If I walk outside my lower Manhattan office building, I very quickly hear the drum beat coming from the Occupy Wall Street protestors, who one month in to their demonstration are still camped a few blocks away in Zuccotti Park. The political side of our festering financial and economic crisis has reached the sidewalks of New York and spread to cities around the world. From the beginning of the financial and economic slump, commentators and politicians have used our difficulties to advance causes that they probably held in more buoyant times. As the songwriter Steve Stills wrote about a mid-1960s street protest, they “mostly say ‘hooray for our side.’” So, what is their side?
一走出我位於曼哈頓下城的辦公室大樓，「佔領華爾街」抗議者們的擊鼓聲便很快傳入我的耳中。距離抗議開始已經過去了1個月，抗議者們紮在距離我辦公室幾個街區之外的祖科蒂公園(Zuccotti Park)裏的帳篷仍沒有撤去。不斷惡化的金融和經濟危機在政治方面的影響已經波及紐約街頭，並向世界其他城市蔓延。自金融危機爆發、經濟轉衰以來，評論家和政界人士一直在利用我們的困難處境，推行一些在經濟景氣時期多半會暫緩推行的措施。正如流行歌曲作者史蒂夫•斯蒂爾斯(Steve Stills)關於上世紀60年代中期民衆抗議活動的描述：他們「大多會說『爲我們的觀點歡呼』」。那麼，他們的觀點究竟是什麼？