As the individual Occupy movements across the country prepare for the brutal cold nature of winter, it’s important to remember a message that was spoken 235 years ago at the brink of a similarly desolate situation:
“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds,” wrote Samuel Adams, during the onset of the American Revolution as the country’s limited militia force bared down against the over-powering British army.
Sam is the cousin to our nation’s second president, and to one of its indispensable founding fathers, John Adams. Sam also has a brewery named after him, but that’s not important.
What is important from his words is “an irate, tireless minority” can accomplish almost anything they set their minds to, even if that means overthrowing British rule and constructing a nation entirely from scratch. It’s certainly an inspiring quote; however, does it apply to 2011?
Where our countrymen nobly withstood the harsh winters of 1775 and 1776 in the most dire of conditions imaginable, the protesters on Wall Street seem to be more complacent about the threat of winter and what that means to their movement’s future.
“The hardy will stay. The junkies will go. And in the spring all somebody has to do is declare Occupy Central Park or Occupy Union Square and everyone will return,” said Max Richmond, a 26-year-old carpenter from upstate New York, in an article in the Los Angeles Times. “This was just practice.”
That’s wishful thinking, Josh. When the spring rolls around, what leads you to believe that people will be back? Moreover, if you haven’t accomplished anything by then, why would anyone want to return? Sounds like a long wait for nothing in return.
If many people in the movement have already jumped ship and its not even November, what does that say about the perseverance of this initiative? I don’t want to be the cynic in the room, but is it wrong for me to think that this protest is only occupying headlines and ignorance?
We must ask the important question now before this goes on too far; what will this movement ever accomplish? Let’s put a short time table on it: What is going to happen before Thanksgiving? More than likely, nothing.
So far all I’ve seen this movement do is take a large number of citizens and implore them to be satisfied with picketing rather than earning a living. Is this really the example we want to set for the generations to come?
As the heart of the movement struggles in New York City, and most likely crumbles from the relentless northeast winter, how does that affect the other protests around the country? Without a heart, the body can’t function.
If the core of the army is already disbanding from the center of battle, then who is to say that the other regiments won’t follow suit?
Although a majority views the protestor’s cause as revering, and principally American in making a stance and holding firm ground, the truth always reigns supreme. And the truth to this situation is that three months down the line Occupy Wall Street will be yesterday’s news.
The chance of the group maintaining its position nationally, specifically in New York City, is slim. The protesters could prove me wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time that Americans stood together to overcome defying odds.
However, they’ve proved to me very little in their first seven weeks as a coalition. As a college student with two jobs outside the classroom, if these protesters are looking to occupy something, then why don’t they occupy a job and start contributing?
