Twin Sisters Divided over OWS

I know in my last post I said I would limit the amount of political commentary, but after reading this article this morning, I just had to comment. It speaks of the very real disconnect between the sides of the OWS movement.

Twin sisters divided by OWS

‘It Gets Heated’: Twin Sisters Divided Over Occupy Wall Street

By Enjoli Francis

Growing up, twin sisters Nicole and Jill Carty had a lot in common.

But around the age of 14, Nicole Carty told ABC News today, they started going in different directions — and they never stopped, with Nicole Carty attending Brown University for a degree in sociology and Jill Carty heading to the University of Pennsylvania to pursue degrees in international business and studies.

Now with the Occupy Wall Street movement more than a month old, the recent Ivy League graduates have found themselves on Wall Street but on opposing sides.

Nicole Carty, who works for a television station, spends her free time in Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street’s headquarters, organizing general assembly meetings for the demonstrators.

Jill Carty works for a company that assists financial service  clients. She said although she agreed with some of the protesters’ sentiments, she did not support more government regulations and intervention.

“I feel that’s what’s gotten us into this mess in the first place,” she told ABC News Wednesday. “There are always unintended consequences with government intervention.”

She said it was no secret among her family that she and Nicole Carty had different views on Occupy Wall Street and its message.

“I’d be very much more pleased if she [Nicole Carty] would be able to come up with solutions to these problems [voiced by protesters] that use the tools of the country and the world like economics and things that I feel have potential really to change the way that things work and the way people behave,” Jill Carty said.

But Nicole Carty said that her sister’s politics were completely wrong and off base.

“[Jill Carty] lacks a fundamental understanding of structural oppression that is inexcusable and immature,” she said. “She just really trusts capitalism and doesn’t recognize that capitalism is kind of responsible for a lot of the injustices we have in the world.”

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I think that this article does a good job at showing the divide between the sectors of this movement, and how important the experiences someone goes through as a young adult can shape their opinions and outlooks. I also think that the girl's opinion of the other's side is very telling. They are both highly educated individuals, with Jill having a degree from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn - one of the bust Business schools in the country, and with Nicole having a degree in sociology from Brown - an Ivy leauge school known for it's liberal slant.

What is most telling to me is that Jill has a good job, working within her industry, and agrees that something needs to change within our nation (a sentiment I also hold) but wants it to be done organically among the business world. She sees the issues that her sister has, and simply disagrees with her method of implementing change - government regulation and interference in the personal lives of it's citizens is not the answer... it is the problem. Nicole, on the other hand, has a more or less useless degree that is only worth something in academia, and works within the decidedly left leaning world of media, yet seems to spend much of her time on street corners complaining that the Country hasn't given her enough for free. she also resorts to personal attacks on her own sister - calling her immature, and saying that her lack of understanding of structural oppression (which is a flawed theory, at the very best) is inexcusable. She blames capitalism for our current situation, and further attacks those who use their own merits and abilities to make a better life for themselves.

There is no "Structural Oppression." The United States is the freest society in the world, and not just in our personal rights and liberties, but in our potential. This is the land of opportunity, and everyone here has the chance to make something of themselves - to become something great through their own sweat and blood and toil. In no way should the acheivements and successes of others be shortchanged or hijacked for the betterment of those who refuse to work for it themselves, or even contribute to society.

I could go on about this topic for volumes, but I shall leave you with this small bit of opinion. Socialism does not work. It never has. It breeds corruption at the expense of the whole, and every society that has ever dared to attempt this flawed sense of utopia has failed. Capitalism, in all its variations, is the only thing that has worked throughout history. It is what has advanced technology and society the world over, to include the standard of living at the very lowest level. Compare the average worker, or even the poor, in the 1980's, under Reagan, with the vast majority of the citizens of the USSR. A car in every garage and MTV in every home, compared to standing in the bread lines for days just to eat.