Forget Wall Street: 5 other places to 'Occupy'
Occupying lower Manhattan isn't for everyone. Here, suggestions for people seeking another focus for their frustrations
Recent polls show that anywhere from 32 percent to 54 percent of Americans are fans of the Occupy Wall Street movement, suggesting that at least 46 percent of us aren't excited about camping out in New York City's financial district. Luckily, this is a big country, and there are lots of places to "Occupy." Here are five suggestions:
1. Occupy Hollywood
"The Great Recession is not Johnny Depp's fault," says Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon. "Johnny Depp did not decimate your 401K" or foreclose on your house. But he's definitely part of the 1 percent, and there's no way he and his fellow celebrities deserve tens of millions of dollars to make another stupid movie, especially while the "bloated and reckless" studios are laying off hundreds of employees: "It's time to Occupy Hollywood." That would serve those anti-capitalist Hollywood liberals right, says Lurita Doan at Townhall. Nobody has done more than those Robin Hood-loving "pie-in-the-sky idealists" to demagogue businessmen and entrepreneurs.
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2. Occupy the Media
It might be time to "forget about occupying Wall Street" and "occupy newsrooms" instead, says David Carr in The New York Times. "As newspapers all over the country struggle to divine the meaning of the Occupy protests," their marauding bosses at dying news empires like the Tribune Company and Gannett are engaging in the same financial shenanigans that "have left protesters enraged." Slashing newsroom jobs while paying themselves fat bonuses is great for media bosses, but bad for America.
3. Occupy Sesame Street
Occupy Wall Street deserves more media attention, but that won't happen if we don't engage children, says Tauntr. "Kids drive the market and therefore the media," and they won't tune in unless you "pepper spray Snuffleupagus." So if you want OWS to succeed, "Occupy Sesame Street." I'm in, says Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing. "After all, most of us learned how to think about concepts like 'fairness' from these characters." But Sesame Street already is occupied, by a new hunger-plagued, impoverished Muppet named Lily, says Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post. "If the recession can penetrate to Sesame Street, then nothing is safe."
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4. Occupy Art Galleries
A splinter group left Occupy Wall Street's base camp in Zuccotti Park this weekend for a SoHo art gallery called Artists Space, says Colin Moynihan in The New York Times. The group, called Take Artists Space, pointed out that its "newly acquired space" had the advantages of a "luxurious bathroom and central heating." But they also had a gripe: The art world has become all about profits, not aesthetics, treating paintings and sculpture as little more than capital. The protesters were ejected on Sunday night, after a laptop was stolen. "Let's occupy something else," the group said Monday. "How can the rest of New York City remain unoccupied? It can't. We will occupy everything."
5. Occupy Your Mind
"I don't blame the protesters for their anger at the system," but it's misdirected, says Michael Radkay at International Business Times. "You don't need to occupy Wall Street," you need a job. And that means "you need to occupy your mind and use the energy you applied" to making signs and planning a giant protest to finding gainful employment. It's not like the protesters don't have skills: Employers love workers with the "ability to create a buzz" and leverage social media for free publicity.
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