs that require a paper hat when they get out. They do not think that billionaires with golden parachutes should get bailed out while their parents get evicted. They do not think that 1% of the population should control 98% of the wealth in this country -- and they are right.
The next step, which is still in action now, is to try and discredit the movement. They have sent infiltrators in -- people pretending to part of the movement -- but only really there to cause trouble and thus make the movement look bad. The fake media machine has their new marching orders and talking points and is beating the drum of how the protesters are unruly, lawbreaking, urinating in public places, having sex in the open, doing drugs, breaking the law, and recently alleged to be anti-Semitic! Anything to try and pull support away from them. Just throw a bunch of stuff up against the wall and see what sticks.
But the 1% always has one glaring problem in trying to control the 99 and that is that they are severely outnumbered. So their efforts must always center on trying to co-opt portions of the 99 to their side. One of the easiest targets they always find is my brethren, the Christians. Recently, I have read several articles by Christian authors siding with the 1% and demonizing the 99. While I have faith that this is merely politics infecting Christianity again, I find it troubling that even well intended Christians can turn our Lord and Savior into a Corporate CEO on a whim. So what would Jesus protest?
Would Jesus protest merciless treatment of the neediest people? He already has:
Then, with the crowds listening, he turned to his disciples and said, "Beware of these teachers of religious law! For they like to parade around in flowing robes and love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces. And how they love the seats of honor in the synagogues and the head table at banquets. Yet they shamelessly cheat widows out of their property and then pretend to be pious by making long prayers in public. Because of this, they will be severely punished." -- Luke 20: 45-47 (NLT)
In fact, throughout the Bible the number one theme after salvation is taking care of the least in society. It always amazes me that we can dismiss evolution yet embrace social Darwinism so readily. The Old Testament prophetic books are rife with stories about how Israel had grown cold toward God and toward the needy. God's answer was never -- get a job! Now I know that some of the Christian writers I have seen are apparently in love with verse that says a man who will not work shall not eat but they avoid the remaining context of that verse:
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