Thoughts on the 99% - Occupy

The possessions of Occupy Oakland protestors are seen strewn about Frank H. Ogawa plaza Tuesday in Oakland, Calif. Occupy Oakland protestors were evicted from the plaza early Tuesday morning. Photo courtesy of Ben Margot/AP

While scanning through the status updates of my Facebook friends, I came upon this status thread by a friend who served an LDS mission in the Japan Tokyo South Mission at the same time I did.  I've always liked a lot of his comments and especially loved this post.  I whole heartedly agree with his thoughts and wanted to make them more accessible to others as not everyone is FB friends with the intelligent Michael Brady.  Here are his thoughts on the whole Occupy issue- R. Murdock

By Michael Brady-

Wall Street, the financially "rich," and the U.S. government are not the problem. Individuals are the problem. They succumb to greed and power. De-institutionalizing is not the answer. People taking accountability for their actions is the first step toward the answer. The next step is realizing that their actions have caused personal and societal harm. Changing personal actions is the final step. If people--ALL people--can be taught, correctly understand and apply correct principles, they can govern themselves in ways that are individually and collectively beneficial.

I doubt the majority of those misrepresenting us "99%" understand comparative advantage, or even zero-sum game theory, let alone the terms.

Would there be any poor among us if the following things happened: 1) Everybody did their share; an honest day's work, based on the abilities of the individual, 2) Those applying for and administrating welfare were honest, -- for Latter-day Saints, I'll throw in 3) Everybody paid a generous fast offering.

Furthermore, another call to repentance for the "entitled": I watched President Obama's inauguration. He said: "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America. For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. ...All this we can do. And all this we will do."

How the crowd cheered! And looking at photographs of the National Mall the very next day, I was inexpressibly disappointed in the amounts of GARBAGE that LITTERED the grounds of our beautiful capital. If individuals can't be counted on to pack out and throw away the waste that they bring in, how can we count on them to contribute to the picking ourselves up and dusting ourselves off part?

We must be united in effort and individually committed to the cause. The litterbugs who rationalize "They pay people to pick up my garbage, so littering is okay" will need to experience a change of heart. To quote a religious leader, "This isn't a program of 'give me.' This is a program of 'self-help.'"

Individuals must rehabilitate themselves, each and every American, each and every citizen of the world, and then the "system" will be rehabilitated by natural consequence, on the basis of an improved personal and social consciousness and conscience.

People will be happier, simply because they know that they are better people, that they have improved and contributed to the improvement of the greater good. They will be enabled to become better fathers and mothers, better friends, better CEOs, better welfare recipients, better citizens.

The next questions are: how do we begin to teach correct principles? What are these correct principles? Where do we find them? How do we know that they are correct?

In a Christian setting, the answers are very obvious. I believe Stephen R. Covey to be a leading authority on how to present religious principles in ways that translate into the vernacular appropriate to different social settings. His Seven Habits are genius (borrowed from Jesus Christ), and the first three begin with the individual.

DISCLAIMER: By posting this link, I am not claiming to be a disciple, or even a fan, of Glenn Beck. In fact, I'd like to officially put a little distance between him and me right now, on the record. But this clip is well done and representative of how I feel about the whole situation down at Wall Street. http://web.gbtv.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=19882747&topic_id&v=3&tcid=fb_video_19882747       

 These are some of my favorite comments that Michael received from his post:

Beau- I think you're right Mike, it starts with self. People who are angry at others for not funding them won't ever change that mindset - no amount of money in the world can do it. What these folks should be doing, rather than congregating and asking for handouts and saying death to capitalism is knocking these companies on their duffs. I'd bet there are folks out there right now who could create a company that would be the next Apple or a bank that would cater to those who are left behind by the big banks or fleeced by the payday lenders. Let's do that instead of whining.

Michael- @Beau: No amount of money can change that mindset because funding them not only enables the problem, but gives it momentum. I was calling around to some homeless shelters one day, and the advice one of the workers gave me was: sometimes the best way to help a homeless person is to say "no." Otherwise, they'll never realize that they have the ability to shape their own lives, instead of exploiting others.

Fred- Love of money is still the root of all evil. You can have anything in this world for money, and people who go to work for the megabanks don't do it because they want to help people. They do it to enrich themselves so they can have more than they need. On the other hand, people who go too deeply into debt to buy too much house, hoping to mimic the behavior of the predatory wheeler dealers by "flipping" it end up being willing victims of the very bloodsuckers they are trying to emulate. It's not enough to be honest with others; you have to be honest with yourself. Work for what you get, be happy if you have sufficient for your needs, and remember that more than enough is too much. Use your surplus, if you have any, to help others.

