Jonathan Bix and Schuyler Kempton talked to us about how social change will happen in America. Jonathan is a student at Vassar and Schuyler is still in high school. We had them discuss the issues together because we were eager to hear what the next generation was thinking about social change.
Jonathan, representing the foreclosure movement in Occupy Poughkeepsie, thought that getting involved in the two party system was counterproductive, although there were some differences between candidates. Schuyler was less optimistic; he rejected the capitalist system that had created the two party monster.
I was struck by our discussion of values and morality. Both students had rejected the notion of following the laws as dictated by the major corporations. Throwing families out of their houses isn't moral even though the banks, the courts, and the media contend that it is. Of course, the banks are anything but legal themselves, pushing bad mortgages on the poor, and then forging paperwork to throw families out on the street. The revolution will come from exposing and confronting the criminal system that we have now, one based on profit rather than on human needs.
