Not Tom Joad

From Sonic Charmer:

News you can use: The Hottest People at Occupy Wall Street. Although much to my chagrin there was only really one hot person, maybe two in that slideshow by my count.

Anyway, reading the intro made me realize there’s a notion out there that folks who make fun of and belittle Occupy Wall Street (such as myself) are basing their criticism on a presumption that the people there are ‘druggy and unhygienic’ – basically, smelly ugly hippy layabouts with no future.

I want to make it clear that I think nothing of the sort. I have been very consistent in my (mostly-unsubstantiated, but probably correct nevertheless) assertions that Occupy Wall Street is an upper-middle-class movement of pampered, spoiled people who lead, generally, very cushy and pleasant lives and have bright futures, in many cases destined for (when all is said and done) high salaries and standards of living, especially compared with the rest of the country, let alone the rest of the world.

Let’s just take that slideshow for starters, with the understanding that it may not be representative. But what occupations are represented among them? Model. Student/teacher’s assistant (probably meaning, graduate student). Filmmaker. 30-year-old Former Tattoo Artist. Works for documentary film company. Daily Kos writer. Someone who came to NYC for a belly dance workshop. Fashion intern. ‘Life coach’ [sic].

Here’s the thing. I don’t mean to belittle or minimize any of these occupations and vocations. Not at all. What I do wish to point out is that these are not occupations that would or could exist in a Dickensian economy of struggle and no opportunity. The occupations these people have, and things they describe themselves as doing with their lives, literally would not exist. These people could not exist. There would be no such person as a ‘fashion intern’ because it would not be possible to exist and survive as a human and simultaneously be a fashion intern. Ditto for someone who writes Daily Kos columns for Paypal donations. Ditto for ‘life coach’.

To be absolutely clear, a second time, for good measure: I think it’s great, fantastic, that all of these people can simultaneously exist, not starve (evidently!), and pursue all of these passions of theirs. America!

But the point I want to make is this: these people are not a struggling underclass needing government handouts or more attention or, really, anything else. They are, apparently, doing just fine. They are living in or visiting NYC, which is fun for them. They are having fun doing things they like to do, with people similar to them. They are (some of them anyway) ‘hot’. They got photographed for a website. Some of them are 30+ years old and seem to be doing ok never having had a ‘traditional job’.

AGAIN: Good for them! Cool!

But these people are not the stuff charity cases are made of. I recognize and realize that they (some of them) may have relatively low nominal salaries – at least, at this point in time – but these are not lower-class people in need of government programs, assistance, or action of any sort. The very fact that these people can do the things they describe themselves as doing, and not starve, and meanwhile go hang out at a safe and fun protest (which if anything sounds like an adult/hipster version of Disneyland just before the fireworks go off over the castle) in their spare time, is evidence of that.

People who can afford to spend their 20s going to ‘belly dancing workshops’ or being a ‘life coach’ are more properly understood as privileged people. These are upper-middle-class or at least upper-class people. I am sure one of them would retort by saying ‘but I have to split a studio with my friend!’, and so forth, but people with lesser means and opportunity couldn’t possibly even do these things in the first place, let alone be in an NYC at all hours of the day ‘protesting’. They would have to go to work. Not in a hip/fun place like NYC, and not a fun/hip work that doubles as a hobby. It would be a work they don’t actually like, in a place that kind of sucked. Such people exist – many such people – but they are not in NYC right now Occupying Wall Street because they couldn’t possibly be, now, could they?

So whatever else negative one might say about our country, the self-evident fact here is that it has created an environment wherein these OWS people now can exist, and do these things, and cluster in a square in New York City, a great and fun city, hanging out with other beautiful people, in a park, whenever they want, basically having fun and being young and beautiful doing whatever the hell they want, and they appear to be in no danger of starving, getting sick, or anything else. That is as good a working definition of privilege as any other.

So what we have here is a movement of (undoubtedly) well-meaning and idealistic people who live lives of, by any historical perspective, great privilege. And as far as I can tell – please correct me if I’m wrong – what they’re mostly mad about is not readily being given higher salaries than they have/not able to pay off their debts faster, for doing the things they like to do. Especially compared to those nasty bankers.

Boiled to its essence, this rally is crying out to the rest of us: “We’re young, beautiful, and privileged, but we also want it to be easy for us to get really high salaries.” The silly part is, I have absolutely no doubt that in spite of their current ‘protest’, at least some/many of these people will end up doing just that. Someone at one of these things will end up in Congress. Another will start a multimillion dollar tech company. Etc. It’s basically a foregone conclusion.

But even those who don’t, and have to settle for ‘just’ doing fun stuff like photography or belly dancing, but never getting hugely rich off it, what do they really have to complain about?

This is not a populist political movement that speaks for people in sweatshops, people who pick vegetables on farms, people who work in canneries, people who sort recyclables. Those people can’t Occupy Wall Street. They are not there because they literally can’t.

It is a mark of privilege – almost, a form of conspicuous consumption – to have such a life that allows you to spend your young earning years Occupying Wall Street. Now hey, good for them, and all. Knock yourselves out.

But you are not Tom Joad. And I am not required to pretend that you are.