Once again I am procrastinating...I am not sure how I feel about the current occupation. I refer of course to Occupy Wall Street. Part of me thinks it is fabulous and I should be out there on the streets in solidarity with them shouting 'down with wall street', 'down with big banks', 'down with corporations', 'down with globalization'. Wait hold up, I think I am in favor of globalization. I am ready to go and get a tattoo and put dreads in my hair. I'll wear baggy pants and flannels, aka seattle grunge in the 90's, and get a little dog to tote about that looks cute and hungry.
Except, I won't really. Call me middle-aged or maybe more appropriately middle-class, but none of that appeals to me. I do agree with them in principle and I am proud as heck that we live in a country that allows them to be out on the street protesting. I walked past the Board of Trade yesterday and they were out there with signs walking the street and drumming. There was constant drumming. The business people walked by completely ignoring them. Occasionally there were baffled looks, but those were probably the tourists. In Iraq the government would have responded by bringing in a very large police presence including trucks with big guns bolted to the top. Then they would have destroyed their drums (giant plastic barrels, actually). Then little by little they would have pushed the crowd until it dispersed. If there was any action they did not like they would shoot into the crowd. That my friends is the reality that most protestors face in other parts of the world.
My one complaint with the occupation movement is I have no idea what their primary objective is and I don't think they do either. I understand that it is a social movement without a leader or a spokesperson, but the message that is coming across is garbled. It reminds me of a class I had with a professor who worked in a woman's organization in the early 1980's. She said that everything that was done was done through a communal effort and that every decision had to be made by everyone in the organization. Now think that through. That includes what toilet paper to buy all the way up to the policies and the mission of the organization. Staff meetings were spent discussing what kind and how much toilet paper to buy.
If the occupation does not come up with a clear mission and a clear voice then they might as well be talking about toilet paper.
Except, I won't really. Call me middle-aged or maybe more appropriately middle-class, but none of that appeals to me. I do agree with them in principle and I am proud as heck that we live in a country that allows them to be out on the street protesting. I walked past the Board of Trade yesterday and they were out there with signs walking the street and drumming. There was constant drumming. The business people walked by completely ignoring them. Occasionally there were baffled looks, but those were probably the tourists. In Iraq the government would have responded by bringing in a very large police presence including trucks with big guns bolted to the top. Then they would have destroyed their drums (giant plastic barrels, actually). Then little by little they would have pushed the crowd until it dispersed. If there was any action they did not like they would shoot into the crowd. That my friends is the reality that most protestors face in other parts of the world.
My one complaint with the occupation movement is I have no idea what their primary objective is and I don't think they do either. I understand that it is a social movement without a leader or a spokesperson, but the message that is coming across is garbled. It reminds me of a class I had with a professor who worked in a woman's organization in the early 1980's. She said that everything that was done was done through a communal effort and that every decision had to be made by everyone in the organization. Now think that through. That includes what toilet paper to buy all the way up to the policies and the mission of the organization. Staff meetings were spent discussing what kind and how much toilet paper to buy.
If the occupation does not come up with a clear mission and a clear voice then they might as well be talking about toilet paper.
2 comments:
I agree, Jen and I had a disagreement about it- she thinks it's wonderful. I told her- they don't know what they are marching for. You hear the protesters in interviews and not one seems to know WHY they are marching. What is it they are hoping to accomplish? Getting businesses out of politics? That's great- but they need to develop a plan.
If you put a single dread in your hair I may never speak to you again. (I realize that statement doesn't involve any risk of actually not speaking to you ever again, because you treat your hair to well to ever do that to it.)
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