The Fear of Occupy

I have not been to an Occupy Wall Street protest. I probably never will get to one. But I don't feel it is necessary for me go out on the streets because I get why Occupy is angry. You see, fear and I have been long-time traveling companions and I understand it well. And fear is precisely what gave birth to Occupy.

Fear is what paralyzed America in the early years of the first Great Depression; as President Frankin D. Roosevelt so clearly asserted in his inaugural address in 1933. Fear is what grips America now in the midst of the second Great Depression. But fear is what the 1%, and many who aspire to be in the 1%, just don't seem to get.

The kind of fear that spawned Occupy is not a kind of fear the wealthy are used to feeling. Fear of the consequences of losing one's job. Fear of starvation. Fear of getting sick and not being able to afford care. Fear of losing the roof over your head. Fear of losing everything you've worked hard for and struggled against the odds to gain. Fear that something beyond your control - a natural disaster, an accident, or worse - is going to land on you like a truckload of bricks and you won't have the means to do something about it or fix it. Fear that you'll die homeless, penniless, and alone.

Thanks to the trillions in bailout money that Congress lifted from the pockets of the working class, and $7.7 trillion in secret bank loans, the wealthy were largely spared the fear that has spread over the rest of us like a wet, cold blanket. Yet unlike the first Great Depression, those who caused the economic collapse have been spared any substantial economic or legal consequences. They've been spared the flavor of fear which has now become all too familiar to most. Most of them have, in fact, continued to receive obscene salaries and bonus compensation for their "performance" through the crisis.

Nearly four years into a national nightmare no one has been held accountable, and, as the New York Times reported on November 14, in a feature examining why, the banks excuses are growing stale. Secure in their luxurious homes the 1% have expressed no gratitude for their salvation at our hands and no reparations - beyond simple repayment of the bailout monies - have been offered for putting the 99% through severe emotional distress. Lives, families, careers, and futures continue to be destroyed by the lingering impact of the greed and avarice of a few. Yet apparently no lessons have been learned by those responsible and business has continued as usual in a fashion that would have made Ebenezer Scrooge proud.

With tens of millions of Americans unable to find work, or earn a living wage, the wealthiest among us go on expending their riches working to dismantle the minimal, and wholly insufficient, "safety net" of social security, healthcare, and welfare. They work to cripple collective bargaining, deny worker's rights, undermine civil rights, strip funding from public education, and keep more of their fellow citizens imprisoned than any other country on the planet. And with their efforts to buy legislators unfettered now by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission they work against democracy and against the fundamental human right to a life free of intimidation, coercion, and fear.

Until Occupy rose on the streets two months ago the 1% and their collaborators hadn't gotten a whiff of how the nation feels about all of that. And the only question now is whether any of the 1% are morally and ethically unimpaired enough to back off from their class war against Main Street, and act to restore the nation, before the fear that spawned Occupy gives way to rage or worse.

If conditions persist or worsen, and if Congress fails to take up and pass a measure like "H.R. 4191: Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act of 2009" (or otherwise act to restore stability for the 99%), public anger, and support for Occupy, will likely grow. And if the fear that made those with little or nothing feel like they have nothing to lose by taking to the streets is not soon calmed (through sufficient compassionate action, some decent jobs, and permanent improvements to the social safety net), full-blown rage may replace the fear. That's because, if for no other reason, we're Americans and we just don't do fear very well for very long. And we're tired of bearing the burden of a failure that was not our own.