The Occupy Wall Street protests are spreading (editor's note: Who could EVER have predicted that could happen) - and the latest from Oakland shows the negativity and doomsday views that exist in the protester's culture. Of course, the media won't show that - they'd rather just label Glenn as a fearmonger and call it a day.
PROTESTER: The system ain't broken. The system is working the way it's worked, the way it's supposed to work, the way he the's been working ever since it was founded on slavery and genocide and all the rest of it. I wanted to read something. I want to read something from the book Basics from the Talks and Writings of Bob Avakian and it speaks to the young people, the youth whose life is stolen, whose future is stolen, who are condemned to an early death or a life of misery and brutality. I'm talking about the youth whose options in life are ‑‑ have three options: Poverty, prison, or the military.
This is a quote: It is not uncommon to hear these days from government officials and others that only 1% of the population is in the U.S. military, but this 1% is fighting for the freedom of the other 99%. The truth, however, is this: That 1% in the military is in reality fighting for the other 1%: The big capitalists imperialists who run this country, who control the economy, the political system, the military, the media and the other key institutions and who dominate large parts of the world.
"Do you notice education's not in there. Was education in there, university system? Education's not in there again. You know why? Because education, our universities is the hideout for all the revolutionaries. It's the safe house," Glenn said.
"You know, where did the terrorists go from the Weather Underground? Universities."
Glenn also placed the blame for the pessimism of the protesters and the youth on the President and politicians in Washington. He said that they came in with big promises they couldn't deliver on, and most of their policies have only made things much worse than they were in the first place. Now, all thats left are people who are so fed up that they are in the streets calling for revolution.
Glenn said that the youth, many of whom, remember being kids during 9/11, have been raised among a culture that has painted America as the bad guy and the opressor. They have not been taught the Constitution or history, but only that war was bad, and Bush was bad, and Israel was bad.
Glenn warned that people need to wake up and get active because the youth today were not motivated right now to fix the country, but rather have been indoctrinated with the belief that a new system is needed to fix the country.