Head Count of the Unhappy

“It is wonderful to be here together on this sunny Saturday. I want you to be here also when it’s cold and when it’s freezing cold; we will fight till the end.” About a hundred people are sitting on McPherson square’s lawn at 5 p.m. Washington, D.C. local time. These are the so-called beginners. In front of them gathers a small group of young people — half kids, half grown-ups — who are just about to walk the beginners through the orientation.

“I’ve been here since the very beginning. At first, I didn’t know any of the people behind me. Now, there are so many that follow me,” shares Sam, a smiley, enthusiastic American of Asian descent who jumps all over the place. Around him orbit a couple other youngsters, all part of the quickly-formed organizational committee. Without microphones at their disposal, they show enough vocal strength to make the rules heard: The area needs to be kept clean to ensure there will be no problems with local authorities; when going to the restroom is needed, please use the cafes and restaurants around — there are a couple of Starbucks, a bakery and a strip bar, all perfect for that purpose. The instructions get interrupted by the approving honk of passing cars. The gathering responds with a friendly chant. “Everyone who wants to take part, could sign up for some of the tens of interest commissions: media, law, why not philosophy?” the instructions continue.

The gathering looks a little like a group of children playing a grown-up game and getting excited by the opportunity to find themselves at the very center of events. They have quickly created gestures and word cues that help them hand out a spirit of union to the people packed around. That feeling is magnified by the company of the omnipresent park crowd — idlers, homeless folks, hippie-looking young guys looking for a place to drink beer and play the guitar. It would all look a little childish if it wasn’t for this presentable group of grown-ups who look quite ordinary and reasonable, who may or may not have a job, may or may not have a mortgage to pay, but for sure have a clear intention to fight injustice.

“It’s been a couple of years since we realized that things are not going well, but this year I have come to the conclusion that if we continue to go in the same direction, it will eventually destroy us. The current system is unstable and corrupted,” says 35-year-old Andrew, a financially stable business owner who creates websites to make a living. It’s his first day among the protesters. He came because he wants to express his concern and his dissatisfaction. He hasn’t decided yet whether he will stay overnight in the tent camp or go back to his home located not far from the protest. He has come to support change.

That’s how the U.S. capital city of Washington, D.C. looked on Oct. 15. Erupting in New York, the wave of unhappiness flooded many American cities. There are all kinds of people among the Occupy Wall Street protesters — decent salary earners, students, government employees, artists. Each one of them protests according to his/her own expectations — some against the U.S. military interventions, others against the injustice triggered by the power of big corporations. Their ideas sound chaotic, their arguments all over the place. Despite that, the hum of frustration has reached other continents.

People, brought together by an intensity on a different scale, gathered in Hong Kong, Portugal, Sidney, Greece. The demonstrations deferred the details. In some places, they happened peacefully, marked by the silent presence of the protesters; in others, they were accompanied by aggression and arrests. That same day, the Manhattan police cleared the streets and tried to keep under control the thousands of protesters gathered around Times Square till late night. The final head count for the night: Around 70 demonstrators found themselves behind bars. The most aggressive protest so far took place in Rome, the capital of Italy, where the arrests and the smoke bombs inundated both the streets and the news reports.

A protest in quest of ideas

The generation of the screwed-ups gathered in many places around the world, but it is the magnitude of the demonstrations that shows the depth of the problems at stake. Rome, Athens and Madrid stuck out. The south of Europe is going under, and the young people there feel that they have lost control over their future.

The EU unemployment rate among youngsters registered in 2010 is 21 percent. Spain has the highest 40 percent rate, followed by the Baltic countries, Italy and Greece. Australia, Germany and Holland are the frontrunners with a rate under 10 percent. With today’s debt levels and focus on balancing the budget, the Italian and the Spanish government will take awhile till they can afford to create jobs at the pace they used to (for Italy “used to” means a very long time ago). In the meantime, young people will have to put up with protection from older workers, a severely regulated job market, temporary contracts and ever shrinking paychecks. They will have to live longer with their parents.

The downside of the new movement is that months after the protests have started (on May 15 in Madrid), it still doesn’t have a clear political message, and as a consequence, it did not bring concrete results. Every movement that does not create outcomes is meant to disappear. The main reason behind the lack of clear results is the lack of clear ideas. The protesters have a cause; they know that they don’t like what the future holds for them at the moment and they are convinced that banks and political elites should be held accountable for that. What the protesters offer as a substitute, though, remains unclear.