Why Occupy Wall Street?

Occupy Wall Street is a movement, according to the motivations behind it. It is very much like the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement and any anti-war movements, but at a very basic level. Motivations are deeply rooted and to get exact data isn’t the most. A simple comment could remove your drive to do something as the Handbook of Motivation and Cognition says and in a protest, there is a fair amount of negativity.

In an era where most people are used to having things done for them (the planets are all found, the periodic table is set up, gravity is pretty much explained), it’s hard to get crowds to care for something deeply and pursue it. Even with majors, we find college students changing their majors every so often because of disinterest or something else caught their eye. Be it what it may, the OWS Movement, should it organize a hierarchy, could accomplish great things. Finding leaders to fill those positions without being corrupted and making decisions without a vote is another story.

The movement has great potential and definitely has a crowd of supporters,  that if motivated and continuously motivated by their strive for citizen rights, could bring about change socially and politically. Often, we forget how strong our words are, let alone our actions. Who knows what policies would look like if more women are in Congress or in the White House. Minority groups have brought about change social and political, but it won’t happen overnight like some of the protests want.

Time is a factor in the motivation of this movement and unfortunately, these people don’t have time. Jobs, families and bills take up most everyone’s thought process and their decision should be made based on those. But those who have stayed have either lost everything or given everything up.

Occupy Wall Street is a stepping stone for people to get involved. It has the basics but needs the structure. It needs an agenda; something everyone can agree with. So far, it seems that citizen rights is what needs to be placed on the agenda. Otherwise, people will lose interest, the movement will change or fade away and it will just be another example of our generation’s ability to stick to something.

Y U No Happy?: Angry Occupiers

An article by Marc Lacey titled “Countless Grievances, One Thread: We’re Angry,” simplifies the reasons behind the gathering of so many for a movement that, for the most part, has not brought about a policy change. According to the Handbook of Motivation and Cognition Vol. 2, positive feelings (i.e. not anger) are a better motivator than negative feelings.

“Peace activists, indigenous rights activists, immigrant activists — they’re all here.” A quote from one an occupier interviewed by Lacey. Those three activists have one “thread” in common, according to Lacey, and it’s anger. “What brings me out here? Outrage — outrage with what’s going on in this country,” said Lucy Horwitz, 79, who participated in Occupy Los Angeles. “Right now, the first issue on my mind is that corporations can buy congressmen.” Bold statements and quick soundbites can get people riled up and moving. “Buy [people]” is basically what the woman was saying and buying people is generally not okay anymore. The thing with that is it is temporary; anger diffuses quickly and interest can be lost just as quickly if there isn’t anything going on to make things better. People who take the incentives are usually very passionate about their cause but nowadays, there is so much to be involved in, it could be easy to get overwhelmed and take a backseat. How do you get people to stay motivated?

The movement has taken several approaches to this and their most successful is the tumblr. They get people to continuously follow what they have to say and arrange meeting places and incentives for coming. Those who show up have a good time and if they get threats to be arrested, it’s even better! Getting arrested means they did something big enough to catch the eyes of authorities. The attention could be a huge motivator for some and also having a purpose or cause to believe in.

Dolores 

For Equality and Human Rights?

From books like Common Sense to the Common Laws, equality–or lack thereof–has driven many revolutions and movements. The Civil Rights Movement was about equal treatment for all races; the Brown Berets strove for equal treatment of the Latino race; the Women’s Rights Movement strove for gender equality and the list continues. The catchy phrase of Occupy Wall Street is “We are the 99%.” What they want to get across could be anyone’s guess but from photographs, the easiest conclusion is that 99% of the United States populations is struggling to make ends meet in some way or another (although it is usually monetary).

What they believe in are citizen rights. Citizen rights are differentiated from human rights as the right “to work, just pay, a standard of living adequate for health and well-being, including housing and medical care, social security and education.” Human rights, as defined by Feinberg, are “moral rights of a fundamentally important kind held equally by all human beings, unconditionally and unalterably.” Human rights are ideally universal and should remain the same throughout the globe. This is not the case and it is visible on every news channel in the world. This is the primary motivation of the movement according the the photograph and the interviews, is for the moving of citizen rights to be human rights.

This is a huge thing and it makes sense why some would call those in the movement “entitled“. That’s the theory basis of it. If we were to look at the movement as a blob. Which it isn’t and that’s where psychological motivation comes into play. But to interview every single person–as the Handbook of Motivation and Cognition suggests–is nearly impossible and there are always chances that people will lie about their real reasons.

As more articles come about about possible motivations for Occupiers (members of the Occupy Wall Street Movement), I will try and connect them with research done about human motivation. There are false articles and misinformation all about but theories are proven.

Dolores

Motives: To Riot or not to riot

The reason a person might join a group does not always match up with the reason that the group started up. The motives change from person to person and depending on who does the planning, the group could either be productive or stagnant. They could be violent or peaceful. If a person’s motive in joining the Occupy Wall Street protest is to seek revenge for all of the misfortunes that have happened to him/her, then there is a higher possibility that the planning could become violent, chaotic and emotional. If the protester has the motives of seeking legislation and finds that the group is influential and a means to do so, then if he/she plans it, it is more likely the protest will be a peaceful, organized and logical-oriented. The way it is planned depends on the person who plans it and motives influence the goals and agenda of the group.