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Published on Friday, January 13, 2012 by Moyers & Company
What is the Occupy Movement Accomplishing?
Bill Moyers returns to television this weekend with his new show Moyers & Company. As part of this new show, Moyers will be answering a viewer question every week. Send in your questions via Twitter to @BillMoyers, our Facebook page or using this link. This week's question: 'What is the Occupy Movement Accompishing?'
Ask Bill from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
© 2012 Bill Moyers Media
Posted in #occupy
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17 Comments so far
Show AllWelcome back, sir. Your voice has never been needed more.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Bill Moyers. One of a dying breed of true journalists.
What has the Occupy Movement accomplished?
It has gotten a reaction from the 0.1%.
1, National Defense Authorization Act: indefinite imprisonment without charge
2. Monsanto bought Xe and Bill Gates bought 500,000 shares of Xe: rogue private armies
Although it's 90% likely that you, "Jack East" are just a repackaged screen name for one of the former dis-info specialists who not only frequent these threads, but seem to LIVE here... your attempt at discrediting OWS and making IT responsible for government repressive blow-back is about as honest as blaming ACORN for the housing market's collapse, or Feminists, for the rise of the MIC.
Conflating one phenomenon with another is hardly the same thing as proving causation; and your attempt to blame the ONE promising development in our Occupied Land says a great deal about your own priorities, or Wish List.
The further shredding of the Constitution and Bill of Rights by the Democrats-Republicans and Obama as a response to the OWS movement is an unintended consequence of OWS.
Love that truth --- Democracy is what the PEOPLE do, and not what the government does
past director of the cfr. this man is not your friend
oldcrow:
He was also a former White House Press Secretary for President Johnson. Does that discredit everything he's ever done since? Your statement is an ad hominem fallacy.
i'm a journalist. i'm a reporter. I could never get the subject on the big marquee. and please don't forget corporate wankers have a heart.
“The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?'
“We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
Thank you for that piece of info, oldcrow. I had forgiven Moyers for having been Johnson's press sec. During the lead-up to the Iraq war, however, I watched every second of Moyers PBS show trying to find plausible reasons for war. His guests were all war hawks, even the Iraqis. Among them was a univ. professor whose name I no longer remember. They all got their rewards or 10 seconds of fame or maybe they were duped. I don't know. However, the one knowledgeable, respected voice that I kept looking for, but never appeared on Moyers' or any other program that I saw, was that of the late Edward Said, the author of "Orientalism" among other books. He, of course, was against the war. No one could spare any time for such reasoned knowledge. Since I just found out about Bill Moyers being a member of the CFR, it explains a lot of sad truth. I just googled that info., and it seems quite a few of our esteemed news anchors & commentators are CFR as well. Here's the link: http://www.cephas-library.com/history_of_masonry_6.html That piece of info is at the end of the CFR section.
I'm delighted you are Back!
Thank you and more mucha gracias, and I now know that good reporters never die, they always stay on the beat...Abrazotes!!!
I wish you would invite Noam Chomsky as a guest. He is my hero. He opened my eyes to the illusions around us. My question, Sir, empires fall. The Roman Empire, Ancient Egypt. the Greeks, the Russian Empire. Do you suppose we will see the fall of the American Empire? If yes, why. If no, please explain.
Thank you,
Sandra Parson
Augusta, Ga
The most interesting point may be Moyers' saying that journalists have been saying for a long time that the economy was unbalanced, the rich vs. the rest, and so on. In light of the pretty spectacular success of the Occupy movements, it's clear that the model of reality the journalists had wasn't in contact with much in our country. The journalist's method of trying for reasonable debate misses the point that the Occupy folks have seen: the 1% don't NEED to engage in debate. They have bought the system: media, politics, economy, judiciary. The methods needed to be confrontational, non-violent but impolite. The Sweet Liberals of the media -- especially the NPR/PBS crowd, were not in touch with, maybe not even aware of, the nature of the completely bought-out Powers That Be. OWS got it. Neither Sweet nor Liberal (nor Conservative), they see the whole STRUCTURE has been bought, so polite channels can no longer work. They must remain non-violent, but also remain rude.
I got distracted. I think the Occupy movement gave citizens a glimpse of what power they have if they organize. We have the power; we just need to use it. The biggest problem with peaceful protest is that police and security are overzealous in their attempts to control the crowds. These abuses must be shown on the internet over and over so that it sinks into peoples' heads what kind of police state we live in. The police have become militarized and you take a great risk to your person if you decide to protest peacefully. The answer to that is bigger crowds which equals more power-----Power taken peacefully to restore order to a government gone mad. Any 20 year old who wants to be a peace officer (double speak) trains for a few months and hits the streets with a gun and stick and the permission to kill civilians. That is it in a nutshell. A peaceful protester could be picked up and charged as an enemy combatant and never see the light of day again. Occupy shed light on how oppressed we are as a people. We need more protests..on Wall Street, at insurance companies, near oil companies, near anywhere where corporate profit is held in higher esteem than the welfare of humanity.
Congratulations, Bill Moyers, on returning to television. You are a true advocate and voice for democracy. We desperately need more reasoned and enlightened media voices speaking truth to power and standing up for democracy over corporatism.
I deeply admire the Occupy Movement for their courageous democratic stances against corporatism in spite of the many risks they are taking, because of the ever-expanding National Security Surveillance Police State we live in.
OWS has accomplished a great deal in a short time when one compares the general population's political awareness today to just a few years ago.
What they have done is to expose the excessive unfairness and injustices in our systems that are anti-thetical to democratic principles under a democratic form of government: unfair tax structure, grossly unfair income inequality, limited good paying job opportunities, an unfair, unjust legal system, reckless gambling, fraud and abuse on Wall Street impacting mortgages, pensions, healthcare, education, jobs and livelihoods with no accountability or prosecutions and no anti-trust laws utilized to break them up.
OWS is continuing to increase our awareness of the excessive corporate dominance of our political, economic, social, medical, environmental and judicial systems and how this dominance has caused our government to be subordinated to corporate interests, instead of the people's interests, for many years. In a democracy, this is completely opposite of what it should be: corporatism should be subordinate to the democracy. Ralph Nader speaks to this in his book: GETTING STEAMED TO OVERCOME CORPORATISM. He is advocating for knowledgeable people to organize "an effective sustained movement to counter the corporate supremacists and subordinate them to the sovereignty of the people."
Maybe a coalition could be formed with OWS and what Ralph Nader is suggesting. This could be very powerful and effective over the long-term. Now if we had enlightened leaders at the top coordinating with this grassroots movement, our democracy would have a better chance of surviving.