occupy miami beach

it’s sad to see all of the confused wall street protesters protesting for a system that basically already exists...when there are so many wrongs to right in the world. they’re begging for the rich to pay taxes in an economy where the rich already pay the majority share of taxes. they’re begging for the government to regulate banks and businesses in an economy where the government already heavily regulates banks and businesses. they are begging the government to provide welfare to a population that already receives too much welfare. i grew up in a sub-culture of rebels that protested “the man” only to now live with a generation of followers that protest *for* the man.

if any wall street protesters are reading this, i can assure you, the coolest thing about being young is not camping out along some decaying urban street begging the government to cap the pay of a few rich bankers and begging congress to hook you up with a little government cheese/forgiven debts. the coolest thing about being young is staying up all night with your friends, finding new bands and listening to these bands on your radio’s top volume, chasing a new crush, sleeping on the beach at night knowing you will be hot, miserable, and poorly rested when the sun rises long before you planned to be awake, surfing until the rash on your stomach is so painful that you can no longer see in color, owning one pair of shoes and a few thrift store tshirts that you periodically find a way to clean even though you don’t know how to wash clothes, finding a way to pay your rent with no money, finding a way to build a website for your band with no money, finding a way to take previously mentioned crush on a date with no money, and writing a screenplay that will most likely never be finished.

most importantly if you want to refuse to acknowledge or succumb to the adult world for as long as you can, this is awesome. i managed to pull this off for almost 10 years. but if this is your path, do it in style and ignore adult life completely. don’t mope around wall street lobbying the government to grant you your adulthood because you don’t have the skillz to obtain it yourself. and don’t cry jealously at some miserably rich banker. it makes him look like the hero and you the fool, when you know the opposite is true. to stand on wall street is to bow to adulthood instead of conquering it. it is to profess to the world that you have no ability to stand on your own two feet.

to put it in even simpler terms: responsibility is just around the corner, one day you will have to get a job, so take this time to be irresponsible—not stupid. hanging out in the sand with a bunch of hipsters in south miami beach with no job not caring about wall street listening to the helios choir– irresponsible. hanging out in a mob of losers on wall street begging bankers and politicians to pay attention to your poorly defined cause – stupid.