Wall Street leads the West to a world of chaos

The "Occupy Wall Street" movement has spread to tens of countries and led to violent protests and conflicts between police officers and demonstrators in many Western cities, including Rome and New York. Currently, the whole of Western society still cannot propose a way of alleviating and neutralizing the dissatisfaction of the people, and some Western politicians are praying that the protest could ultimately come to an end due to the exhaustion of the protestors.

Western societies have adapted to street demonstrations. Some people believe that the street demonstration is never able to overthrow the Western political system and is only a "release valve" for the capitalist society to release the social pressure and for the people to vent their anger or will ultimately be co-opted by the opposition party to turn into a tool of promoting the rotation of political parties.

This analysis is quite reasonable. And it also shows a deep reason for the lack of motivations for political reforms in the West. In the west, any political party is not responsible for eliminating social dissatisfaction as long as it is able to make use of and control the dissatisfaction and make it serve the short-term political goal of the party.

This widespread "Occupy Wall Street" movement is actually an intensive explosion of the problems underlying the political, economic, social and cultural issues that have existed for a long period under the capitalist system. When the global economy was good, these issues were covered. But with the economic growth rate slowing down and the people's quality of life worsening, all the anger will be ignited by a small blasting fuse.

There are a variety of causes behind developed countries' failures to adapt to the globalization. The existing social system of the countries in Europe and America encourages innovation instead of diligence. It encourages the strengthening of their advantages in terms of brand and technology instead of the competition between such advantages and basic industries. Countries in Europe and America have gradually become "elite countries" that are advanced and elegant but cannot endure hardship and have been on the opposite side of the market-oriented economic principles that they advocated during their rise and heyday.

The mechanism of promoting the development of industries and advancing social progress through the concentration of capital has been seriously distorted. Wall Street has set a bad example for the world to make a fortune through speculation rather than honest work. This has exposed the decaying "core" of the U.S. system, but people doubt whether the United States is determined to overhaul the "core."

When the Western upper classes are unwilling or not strong enough to initiate reforms, they are most likely to transfer their own contradictions and crises to non-Western countries. With emerging countries, including China, accelerating their development paces, they are more apt to do so. For instance, it is fully possible for the United States to use its frictions with China in issues such as the RMB interest rates and fair trade to transfer all or at least part of the indignations of their citizens over the Wall Street and domestic politics to China.

The entire world has indeed entered into an "era of turmoil," in which it is of great importance for Chinese society to calmly watch the situation on Western streets and see through the grand trend of the world rather than be confused by some radical interpretations.