OWS: No one ever whined their way to prosperity

Yes, plenty of greedhead Wall Street types abused the hell out of the system, and caused our country great pain. Nobody can honestly dispute that. Likewise, plenty of people are hurting (some of them my friends and family), and understandably want somebody to blame. But what is this particular protest about? From my experience, I learned that it’s primarily about overeducated, underemployed twentysomethings who are frustrated they haven’t found their dream jobs as documentary filmmakers in the worst economy in several generations, all while amassing 100 grand in student loans. Perhaps they should instead occupy the NYU admissions office, or better still, question their choices and keep their fingers crossed for a rebound. (Things must not be too dire, however, since several protesters I spoke with had quit their jobs to join the movement.) But instead, they’d rather blame JPMorgan Chase for everything from their eczema to their poor Wi-Fi connectivity, so that they can play bongos in the park while pretending their permanent disaffection is about credit default swaps, if they even know what those are.

And this is the larger problem with their movement, as it is with so many movements, truth be told. Movements seek to generalize, and to patch over specifics. To make the complex simple. To find convenient fall guys, and a universal theory of everything. So that if I bought a Mercedes when all I could afford was a Toyota, or bought a $900,000 McMansion when all I could really afford was a townhouse, it must be Lehman Brothers’ fault, not mine.

Much as the tea party blames government for every ill, OWS seeks to do the same with Wall Street. While tea partiers are saner and smell better, and though it pains either side to admit it, both sides have plenty in common, besides just liking to dress in fruity costumes while yelling in the streets. (Even though if forced to choose, I’d rather tea party types land their hands on the levers of government over OWS types, as the only thing more dangerous than the state America is currently in would be for it to resemble the faculty lounge at UC-Santa Cruz.) But both sides are in the blame-pinning business — some of it where it’s due, much of it where it’s not.