Politics & Power Quote by Colin Powell

"It isn't enough just to scream at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. We need our political system to start reflect this anger back into, 'How do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?'"

Colin Powell, Statesman

About this Quote

Powell’s line performs the classic establishment two-step: validate the grievance, then discipline the method. By conceding that anger is real and even justified, he borrows the moral energy of Occupy without granting it veto power. The key phrase is “reflect this anger back into” policy - a tidy bit of rhetoric that treats protest as raw emotion the system can responsibly process, like a feedback loop. It reassures anxious moderates: the streets can speak, but the institutions will decide.

The subtext is a warning about political legitimacy. “It isn’t enough just to scream” draws a bright line between expressive dissent and actionable governance, framing the former as incomplete, even slightly childish. Powell isn’t attacking Occupy so much as relocating it: from a challenge to the system to an input for it. That’s a move with consequences. It implies the system is fundamentally capable of self-correction, and that the main failure is translation - not structure, power, or capture.

Context matters: Occupy Wall Street erupted in 2011 amid post-crash fury over inequality, bailouts, and a recovery that felt like a private rescue mission. Powell, a national-security-reassurance brand of statesmanship, channels that moment into two safe imperatives: “fix it” and “get the economy going again.” Notice what’s missing: redistribution, regulation, or accountability. The quote works because it’s empathetic without being destabilizing - a pressure-release valve that turns protest into reformist homework.

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Topic	Equality

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Colin Powell

Colin Powell (born April 5, 1937) is a Statesman from USA.

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