99 to 1 Is Not the Ratio We Should Worry About

Buried somewhere below the hyperbole and the vague, unconcentrated messaging that is coming from the global Occupy movements like Occupy Toronto and Occupy Wall Street, is a ratio far more disturbing to me than the 99 to 1 that is so frequently being bantered about.

While there is admittedly some legitimate concern about how so much influence is concentrated amongst so few individuals, I have far greater concern over the ratio of those who feel the right approach is simply to scream and demand that something be done to fix the problem versus those who are actually willing to do what it takes to get things changed.

In a nutshell what I’m talking about is the ratio between those who feel entitled, versus those who are willing to take ownership.

It’s very easy to complain.  It takes little ingenuity to start complaining about something, or someone and then demand that someone else fix the problem.  For whatever reason we have created and fostered this culture of entitlement – where we are always the victims and not the perpetrators.  When we are wronged, someone else must make it right and until that happens we just get angrier and angrier.  It doesn’t matter that tools are at our disposal that help us become involved in the process of change.  No, for too many its just easier to simply complain.

Ownership by comparison is much harder to do.  To take ownership often means that you have to admit to yourself that you are part of the problem.  Ownership is humbling, and exercising ownership can’t be done without effort.  That doesn’t mean however that the effort has to be necessarily difficult, but it does mean that we have to internally commit to accepting the problem and making it our own.

Democracy is a great example of how entitlement vs ownership can play out to different results.  Democracy by its very nature allows people to stand up and protest.  Democracy doesn’t prohibit displays of anger or frustration with the way things work, yet at the same time it also offers opportunities to evoke change – that is, so long as you are willing to participate in the democratic process that surrounds it.

One can’t help but wonder aloud as to how many of those camped out in the Occupy Toronto movement were waiting in line to cast their ballots in the recent Ontario provincial election?  It’s probably safe to say that the answer is not many.  It seems so incredibly ineffecient that these individuals would choose to give up days or weeks of their lives so that they create a platform to voice aloud what they are upset about – even if they can’t quite formulate succinctly what that may be.  I say this because as an alternative, one could spend the 15 minutes or less needed to cast a ballot and make your voice both heard and tabulated.

One could argue that these protesters feel disenfranchised by the process and that to them, this makes more sense.  Well disenfranchisement comes partly through ignorance and partly through apathy.  Admittedly one cannnot feel a part of the process if they don’t fully understand it, but there are plenty of ways to learn about how governments and politics operate.  Apathy is sadly also fueled by the over-eagerness of media outlets to share baseless messages about how all politicans are crooks and all they do is lie.  How can one feel empowered if everyone else says its futile to do so?!

Two of the three major national political parties will be selecting new leaders within the next 12 months.  This means that who they are and what they stand for will also be put to the test.  Both the Liberals and NDP have abandoned leadership selection via delegates and have each opted for a version of the one member, one vote system.  Imagine if these few thousand protestors chose to each spend the $10 necessary to earn a vote and have a say as to how these parties move forward?  Wouldn’t these few thousand voices have more effect if they worked from the inside than from out?

What’s evident is that anger is the universal binder that brings these occupiers together.  They may all be angry about different things but they are conjoined by this raw and powerful emotion.  Anger is an emotion that’s highly volatile as we have seen many many times before.  If concentrated and focused it can move mountains, but if scattered and dis-jointed it expels with little to show for it at the end.  To me I see great potential by the emotion being shown by the Occupy participants.  At the same time I see that the lack of focus and the lack of any tangible purpose will render these legitimate emotions and the results from them as underwhelming to say the least.

Mark Twain once famously said “What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know, but what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”  By that token I maintain that it is more dangerous to simply believe that power and corruption are inter-twined and that acts like these are the only way to evoke change.  While the true answers may not be fully known, the path to create the changes is apparent and ready for the taking for those who wish to take it.

Democracy is not an accident and it takes work.  However as with anything else, when work is done most effectively and efficiently, things get done faster than when the work is disjointed and without focus.  If we can bottle up the emotion and anger seen across the globe with these Occupy movements and re-direct them towards change through engagement and participation, one can only imagine just how much more could actually be achieved.

Trust me, that will alter the ratio’s far better than any act of public defiance will.