Occupy Your Job

Tonight, I am not particularly proud of my generation. I represent it well — I fit lots of the stereotypes, so I’m entitled to speak about this group of people, in general. Seinfeld said so: a dentist can’t be anti-dentite.
So, let me just say that my generation is the biggest group of overpriviledged, spoiled, whiny brats ever to take a stand about nothing in particular. That’s a generalization.
Here’s another one: the folks who’ve spent the past month or so camping out on Wallstreet are all jobless bums who should shut up about how unfair the world is, and get a freakin job. I know this is a safe generalization, because people who have jobs are too busy working, paying their bills, and paying into government entitlement programs to spend a month smoking pot and defecating in public.
I realise this is a far-right sounding opinion, and I don’t usually live over there, but what passes for inequality in the First World would be opulence in most of the Third, and what passes for a “social revolution” in North America should never be put in the same category as what happened in Egypt or in Tunisia — it shouldn’t even be put in the same category as what happened here in the 60s. At least then young people had something to be mad about: discrimination against women, and a foolhardy war in Vietnam. In Egypt they protested against decades of brutal dictatorship (and the protestors cleaned up after themselves when they went home!) In North America in 2011 unemployed people are protesting against the employed because of inequality — when they have every opportunity to fix that inequality, if they’d literally get up off their butts and get a job.
I’m not saying there isn’t work to be done. I’m not saying that the system isn’t broken. I’m not saying that every American is born with the same opportunity to chase the American dream. But I am saying that every single American-bred brat sitting on Wallstreet right now (and many other streets across the continent) has a million more opportunities than kids in much of Africa or Asia, and if they really want to create equality, they’d get themselves some jobs, and spend the money they make and the time they have, to actually do something about it.
I am so sick of hearing ineffectual whining about social justice: the idea that good feelings and nice activities are changing things for the better. Do you know what changes things for the better? The transformational impact of the Holy Spirit, and some good, old fashioned hard work.
If you live in a place where you live in fear of a brutal dictator, by all means, start a revolution. I’m with ya!
But if you’re mad because the people who have jobs have more than the people who don’t, then shut up and get a job.
If you’re mad because you’re in debt, stop buying designer clothes, stop getting frivilous degrees, stop watching digital HD cable TV, stop planting urban gardens, stop hanging out at protest rallies, and flip burgers at McDonald’s while working on a college diploma with your evenings, until you can contribute something to improve the situation.
If you’re mad that investment companies are playing dangerous games with consumer debt, then break free of the system, and cut up your credit cards! If enough of us conspire to live within our means, we won’t have high-risk mortage scandles!
And if you think for a minute that your government is oppressive, that our system is unfair to you, that you deserve more than you’re getting, get on a plane and spend a month in Libya. If you’re still alive at the end of that, I guarantee you’ll come home with a greater appreciation for that McJob that you think you’re too good to take…