The People Grow Restless With The Absurd Behavior of Angry White Men
A common thread in recent events is the increased use of the power of the people. After years of people in the US sitting back and saying there was nothing they could do to stop the "powers that be", we are seeing that this is just not true and is merely a myth that the ruling elite have spread.
The people do have the power to make things change! The most recent examples is the response of advertisers to the pressure they are receiving from their customers regarding "over the top" commentary by Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Whatever your beliefs on contraception or other issues, the interesting thing to note is that as customer response grew on Limbaugh's advertisers social media pages, the companies started to reconsider their advertising policy. Previously in a show of consumer power, Glenn Beck was literally removed from all but the least visible media sources.
Advertisers are Pulling Their Ads As Consumers Exert Their Power
At the time of this writing, twelve advertisers including AOL have pulled their advertising from Rush's radio show while others have said that since he had apologized they would continue to support his program. Many others consider his apology shallow and therefore meaningless. Even though his corporate sponsors have not all pulled out, the important fact to note here is that these advertisers actually reconsidered their advertising plans based on people's comments.
The growing trend of people letting their opinions be heard is spreading via social media. Websites and Facebook pages are set up for people to sign petitions and the Change.org website offers a venue for an individual to start a petition and garner signatures. As an example, after the Change.org website garnered 240,000 signatures on a petition asking Apple to protect the Chinese workers in their iPad factories, Apple Inc. said they would open their Chinese manufacturing plants to inspections.
Is The Occupy Movement Merely the Beginning of Consumer Protests?
And of course, the Occupy movement generated spawn-offs ranging from the Occupy campus movements protesting increases in the already high tuition costs to the Occupy Foreclosures events. The Keystone Pipeline decision was another example of people power. Nowhere is this playing out more than in Wisconsin and the move to recall the Governor.
It seems that "we the people" are relearning that while individually we may not be able to force government policy or corporations to change directions, as a group we do have power. All we must do is agree on the cause and the rest is history. The rulers throughout history have well understood this as it has been their main counterattack to obfuscate, confuse, and daze their opposition. And their favorite tactic is turning one group against another with meaningless, for them, "hot button" issues.
