There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.
There’s a man with a gun over there telling me I got to bewareI think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound everybody look what’s going down
There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds. Getting so much resistance from behindI think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound Everybody look what’s going down
What a field-day for the heat. Thousands of people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs; mostly say, hooray for our sideIt’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound. Everybody look what’s going down
Paranoia strikes deep Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid. You step out of line, the man come and take you awayWe better stop, hey, what’s that sound. Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound. Everybody look what’s going down.– Stephen Stills
The song “For What It’s Worth” was written in 1967. This popular rock ditty, which became the theme of a generation, wasn’t a war protest ballad as many people thought. Stills was protesting anti-loitering laws, and the closing of the West Hollywood nightclub, Pandora’s Box.
It’s funny how words matter. These words are as pertinent today as they were nearly 45 years ago. Oh yeah, there’s something happening here alright. The question is what? Twelve years ago we had a booming economy. Bill Clinton was wrapping up eight years of extraordinary economic success and was able to pass the only balanced budgets in recent memory, (a feat even Ronald Reagan was unable to accomplish).
Now, slightly more than a decade later we are looking at the possible economic collapse of Greece, Italy, Spain, France and maybe even the U.S. It’s true that there’s something happening here and it ain’t exactly clear.
The global economic crisis appears to have started under the administration of George W. Bush as he allowed the banking industry to run amok, unchallenged and unregulated. The thought was that left to their own devices investment and mortgage bankers — normally virtuous, cautious and conservative folks — would regulate themselves and behave in the manner bankers have behaved for generations. So much for that plan.
What have we learned since 2008? Apparently nothing. We haven’t tightened restrictions on the behavior that led us into the mess we’re in. It’s no wonder that we now have tens of thousands of people in streets all over the world singin’ songs and carryin’ signs.
There are those, like Fox News, that try to downplay the anger and animosity that is now on display around the world and hope that once winter sets in they’ll all just go away. That’s a really bad strategy. People everywhere are waking up to the giant, elaborate Ponzi scheme that has been imposed upon them and they are very unhappy.
Those who control the money would be well advised to also wake up. It’s time that the so-called 1 percent understands the world in which they live; a world now in the infancy stages of unrest. There is no more powerful entity than common people demanding change. These are people who now see themselves as having been exploited for the personal gain of others and that does not set well.
Paranoia does strike deep. Watching the events of the world unfold fuels the fires of those who think that what’s happening now might very well have been foisted upon them intentionally. Maybe the grand plan was to create global chaos, because when there is chaos there is also opportunity. Driving people from their homes and their jobs certainly frees up the labor force. People with nothing will work for less to survive.
There is most assuredly an orchestrated effort to divide and conquer. There are those who are working very hard to pit worker against union worker in this country. If you belong to a union and have been successful at negotiating benefits that result in strengthening the middle class you are now portrayed as some sort of demon by the conservative right.
Perhaps the biggest concern raised about the so-called Occupy Movement is that they don’t appear to stand for anything; they’re just mad. It could be argued that you have to start somewhere. Of course people are mad. Unlike the Tea Party, which is mad about the tax code, the Occupiers are angry because they’ve been asked to make sacrifices in order for the 1 percent to receive tax cuts.
They’re mad at corporations that receive huge subsidies while undermining the success of this country. These companies have increased corporate profits and have done little to help create jobs here. Rather like how Mitt Romney made his fortune. He fired thousands of workers, increased the bottom line of his struggling company and then sold the shell corporation for huge profits. Terrific.
When corporations prosper at the expense of middle class this country doesn’t work. There is something happening here and what it is ain’t exactly clear, but perhaps now it’s beginning to come into focus.
