Cornelius Range V | Occupying parallel realities

In just five weeks, Occupy Wall Street has spread like wildfire. Protests are now occurring on some scale in at least 1,500 cities worldwide and on all seven continents; yes, that’s right there has even been a protest in Antarctica. In the prophetic words of Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys 2, “Shit just got real.”

For this reason, when I received a Facebook invite for Occupy Wharton, I wasn’t surprised. In a movement that seems to be directed at the shortcomings of capitalism, I understand why some might consider it a logical step to bring protests to Huntsman Hall. If our campus were considered a microcosm for society, Huntsman Hall would be the place to go if you were looking for future Wall Street analysts.

However, considering that Occupy Wall Street is a protest driven in part by the desire to build a new consciousness and understanding about capitalism, I initially thought that Occupy Wharton might be unnecessary. I reasoned that the ideological concerns being raised by the protesters in New York and Philadelphia were already giving way to a fresh dimension of thought on campus. Given the fact that Occupy Wall Street is the number one story on local, national and global news outlets, I figured that students at some point had been compelled to examine the motivations of the protest for any inklings of truth. This is what scholars are supposed to do anyway.

When I asked some Penn students what they thought about Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Wharton, I was surprised by the number of students who were indifferent to the protests or unaware that they even existed.

When I asked one student for his thoughts on Occupy Philadelphia, he looked up at me and asked, “What’s that?” When I explained to him that it was a protest modeled after Occupy Wall Street, he repeated the question once more.

Most Penn students live in a different reality from those at the heart of the Occupy Wall Street protests. In order to fairly assess the movement, we have to step into this other reality.

“As a teacher, I think Occupy Wall Street is a great opportunity for us to teach and learn from each other about inequality,” Urban Studies professor Andrew Lamas said.

Emphasis should be placed on the word “opportunity.” If we don’t try to understand the protests, which many polls have shown to have the support of the majority of many Americans, then we are only reinforcing a disconnect that exists between two increasingly different worlds. Indeed, many have described the demonstrations as “populist anger over an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite,” as one CNN article put it. If we remain indifferent or oblivious to the forces driving the protests, then we are only giving this assumption credence.

Lamas didn’t outright reject the idea of Occupy Wharton, but he instead observed, “All knowledge can be used either to liberate or to oppress.” While liberal students tend to come from backgrounds that are more inclined to critique capitalism, every department at Penn interacts with capitalism on some level. If students want to go as far as to Occupy Wharton, why not Occupy Penn as a whole? He added that although many people don’t realize it, Wharton students are given the tools necessary to critique capitalism in their own way.

I don’t think it’s fair to blame Wharton undergraduates for the dire circumstances surrounding the global economy today. However, it’s not acceptable to become enamored or content with the status quo at a time when inequality is so gross. As the forbearers of privilege, the system has worked for us. It’s our responsibility to find ways to alter the system to work better for everyone — or discard it.

Cornelius Range is a College senior from Memphis, Tenn. His email address is crang@sas.upenn.edu. Plead the Fifth appears every Wednesday.

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