Occupy your country

It’s shocking when you consider how little protest there was when the government put us in so much debt that the IMF would inevitably be called in. It’s scary that I live in a country where according to the official figures 3 in 20 of us are unemployed and yet there are only 40 tents at Occupy Dame Street and 2000 come out to march

Stand around the camp site and very quickly you will find out why, regularly people will come up to you and commend you on your protest but ask “you don’t think it’s actually going to make a difference though do you?”.

People are telling us that the only way to get our governments to listen is through the destruction of property and this isn’t just coming from the drunks on the street at 4am or the republicans, it’s also the middle class professionals.

And it’s not just this peaceful protest that people are skeptical about, it seems like the public confidence in the democratic process that the citizens of this country can’t even imagine how they would go about making changes to the country that most of us would agree belongs to them.

What is the point of our democracy if people don’t believe in it?

Before socialism, capitalism, regulation, better elections, better leaders, national banks or any other system/institution is a culture of entitlement, and I don’t mean for a second car and holiday home, I mean political power. We should start teaching ourselves, our friends, our children that we all have the right and need for power.

We need, as a nation to become active. If we don’t then no matter what system we put in place, no matter how clever it’s rules, no matter how honest our leaders we will always be vulnerable to those that cannot be moved by human suffering.