Reflection Essay #4

Reflection Essay #4

The Occupy Movement is a prime example of how average hard working people, feel as though politics, power and our global economic system is driven basically by an elite power group. They believe that the system is unfair and in some ways unjust and I will reluctantly agree with that. We're in a world where the rich hold a bigger piece of the national income than ever before, and I think people are starting to see how unfair this distribution really is. This is why social movements matter today. These social movements give voice and recognition to a group that feels like their opinions are being disregarded. Politics and power go hand in hand in my mind. You can't hold a political position and not gain a degree of power. Political figures for the most part are governmental positions that work with their power to influence activities and the population. I would also say that many people who are employed by the government have friends in high places, or at least people with lots of money. Most people know you can't run a political campaign without millions of dollars to devote to political ads and transportation. So anyone who's vying for political recognition holds a position in what is referred to as an elite power group. The power elite theory basically means that a small group of people, in respect to the total population, hold concentrated power in modern societies. The Occupy Movement simply wanted to expose the inconsistencies in income distribution and power inevitably held by the people with the most money and undermining democracy.

Politics today in my mind hold more power than they ever did, and it's because of the presence of media in literally every aspect of one's life. We try and keep politics and economics separate but how can we? It's a literal impossibility. Obama raised nearly 750 million dollars when he won his election, according to opensecrets.org. I'm not saying Obama won solely because of this, but I would say that his funds inevitably had a large influence. I always thought that there should be a cap on how much money can be spent or raised for a campaign to make the political scene more even, but I doubt that will happen. Occupy movement is just an organization that wants the public to be aware of the changes in the political arena and how our global economic system is essentially dictated and run a select group of people who possess an exponential amount of power and influence. I say exponential because if the trend continues these people will hold more and more power and influence in the economic and political realm. After I researched Occupy I know now that the Occupy Movement stands for more than just inequality in politics, which is refreshing, it seems they stand with a lot of people who simply hold a peaceful occupation of a public space to get their message across. So although politics is sometimes always apparent it's not the singular motive for this group.

Power basically refers to how much influence you can have over the population, but power can come in a variety of ways. The Occupy Movement represents power in numbers, which can reach those media outlets that usually have to be paid for. I'm speaking about air time in magazines, radio, TV etc. We know that power is also fluctuating, people are moving from different financial backgrounds some people lose their power and others gain. We know that a President can't hold his place in power forever, and the same can be said about other political positions that are limited to their length in term. The Occupy Movement was so largely successful because it could cover a wide range of protests and it was extremely simple to identify and organize.