I visited Occupy San Diego recently and I was surprised by what I found. There were far less people than I had expected and it seemed as though there were almost more police officers than occupiers. I spoke with several people there including a man who said he has been unemployed for about the past year and that he was there to show his support for the 99%. He explained to me how he was concerned about the direction the country was going in and how the middle class was disappearing while the corporations are getting bailouts and more tax breaks. He also explained how it seemed as though the people at the top were working to support each other and ensuring their interests were protected while the majority of people were struggling to survive. Another person I spoke with explained how he felt this was just the beginning and that he believed people would continue to rise up and protest against the system, which supports those with wealth and power.

The viewpoints I heard from some of the Occupy protestors seemed to align somewhat with the conflict theory perspective on societal stratification and how the people with power and prestige, essentially operate to ensure their privileges are maintained, at the cost of the rest of society. This helped me understand conflict theory better, hearing the protestors comment on why they were there and how the system seems to discount there influence since they are not part of the elite and in order to make a change they felt this was a way to get their voices heard. Although it did appear like some of the protesters were there for other reasons, the ones I spoke with seemed to know why they were there, and what they wanted to achieve by protesting. Issues such unemployment and class are on a lot of people’s minds given the current state of the economy and so many people being unemployed or finding it more difficult to remain in the middle class, and conflict theory is an interesting theory to use when thinking about such issues.