The Modern Scapegoat: Success

Since its inception, the Occupy crowd “voices of discontent” seemed rather amorphic with concerns about the unemployment, anemic economy, and a litany of other more unique issues.   Polls agree with the general frustration exhibited by the Occupy crowd, as did President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and several others in power.  Although we may agree with the frustration, many in the Occupy crowd keep pointing to the “Rich”, and saying they are to blame.

For starters, the slogan assumes that we are a group divided in two – the 99% vs the 1%.    For the US alone, that is 300 million people vs 300,000 people, because they make a lot of money.   Whoever came up with this slogan may not have realized that the most people don’t fit into those two groups.     How does the 99% represent the “norm”?

The attempt to group ALL of us into the 99% to demonize a smaller group is against the founding principles of this country.    It breeds contempt and bias between the haves and have nots.    Even before civilization, there was always someone who has had more.   So what?   The 99% slogan has also a small problem: if we look at the ‘next 1%’, below the top 1%, guess what?    This next group is also comprised of “Rich” millionaires that own large portions of wealth in this country!    So where do you draw the line?   Even the $250K that President Obama wants to divide is ridiculous.

If it fair for a group of people to demonize another group, apparently because they are successful?     Is this what America was founded on?

We all know in our country (thanks to the  founding fathers and their beliefs), that every person is innocent until proven guilty and any time we try and vilify a “group” like the “Rich”, we are lowering ourselves to the base emotional construct that historically leads us to negative outcomes – hate, envy, jealousy.   What’s next?

If there were  laws broken or a perceived moral wrong, then why don’t we see those people being brought to justice or leaders speaking out about right and wrong, legal or moral change?

It would be great to see the Occupy crowd find a central and cohesive voice to support an agenda that helps change America for the good.    As Benjamin Franklin wrote “He that lieth down with dogs shall rise up with fleas”.   Change in any system must come about by open, respectful discussion, where we must filter out the noise of sound bites and spiteful rhetoric to focus on the real problems, in order to achieve fundamental change.    Lets fight FOR success, not against it.