Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The whole occupy thing...

I've been trying to get a post with my thoughts on Occupy Wall Street out, but with my obligations and the constantly shifting story I keep finding myself behind the curve. But I should since it ties in with the whole supposed point of this blog. So I'll get one with my impressions to date out tonight.

Someone who I often find myself simultaneously agreeing and disagreeing with, Thomas Friedman, disclosed that he himself is unsure what it all means, but points out two possibilities:
When you see spontaneous social protests erupting from Tunisia to Tel Aviv to Wall Street, it’s clear that something is happening globally that needs defining. There are two unified theories out there that intrigue me. One says this is the start of “The Great Disruption.” The other says that this is all part of “The Big Shift.” You decide.
Disruption, said Gilding. “Our system of economic growth, of ineffective democracy, of overloading planet earth — our system — is eating itself alive. Occupy Wall Street is like the kid in the fairy story saying what everyone knows but is afraid to say: the emperor has no clothes. The system is broken....Not so fast, says John Hagel III, who is the co-chairman of the Center for the Edge at Deloitte, along with John Seely Brown. In their recent book, “The Power of Pull,” they suggest that we’re in the early stages of a “Big Shift,” precipitated by the merging of globalization and the Information Technology Revolution. In the early stages, we experience this Big Shift as mounting pressure, deteriorating performance and growing stress because we continue to operate with institutions and practices that are increasingly dysfunctional — so the eruption of protest movements is no surprise.
Andrew Sullivan thought this picture looked like a South Park parody, but it may actually express many peoples frustration and uncertainty, in a crude sort of way:

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