Which protest movement has more to learn from the other, The Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street?

Tired of Great Britain's tyrannical rule and pointless taxes, the colonies desired some self-control. In response to Britain's tax on tea imports, the colonies threw millions of crates worth of Britain tea, approximately 92,000 pounds, into Boston Harbor as an act of rebellion (The Aftermath, 2014, 1) with a message clearly implying, “WE WILL NOT DRINK SUCH TEA”. The tea partyers succeeded in one aspect: their rebellion was an act of defiance that showed that the colonists weren't simple obedient pushovers. The downside, however, was that the King soon imposed more rules, known as the Intolerable Acts, which ranging from closing off Boston Harbor, to allowing British soldiers to live in the colonists homes, to outlawing freely called town meetings and elections (Intolerable Acts, 2014, 4-8). The Boston Tea Party might not have been the most thought through idea in American history. What the whole point of putting up such a show when you're most likely going to get punished even harder for it?

The Occupy Wall Street movement was much more recent, happening not long ago in 2011. Due to a great deal of wealth inequality, political corruption, corporation influence of the government, people began to protest on such differences. They protested to reduce corporate influence on the government, have more and better jobs, more balanced income distribution, bank reform, and relief to indebted students (Occupy Wall Street: It's not a Hippie Thing, 2014, 4).Protesters came up with the slogan, “We are the 99%”, because the other 1% was made up of all of America's unfairly advantaged, wealthy figures.The protesters poured into Zuccotti Park, a park located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, and began their encampment, hence the name "Occupy Wall Street". The protesters and supporters were most likely made of up those with low income, looking for the chance for it to be raising. Here, the protesters simply ran their daily lives at the park, eating and going to the bathroom at nearby restaurants and stores, sleeping under blankets, and using bicycle powered electricity for surfing on the Internet (With Generators Gone, Wall Street Protesters Try Bicycle Power, 2014, 5). It was their way of protesting against the corruption of Wall Street. Although they did succeed in getting notice, they still have yet to fulfill their goals.

Eventually the show had to go. They couldn't occupy the park forever. It had to get cleaned for maintenance. When the protesters tried to reoccupy the space, the police, more prepared this time, would shoo them away.

I'd say that the Boston Tea Party has more to learn from the Occupy Wall Street Movement. To begin with, the Occupy Wall Street Movement was simply much more eco-friendly. Pouring millions of boxes of tea into the ocean POLLUTES THE OCEAN. People always talk about how water pollution today is terrible. Part of that pollution might have been from the Boston Tea Party. Coincidentally, Boston Harbor is one of the most polluted ports in the world. Although the Tea Party happened centuries ago in 1773, some people say the harbor's brown color comes from the leftover traces of tea. In addition, tea might not be the healthiest substance for aquatic life such as fish, shrimp, and seaweed. It's very possible that a great deal of fish died afterward, making life for a fisherman much harder. If I was a person during that movement that happened to have access to a box of tea, I would sneak off with it rather than throw it into the ocean. A box of tea that's fated to become part of the ocean may as well be taken and enjoyed.

Second of all the Occupy Wall Street Movement tackles a more in depth problem than the Boston Tea Party Movement. In the case of the Boston Tea Party, the Patriots were so passionate and focused on breaking away from Great Britain and didn't take the time to satisfy the needs of every person that may or may not have agreed to the plan. At that time, a great deal of colonists either disagreed with the idea of the Boston Tea Party because they were Tories who supported the King and didn't mind paying taxes or didn't even know about it since they were from farther, southern states like Virginia. In America at this time, one third of the population were Patriots, one third were Tories, and the other third were neutral (Tories, 2014, 3). Basically, a group of people was trying to make a life changing decision without the consent of the majority or minority. The Occupy Wall Street Movement, on the other hand, It dealt with the inside economic and financial conflicts with the United States. These protesters were doing the opposite of the Tea Party protesters. They were trying to give all of those who were underrepresented and ignored, such as those with meager incomes, better opportunity by protesting for better wealth and income distribution.

The sad problem with the Occupy Wall Street Movement is that sometimes protests aren't enough to completely change the course of action because the government does not necessarily always take in account of the public's interests. For this very reason, the gap between the rich and poor is still very big today and doesn't seem to show any signs of shrinking soon.

Of course, these differences might be understandable. These were, after all, two very different movements that happened in two very different time periods. In the 1700's, people most likely didn't realize how important it was to take in account of the opinion of the minorities or/and majority, especially since at that time the colonies technically weren't even independent. In addition, they probably had little knowledge about the consequences of pollution since the ocean was much cleaner at the time. It only goes to show that the Tea Party movement could try to use more eco-friendly and moderate actions. The less extreme it is, the less likely you'll get hit back.

Bibliography

"The Aftermath." Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum December 16, 1773 A Revolutionary Experience. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the-aftermath>.

"Tories." Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum December 16, 1773 A Revolutionary Experience. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tories>.

“Intolerable Acts”Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum December 16, 1773 A Revolutionary Experience. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/tories>.

"With Generators Gone, Wall Street Protesters Try Bicycle Power." Internet Archive Wayback Machine. N.p., 30 Oct. 2011. Web. 07 Dec. 2014. <http://web.archive.org/web/20131204041430/http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/with-generators-gone-wall-street-protesters-try-bicycle-power/>.

"Occupy Wall Street: It's Not a Hippie Thing." Businessweek.com. N.p., 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 07 Dec. 2014. <http://web.archive.org/web/20130526104046/http://www.businessweek.com:80/magazine/occupy-wall-street-its-not-a-hippie-thing-10272011.html>.