(Photo’s credits to BostonGlobe)

For some time now my Facebook news feed has been overwhelmingly devoted to two major uprisings in the world – the protests that started at Gezim Park and proliferated throughout Turkey, and the protests which began in Sao Paulo that are now proliferating throughout Brazil. It is only vaguely coincidental that these two protests are occurring at the same time, a fortunate happenstance of synchronicity, which allows us to ponder over both protests’ original sources: inherent inequality and the creation of a large disenfranchised lower class which is both necessary for, and the direct result of, the enactment of economic liberalization policies and the creation of a global neoliberal economic regime.