When an image strikes a chord so loudly that its reverberations spread quickly in our culture – as the one below is currently doing – it's instructive to take notice.
Allow me to offer the photograph in question, taken by gerryduggan:
What you see above is a notice from Wells Fargo having to do with a small trust owned by a relative of the "photographer" – specifically, it's a notice about actions the bank will be taking on the trust's principal given changing market conditions.
While this may be a notice informing the owner of changes that will benefit him/her, that's not the point. Instead, the point is to note the obviously concerning detail: the trust's owner was given until December 18, 2011 to object to the bank's action, when the notice wasn't mailed until December 19.
But that's not even really the point. At least, not mine. No, the point here is something greater than what may simply be a horribly bad administrative error.
The point begins with a question: why is this photo resonating so strongly?
And the point ends with an answer: Occupy Wall Street. (Indeed, the photo seen above was originally posted in Reddit's Occupy Wall Street sub-domain.)
In the last three months, for all of its flaws and hiccups, one of Occupy Wall Street's clear accomplishments has been to create a culture-wide awareness of the failings of the financial industry and the corruption it inspires in Washington. It has managed to forge a national dialogue on something that we have all intuitively known: while the banks got bailed out, we got sold out.
When something that is intuitive, something that is known but not necessarily articulated or considered at length in the conscious arena, suddenly becomes highlighted, that highlighting has power.
Perhaps this is why a recent post here at Daily Kos, entitled "Wells Fargo informs customers of 'Important Change in Terms'" became a site lighting rod yesterday.
Without Occupy Wall Street, I would argue the above post on Wells Fargo would not have received as much attention.
And without Occupy Wall Street, the above photograph would not be striking the chord it is currently hitting.
For the intuitive has become articulated and known.
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