Is this what democracy looks like? At least that’s the most common chant that emanated from the cacophony. I’m sure the slogan means a lot of different things to people, but for a misanthropic curmudgeon like myself, being involved in such a human cluster might seem oxymoronic at best. Let me explain.
The people I’ve been seeing out there in Liberty Plaza and at City Hall, the 99% as it were, they’re in it for the sake of “the people.” Human rights, workers right, unemployment, homelessness, inequality, social injustice, all forms of human repression really. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at City Hall on 5 October, myself included, and marched to Liberty Plaza. Instead of traveling with the masses down Broadway, I scampered ahead. Making my way through the crowd quickly (one of the perks of being small), staying just in front of the NYPD barriers, my plan was to get to Liberty Plaza and find a suitable vantage point from which to see the progression en masse. After witnessing roughly half of the bodies pour into the park from atop the raised stone flower bed on the northwest corner, I realized that my tolerance for human flesh was quickly being surpassed. Slightly panicked, I hurriedly located a second story vantage point of the square with public access. Steve’s pizza at 110 Trinity Place. So naturally, I procured a cheese and mushroom slice and hopped up the stairs just in time to snag a seat right next to the window as the low yellow light of fall started to fade.
From the relative safety of my crumb strewn table, I felt just close enough to the action to be able to report upon it’s progress, endorse it for what it’s worth to my agenda, and remain far enough away to garner the larger picture of the scene as well as clearer air to think in and breath. I want to be able to fully support this movement and perpetuate it’s usefulness. I want, for once, to feel like I’m actually part of the decision-making process in this incredibly complicated country. After years of being utterly disenfranchised, knowing that time spent dealing with national politics was time wasted, this sliver of hope that I might not be wasting my time any more is heartening.
I apply the label of “conservation biologist” to myself for the sake of humanity’s need to categorize and with a grain of salt. I’ve traveled, with fits and starts, down the academic road of biology for several years. Nearly diving right into the deep end on various occasions but chickening out at the last minute every time. The second-guessing has stemmed from a lingering desire to feel like I’m performing the most useful task that I’m able for the future of the world that I care most about. That world is the natural world. The world that seems to have the smallest voice in all of this. There are hundreds of conservationists out there whose efforts are relegated to academics. Their work rarely bridges that chasm between academia and the general public. I see amazing promise in conservation science but I haven’t been able to fit comfortably into that picture quite yet. Yes, I’m hopelessly interested in mammalian diversity between 500 and 1500 meters on the Amazonian slope of the Andes for example, but if their habitat is destroyed moments after I’ve cataloged this information, the matter is moot.
The way I see it, corporate governmental control has had a larger hand in human caused habitat destruction than any other entity. The hunger for industrial growth has been fueled for generations at the expense of the voiceless inhabitants of our planet with little care toward mitigation. Large-scale pollution of water, air, and land, poisoning and genetic modification of food supplies, wholesale destruction of irreplaceable ecosystems, communities driven to destroying their own environments out of desperation to survive, and much more have been brought to us by giants such as WalMart, General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Fannie Mae, General Motors and the likes. Through media control, fear mongering, bait and switch tactics, black boxing, preying upon ignorance and trust, payoffs, and backroom deals, these large corporations have established rights for themselves equivalent to that of unimaginably wealthy human individual. These rights combined with outlandishly generous tax breaks created by the wealthy elite by the wealthy elite, have given said corporations the lion’s share of governance in one of the most powerful and influential nations on the planet.
Maybe the 99% can make some headway here.
