Today’s focus is on the protesters, fun fun. Let’s start with a quick and dirty chart of awesomeness:

Infographic: Who Is Occupy Wall Street?
http://www.fastcompany.com/1792056/occupy-wall-street-demographics-infographic

Quick and dirty is apt, in so much that this snapshot was taken across two days by visitors to the official unofficial Occupy Wall Street webpage. While, like any chart or graph that one could provide to prove their point, it is not actual factual nailed down in granite scientific fact… but it’s still a telling capture. It shows that it isn’t just kids, it isn’t just the rich, and it surely isn’t a leftist astroturf movement as some on the right wish to claim. As I told my psych doctor person – nothing is black and white. Grow up world, and accept this – us versus them is a waste of time and energy, and only causes harm.

Of course, that proves nothing to some, and just continue to presume that kids are stupid:

Those silly young people
http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/11/unemployment

There is also a fantastic supporting link within that article, so make sure to check it out.

I’ll add that, for those who might be new here, that I don’t support the current so-called education structure in the West. I’m a bit good at seeing the shape of things to come, and opted to not get into debt for little reason back when I finished high school. My parents pressured me to pursue higher education, and after a year of community college (on my own dime, I add), I dropped out and joined the Air Force. I did not, and still do not, see the point of paying that much money if you do not have a concrete subject that you want to study. And yet, everyone is told that they must go to college/university, or they’ll amount to nothing. I guess me and my 3 half-degrees are nothing then, ha ha – even nearing 30, I still have no idea what I would study, and therefore still consider it a waste of my time and money. If I want to learn something, the Internet and books enable me to educate myself on things of interest to me; I do not need to shell out thousands a year for it.

Having said that, I do my absolute best to NOT pick on people who were foolish enough to believe that college/university = path to success. Sure, it should have been glaringly obvious that if 1,000 people are going for a job because EVERYONE had to get a degree instead of 10? That that means 999 people are out of luck instead of 9. A fantastic example of this in the UK is the CSI/Soco conundrum: lots of people get it into their heads that there aren’t many people doing said job, it looks cool ’cause of the telly, and then they find out – it’s not THAT cool, there are NO jobs whatsoever, but you were told you had to get a degree… it’s a bit of a catch-22. And even putting aside kids getting ‘fun’ degrees, I do believe most studies show that most kids try to pick as practically as possible. It doesn’t make the jobs magically appear, but still…

Honestly, I just think people need to lower their standards to something more realistic. Yes sure, we’d all like a nice car and a big TV and all the vacations, but most of us simply cannot afford it. They build their lives from wants up rather than needs up; this makes for a horrifically impossible standard of living. I’ve always found that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, while not wholly workable, is a great place to start from. Cater to your body first; it is your best friend. Keep it functioning, then protect it. THEN you can worry about ‘buying’ respect with flash things, though really, I’ll never understand why people don’t see right through that one. 🙂

Finally, Cracked.com finally cashes in with another amusing list:

5 Ways We Ruined the Occupy Wall Street Generation
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation/

For the most part, I agree and find this amusing food for thought. The kiddos growing up are hit with a dual thrust of infantalization/dismissal combined with a sneering assertion that they’re lazy/stupid/doing it wrong. My main point to disagree with is that everyone still needs to get a degree – I know that’s how the system is rigged now, but obviously – I’m all for breaking that. 😉

I hope you’ve enjoyed your daily sampling of whos-its and whats-its, with bonus commentary. I’ll be back with more tomorrow, so see you then!

<3

PS –  if anyone is having any issues with my website, drop me a line and let me know. Everything should be working fine, but I’m double-checking things just in case.