On the "Occupy Movement"

Over the last couple of months I have been documenting what appears to be the emergence of a new psychological disorder. I have dubbed this newly discovered diseased mental state "Occuposis". Occuposis presents as an individual whose transition from a juvenile to a mature mental state has been stunted. Individuals who suffer from this mental stunting are the products of a generation where individual recognition of achievement is discouraged in favor of giving everyone participation trophies.

They are raised in a generation where parents instill in their children the idea that they are God's gift to the world and that everyone is special and irreplaceable. A generation where dodge ball is banned for being violent; where no one has to climb the rope in gym class for fear that someone may be singled out, and where there can be no MVP because no child is more valuable than any other. In this new generation simply showing up to a martial arts school guarantees a child a black belt. In ensuring that no child ever feels that they are anything less than spectacular this generation has formed a disordered view of how the world operates.

In the last few years the first wave of these children began to come of age. Their delusional world view is maintained through college as federally guaranteed student loans insure that even the mediocre are given ample funding and opportunity to attend college. These same students, now suffering from an advanced form of Occuposis, believe that all majors are created equally, and that by earning a degree they are guaranteed a place in the middle class. This misguided belief leads these students to attend private liberal arts colleges, double major in African Drum Music and History of Western Dress, and graduate with $100,000 or more in debt. As they make the transition from college to the working world they can't be blamed for expecting the same treatment they have received their entire lives.

They happily search for jobs waiting for their suburban home, new car, and 2.5 children to materialize when something happens. These people, never having learned the harsh realities of life, are rejected for the first time. Their false world view crashing down on them, they are faced with the idea that they might in fact be losers. Unable to accept this idea, and now in the throes of full blown Occuposis, they revert to a child-like mental state. They reject the world that won't give them what they are "entitled" to and, much like children, park themselves in an area that does not belong to them and join together in a collective whine. They lash out at the institutions that refused to recognize their greatness, at their perceived enemy, "Wall Street". They express the childish emotions of jealousy and envy, claiming that all success is the result of dishonesty and demand the redistribution of wealth. As their mental state begins to further regress towards that of an infant their behavior becomes increasingly erratic. They defecate in the streets, attack any authority that attempts to reason with them, and in the final hour of their illness they begin to turn on one another. They steal, rape, and even murder one another until finally they have to be brought under control by force of arms. This recent outbreak of Occuposis represents only a small taste of what's to come if immediate corrective action isn't taken.

There once was a time when someone who was successful was venerated rather than vilified. A time when people took responsibility for their failures, working to correct their shortcomings rather than complaining and demanding a handout. I don't know when or why competition was deemed evil and something that should be routed out wherever it could be found, but the idea is not doing our children any favors. This country was built on competition; built on the idea that success was given to those who could offer a good or service superior to any other; built on the idea of equal opportunity rather than equal outcome. This new generation lacks motivation and there is only one motivating force stronger than the drive to win: the drive not to lose. If we, as a country, continue to attempt to ensure there are no losers by punishing the winners we will be successful only in ensuring we all lose together.