The Occupy protests began in New York with the Occupy Wall Street protest. In that initial movement, the goal was clear, people were protesting the financial industry, and how nobody has been arrested or punished for the decisions which lead to the recession in 2008 and continuing economic problems in the United States. In that case, the movement had clear goals and motivations, and had a message to bring to the overall discussion of economic development.
As the movement has spread from that initial starting off point, the message has become a bit lost. There are protests now in Regina, but there is no real indication of whether or not there is a clear goal for these protests. Some people are angry about increasing tuition and living costs for students, there are signs indicating a support for farmers, and there are still more people who admit they just want to protest something but don't actually know what they're angry about. The genesis in New York made sense, but as it spread out it seems as though people want to become part of a movement rather than have an actual message to promote.
I can understand why people want to get involved. The genesis for the project has been a highly publicized and large event, and people want to feel as though they're doing something the same way as that initial group. They might believe that this is a chance to be part of the big moment of their generation, wide ranging protests that change the world and make it a better place.
The thing they forgot is that there needs to be a goal in order to change anything, and they neglected to bring a goal along to the party. They're not going to change anything because they don't know what they want to change, people who see the protests happening see such a variety of signs and messages that they have no idea what the problem is. There are just a number of people in a park, and nobody knows why.
It reminds me of a recent episode of the comedy Community. One of the characters, upset that her friend was out in the world, getting arrested for protesting genuine injustices in areas of the world with real problems, decides that she's going to protest in her own college. Her protests don't actually make any sense, because she has no real purpose, it's just the need to feel like she's doing something, and she wants to feel rebellious instead of just a regular student.
That seems to be the same case in the Regina protests. They have no defined goal, but they see people protesting elsewhere and want to be a part of it. They want to be part of a global movement, and they want to be able to say they changed things through their actions years from now. The problem is, they forgot to figure out what they actually want to change, and as a result are just confusing people. They want to enact social change and make the world a better place, but when you can't actually agree what's wrong with the world, how are you going to pull that off?
The entire Occupy movement started with a clear vision and a source to direct their anger towards. The subsequent protests are just people who want to be part of that, even if they don't have a reason why.
