1. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 1
Ashwin Bhakre
Ms. DeGreef
Occupy Wall Street
December 7, 2011
OCCUPY WALL STREET
One in every three Americans now is poor or on the verge of being poor.
In Zuccotti park, September 17th 2011, a Canadian activist group Adbusters ini-
tiated an ongoing series of demonstrations which had been given the name Oc-
cupy Wall Street. As of October 15th, the Occupy Wall Street protest had spread
throughout many countries in the world. These include South Africa (400 pro-
testers), Canada (13,500 protesters), Germany (32,500 protesters), etc. The
reason for these demonstrations were many but mainly they included problems
in the financial world like economic inequality, unemployment and corruption.
The slogan of the protest “We are the 99%” refers to the increasing difference
between the wealth of the filthily rich 1% compared to the remaining 99% of the
population. This essay will study and examine the importance of the protest
(Occupy Wall Street), will discuss the presence of any Machiavellian characteris-
tics on either side of the protest and decide if this is a modern world Renais-
sance?
Three deaths, each in a different city and each under very different cir-
cumstances. Is this still an everyday protest about the demanding middle and

2. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 2
lower class of a country fighting for their right to more money, more jobs and
less corruption that will one day end and everyone will forget about? At first,
when the demonstrations started at New York, people might have thought so
but when hundreds of thousands of people in 951 cities in 82 countries are
protesting about the intensity of unemployment, the desperate need of equality
in the economy and the termination of corruption, its a different story. As of
November 2011, there are 13.1 million people unemployed in the United states
alone. This means 13.1 million people in the United States have no job, minimal
food, minimal clothing and possibility of no shelter. This could result in dis-
eases or even deaths because of the decreasing sanitary care and no country
wants to have people dying. Even if we neglected future consequences some of
the statistics related to the protest could surprise you. According to police re-
ports the number of shooting victims raised 154% from the same time last year
(October 2010) while the number of people shot rose by 28%. This is just the
violent side statistics but when 3000 officers (10% of the whole squad in NY) are
drafted in to keep peace amongst the protestors, it has to be something impor-
tant doesn’t it?
Anne Sullivan Macy once quoted “Every Renaissance comes to the world
with a cry, the cry of the human spirit to be free” This quote relates to this pro-
test because it was the cry of the Canadian activist group that started this fi-
nancial revolution and it was the cry for financial freedom. Renaissance (re-
birth) was a cultural movement that spanned from the fourteenth to the six-

3. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 3
teenth century in central Europe. The reason of the revolution included factors
like the church loosing power because of corruption and wrong teachings and
because of the invention of the printing press which abled more people to read.
The consequences included the flowering of arts, literature, sciences, politics.
In the arts the paintings became more realistic, the literature was focused upon
the Greek and Arabic works of natural sciences, mathematics and philosophy
instead of cultural texts the science was based upon scientific facts and the
politics did not include the church being the ruler. Occupy Wall Street is a mod-
ern world Renaissance but does not include rebirth of things like literature, arts
or sciences but its more of a financial Renaissance. The impacts that this pro-
test has had on the financial world is nothing short of amazing, it has changed
the way our leaders are thinking. Instead of focusing on debts or deficits, they
are talking about income inequality. They are focused on growing the economy,
making taxes more fair, more progressive, providing relief from foreclosures,
protecting employee’s rights and shifting the focus of public policy discussions
to full employment instead of social spending cuts and the nations debt reduc-
tions. This proves the reform in the priorities of our world leaders and soon it
will be a different financial world. If everything goes as planned, the unem-
ployed rate will crumble down to a minimal 2-3% while the rate of corruption
will go down and the taxes will become more fair. History will be rewritten as a
twenty-first century financial Renaissance will take place.

4. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 4
Niccolo Machiavelli was a political philosopher and writer during the Ren-
aissance in Italy. He is most famous for his book “The Prince” which was com-
posed of maxims concerning politics and instead of writing about the tradi-
tional hereditary prince, he wrote about a new prince. These are some of the
extracts from the book about the new prince “To retain power, the hereditary
prince must carefully maintain the socio-political institutions to which the peo-
ple are accustomed; whereas a new prince has the more difficult task in ruling,
since he must first stabilize his new found power in order to build an enduring
political structure.” Looking from a protestors perspective, there is one of the
Machiavellian characteristics present in the way the protestors are fighting. Ma-
chiavelli encouraged people not to do what is right or wrong but to do what is
effective. These demonstrations cannot be decided if they are right or wrong
because that just depends on which side you are, but the demonstrations defi-
nitely are having an effect not only on Wall Street and the government of the
United States but governments worldwide. Machiavelli would have surely done
something like this but the only difference is that the protest took quite a while
because it took a long time to get in to the governments eyes but Machiavelli
would have argued here because he thought injuries (in this case riots) should
be done all at once not a little by little.
“If he must harm a colony, harm the poor and dispersed - Niccolo Ma-
chiavelli ” This quote is extracted from the Machiavellian novel “The Prince” It
relates to this protest very well but not with the protestors but with the 1%. If

5. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 5
you were to take the meaning of that quote’s meaning word by word it would
not associate well with the 1% but when you look at the hidden meaning it
would all make sense. The quote simple means if you want to succeed, step
over the poor and dispersed to get there and thats exactly what the 1% did.
They used the poor for their own benefits, to increase their own wealth. If Ma-
chiavelli was alive today, he would be proud of the 1%.
“Favors should be bestowed little by little - Niccolo Machiavelli” This
quote tells us about the future story about the positive consequences of Occupy
Wall Street. As told in the previous paragraph the government’s have finally
ended the protest by agreeing to try to meet the demands. Eliminating corrup-
tion, full employment and fair taxes can happen over night but will not and this
is where the government becomes Niccolo Machiavelli. They will satisfy the 99%
little by little because just like Machiavelli, they know that if they give it all at
once the happiness will die out soon and again there will be more and different
demands. To counteract this they first might bring in a policy about corruption,
after a couple of years maybe taxes might be made a little more fair to the
lower and middle class population and after another couple of years the unem-
ployment rate might reduce.
“It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver - Niccolo Machiavelli” The 99%
once were robbed of their money by the already filthily rich 1%. But today, as
the protests have ended the 99% look back and smile thinking to themselves

6. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 6
that eventually what belongs to them will be returned. In conclusion, the Oc-
cupy Wall Street protest was an important protest because it had the designated
impact. Occupy Wall Street is a modern world financial Renaissance and both
parties (Protestors and Wall Street) have Machiavellian characteristics. If every-
thing goes as promised by our world leaders, soon the unemployment rate will
reduce to a minimal level for each country, taxes will be made fair for the lower
and the middle class, their will be equality in income and corruption will be
eliminated to its minimal level. I conclude this essay with the quote “One who
deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”

7. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 7
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8. OCCUPY WALL STREET! Bhakre 8
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