Hidden Lion - Hidden Lion: Don't Occupy Melbourne:Illiterate

October 24, 2011

Hidden Lion: Don't Occupy Melbourne:Illiterate

la-vie-est-politiques:

mane:

DON’T OCCUPY SYDNEY

At the moment in the US there is a collection of affiliated protests, centred on New York city. As with all “grass roots” protest movements, some of the protesters are unemployed or students who enjoy shows of unity and demands for change as a recreational sport. Some of…

You heard it here first: everything in Australia is upside down, and that’s why in Australia capitalism is good to you. No need to be angry at the system there, or you’ll get labelled a mouth breathing socialist. Who’d have thunk it!?

The OP may have gone a little further than what is necessary, but essentially what he says rings true. Australia is not a nation with a government corrupted by coroporate cronyism like America’s. The depth and scale of the problems that America faces are not proportionate to those in Australia. In many ways Australia is simply little America; everyone with any sense knows and acknowledges this. The Occupy movement however, is not a relevant one in Australia’s current society. Our system has it’s flaws, as every system does. But the problems are different.

In America, a bank will be bailed out by the government.

In Australia, a corporation will run an ad campaign against a certain tax that does not benefit them and sway public opinion.

In America, a political party will accept donations from private interests with the interest expecting some sort of favour in return.

In Australia, a political party runs it’s campaign for re election on tax payers money.

The first of Australia’s problems is this: it’s population. We are a stubborn bunch, unwilling to change too drastically, and so devastatingly afraid of the thoughts of “loosing jobs” that we will allow ourselves to be scared into condemning the taxation of mining companies who consistently record profits from year to year. We are manipulated into fear and hatred of a tax that will essentially contribute to a greener energy future and force businesses within Australia to think along similar lines, helping everyone in the long term, despite all ration and reason telling us this. These are problems, but they are not America’s problems.

The Occupy movement doesn’t work in an Australian setting. I don’t even know if Melbourne has a truly centralised business district like Wall Street, so it might not even work on the most superficial of levels. But more intimately, the problems within this nation stem as much from the people within it is it does from the people running it or the people making money from it. At times, our government baulks in the face of corporate pressures; we have allowed corporations to deface sacred and beautiful places around our country. But following a movement for the sake of it is not the right way to deal with it. If you want to affect change in Australia, there are better ways than doing it than following an American method of protest.

To anyone who may be following me and thinking that I am condemning the Occupy movement or embracing crony capitalism with open arms, you’re wrong. I’m not. I already believe that the Australian government has too much power though I’m not sure I would go so far as to describe myself as anarchist I certainly am in favour of minimalisation of the state. However, I agree mostly with what the OP is saying: don’t occupy Melbourne because essentially, in the public eye, it will end up doing more harm than good. The main demographic of the Australian population is aging; they don’t care for the free-thinking university-attending radicals that the media shows them; they don’t see courageous young people standing up for a cause they believe in, they see trouble makers making trouble. Take for example, my own parents: they saw the Occupy movement on TV and immediately wrote it off as hippies being hippies. It was not until I explained in detail the extent of what was going on in America that they saw it’s validity. Their next thought was: “how does that relate to us!?” I then had to explain, in detail and with clarity, the notion of “Little America”, and again they conceded that there was some merit in the protest.

It’s late, I’m tired and I’m stressed and my nerves are frayed but ultimately what I’m trying to say is this: the Occupy movement works in America and American society. It is making an impact there and around the world where the problems are more closely aligned. I am 100% behind what they’re doing. But it speaks to the wrong demographic to truly effective in an Australian setting; there needs to be another way found to communicate to an aging population the problems and perils that our own society faces. I admit that I am at a loss for such a method, but I’m thinking about it and I’m sure that many others are too.