Jodi- I think it's obvious from all comments as to how complex issues these are, which is why I also believe it is dangerous to work in absolutes i.e., "people take advantage of the system therefore it isn't right to blame the system" or to even suggest that the way the system is is needlessly causing suffering. Just because there are homeless people who may not do their part does not mean that they don't need help, or that they don't deserve our help. I feel the need to distance myself from these kinds of discussions because I'm not sure my blood pressure can handle it any longer. I find myself longing to throw myself back into the scriptures not just for comfort but also to regain some sanity after the whirlwind of blame, anger, judgment and prejudice infecting the rhetoric of our politics and even every day lives. What I love about the gospel is it's simplicity and I for one have never been able to find a scripture which condones loving, serving or providing for others on condition, but there are well over a thousand describing the opposite which is that we have no right to judge who is worthy or deserving of our love, time and means since all of those things are God given anyways. King Benjamins speech where he says that we have no right to say that the beggar has put his petition to us in vain, or brought upon himself his misery, because we are all beggars to God who has given us all that we have both temporally and spiritually, is pretty much the truth that I prefer to fall back on and have form my life philosophy. Not to mention the bulk of Christ's teachings which emphasize the heart of the matter which is without charity we are nothing. I have worked for five yrs now with the seriously mentally ill, extremely low income population and so I get to see these issues affecting people firsthand. I also have an entire family who have also suffered from the very bad choices of a few. So I guess to end this I of course agree individual accountability being the key but I do not think that means that we shouldn't raise our voice in protest when other people abusing their accountability has caused others to suffer. The civil rights movement is a good example because it went way beyond individual accountability and into societal accountability for suffering and abuses we were allowing to happen right under our noses. I respect the Wall Street protests because if nothing else they are bringing awareness to the issue of NO accountability in our market besides profiting off of others to make a few extremely rich being dangerous, and quite frankly not fair. People took on mortgages that they couldn't afford, and displayed habits of greed which made them suffer, but there were also thousands of wise, hard working, saving and responsible people (my family included) who through no fault of theirs had their futures taken from them so, yeah, I feel there is a lot to be concerned and incredibly frustrated about. I also have a difficult time ever seeing the need to bring someone like Glenn Beck into a conversation even though after all of the incredibly hateful, mean and unchristlike rhetoric he has spewed he happens to have a valid point. Let's leave that wolf in sheep's clothing out of our conversations completely and stick to the Godhead and our prophets when forming opinions on issues which ultimately involve our brothers and sisters. 

Michael- In the simplest of terms, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can save any of us, as individuals or as societies. Indeed as the gospel teaches, if we as individuals would like to be saved, then serving self and ignoring society, i.e., your neighbors, does not warrant salvation. See Moses 7:18.

While good intentions are meritorious in God's eyes, effectiveness will do more good than misguided attempts at change. Hopefully the "Occupy" movement will be catalyst to a more effective output than YouTube videos that mock the protesters.

Barry- After scanning the comments, I would say that personal responsibility is indeed important. But it's not the whole point. If we adopt that as the whole point, we risk ignoring other ideas of the Savior, especially charity. Personally, I would rather help those that may not NEED it than not help those that truly do need help. I see that as erring on the side of the Lord.
Not everyone will embrace personal responsibility and not everyone is capable, there are legitimate reasons to seek help.
Finally, one cannot serve both God and Mammon. Profit before people is NOT the Lord's way. That's why I tend to distrust corporations. That and the decreased personal responsibility of corporate leaders.
I could rant on, but I should save it for another day. ;)

Michael- So far I agree with pretty much everything that has been added to this discussion, yet it still seems that some are at odds with some of my sentiments. I suppose I didn't articulate myself well enough, because I feel like we're all saying the same thing, yet disagreement still exists.

Charity and pride are central to every issue due to the fact that the absence of charity and the presence of pride will inevitably cause problems.

I believe that giving commodities and money to a family whose breadwinner is unemployed is charitable. I believe it is uncharitable to sustain that family indefinitely while father and mother laze about, simply because their needs are being met by the efforts of others. True charity is helping a person be more like Christ; enabling poor behavior is helping a person become less like Christ. If I were to help the father, I would assist with his temporal means until he becomes self-sustaining; in the meantime, I cannot rob him of the process of personal growth by experiencing the humility that is requisite to be sustained by the spirit, and ultimately accomplishing, with his wife, everything that is necessary for the innocent children.

Jesus Christ did for me what I could not do for myself. So must we help others who cannot do for themselves, but then we help them to become more able. This is what Christ does with us through covenants and the principle of upward harmonization.

The unemployed father, and the greedy CEO, and you and I all face the same issue, and we all have the same problem. As we become accountable to our Lord and to ourselves, we grow into positions where we can benefit and bless the lives of other children of God. But if we are greedy, selfish, lazy, entitled, unaccountable, or any of the other "Mammonistic" traits that are bringing our nation down, then how can we serve God, as Barry points out?

Finally, we will all be struggling with losing our pride and nurturing our charity for a long, long time. I am not calling for perfection in these areas (though Christ did). Every father and crooked CEO will hopefully make movement in the right direction. However slow the process, progress is still progress.