I've been thinking lately that much of our country is primarily concerned with the acquisition of money, whether that be to purchase the things that perpetuate living or to satisfy material desires. I've heard of our era (post-WW2) being referred to as the Atomic Age, but I think a better name for it is The Merchants' Age and that the United States has been in it since before its founding.
We can see the results of excess. . .
Global Warming
The extinction of species
Loss of wildlife habitat
Pollution
Shortages of resources
All of which are all the result of our having glorified or centered our lives around money and its acquisition. The concentration of wealth by the very few (especially to the exclusion of its acquisition by those who are not already wealthy), it seems to me, is the central theme of those participating in #OccupyWallStreet. I was talking to my immediate family a few weeks ago, wishing in retrospect that I'd managed to finish Capital and was asked to justify my disappointment in myself. My mother was an economist, my father works for the Department of Labor and my sister works in the enforcement of financial regulations. As I see it, Capital is itself a book about the excesses of capitalism and that those excesses will inevitably result in revolution.
The point of all this is that I've never felt that I fit into this society, where acquiring wealth is the primary moving force. For me, fundamentally flawed as I am, it's about right and wrong. It was wrong that homosexuals were ostracized from regular society. It's wrong that a small political minority can halt efforts to see that more people are employed. It's wrong that we invaded Iraq. To me, it's wrong that people are shooting wolves from helicopter for no purpose except that it makes them feel good. It's wrong that people (even veterans) are forced to live on the streets, begging for food while those who sold Americans guns ride in private jets to vacation homes in the Caribbean.
So how do we go about changing the fundamental structure of our society so that the excesses of capitalism aren't allowed free reign? Clearly our political system hasn't had an answer since FDR, so people are obliged to demonstrate. I sincerely hope that this is the beginning of a solution.