According to the BBC, a poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS News (NYT 2011) shows that distrust in government is at its highest level ever. Almost half of those polled expressed the view that the beliefs carried by the Wall Street movements matched that of the general American population. And two-thirds believed that wealth should be more evenly distributed throughout the U.S.
    
When viewed together, the NYT and CBS studies show a correlation between economic inequality and distrust in government. In short, Marx theories are eerily accurate. When capitalism no longer serves as a device by which not only the rich can prosper but also the bottom and more importantly middle class can still provide for themselves, then this will show itself by people turning not only against the people at the top of the economic ladder but also the political system itself. However, one has to stop before going too far and painting Marx as some kind of Nostradamus-like figure. Where Marx theory fails to materialize, when looking at modern events such as the Occupy Wall Street movement, is his prediction of bloody revolution and what he called “growing pains” as the workers united against the abolition of private property, money and eventually the state.
    
The Wall Street protesters are not armed; they are not fighting off the police. In fact, in the face of tear gas and batons, they are running away. If Marx was right then these protesters would be marching into the offices of the politicians and bankers and spilling blood in order to destroy the bourgeoisie state.
    
This is where the theories of Marxism and the modern protest situation begin to separate. The Wall Street protesters do not call for blood; they do not call for the destruction of the entire system. What they are arguing for is simply that the financial regulations be put back so that the gap between rich and poor is no longer stretched.
    
Marx was smart enough to predict that at a certain point people would be upset by massive wealth inequality, but he didn’t realize that money, property and capitalism would become so ingrained into the system that we could never organize society without them. What we are seeing now is only the realization of the first and far less radical part of Marx’s prediction. People don’t like massive wealth inequality and the only real unifying factor among the protesters is that, on some level, they feel apprehensive about the accumulation of wealth by the top 1 percent of earners.
    
So while Marx accurately predicted that at some point capitalism would produce massive inequality that would lead to resentment, what has not yet sprung true is his idea that this would manifest into global armed revolution. As yet, what we have seen is mainly peaceful protests that are designed to show politicians and bankers that the corrupt practices that led to the financial collapse have not gone unnoticed and, until changes are made, this discontent will continue to be voiced, but as of yet not by any degree of force.

— Jamie Greig is a junior in journalism and electronic media. He can be reached at jgreig@utk.edu.