Over the last week or so protestors have been attempting to take over Lower Manhattan to ask for what was thought to be an overhaul of the financial system. First glance -- this is a great issue a very large number of Americans can get behind.
On Sunday night I was viewing a live feed from the park where the protestors have gathered. It was a large group that would repeat, as a human megaphone, what a primary speaker was saying. A statement would be made and the crowd would repeat it in one voice. Sometimes it would sound like a prayer as a speaker asked to recite the First Amendment.
But what this group is doing to itself as it asks for media coverage, may be killing itself. There is no focus to this group or movement. A speaker got up and started talking about a General Assembly. At first I thought they were going to air their grievances to the UN across town. Evidently, there are so many issues this group wants to deal with they needed to form a self-government to manage them.
One woman got up and said that there are a number of issues to be settled and all the issues are equal. This is the point where this venture is due to fail.
Every time you add an issue you lose people. Most of us are certainly for things like reforming Wall Street and curbing the institutionalized greed. But if these folks are going to bundle a Free Bradley Manning Pizza with a 2 liter bottle of Kill the Fed and a box of Take Everybody's Guns Cheesy Fries -- that is not what I want to order.
Seriously, what event will have to happen for these folks in the park to say, "we won that -- let's move on."
If every issue is equal, you are giving an easy handle for those who would want to bring the main issue down. If I am working for the Koch Brothers, I would send people in to do exactly what is being done at the lowest level here -- get attention for fringe issues to slam wedges into the group to drive people away.
When the mainstream media does FINALLY show up, it will be displaying a bunch of anarchists who have discredited themselves. A herd of cats is not pretty.
If this group does not get a focus as to what they are about then why should anyone on the outside pay attention to them? There is nothing wrong with a movement declaring itself for one singular thing, getting that done to build credibility, then reconstituting itself for the next singular thing.
Whether you like the Tea Party or not -- they got their footing on one singular thing (Taxes are Evil), built on it when they got a critical mass and are now a force in American Politics.
The country is willing to listen if there is a solid message with a clear goal. This group can speak in one voice to talk amongst itself -- it has to speak in one voice on a single issue to the rest of us.
Follow Joe The Nerd Ferraro on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joethenerd
Tracey E. Vitchers: Occupying--Not Rioting--Wall Street
just like an eternal war - you are creating an eternal protest.
- you said it better than i did.
I think it was
It's the economy, stupid...
Yeah - for this society at this time - One issue is all we can handle...
But keep adding issues and see how far you get.
So how do you encapsulate such a multilayered issue with one slogan? Itd be nice sure but this isnt one where we can K.I.S.S. cuz its not simple. And thats what the powers that be are counting on. They're counting on the stupidity of the masses and want us to throw up our hands. Maybe the simplest way to put...is to say that its a matter of priorities.
I speak only for myself, as one person in the "we the people" but I'm speak up which is the whole purpose of the occupation. We can't just sit behind our keyboards and expect to be represented in a system that no longer meets the needs of the people. Join us!
I just got in from helping a local candidate running for office here. I don't know if he will win or not, but I am doing what I can to make a difference here. (I know I am making a difference here.)
I know I am one guy trying to move the ball down the field. It would really p me off to go to New York or whereever and have to deal with the herding of unorganized cats while leaving the local guy in the lurch.
You could convince me to join with a cohesive plan. I have no problem signing on to an intelligent game plan.
As it stands now - has this group set a realistically attainable goal and a path to that goal?
Now, this group of citizens have taken the giant leap to physically stand up against the root cause of the dwindling American Dream. Right there in the faces of the money changers! I'm inspired, invigorated, renewed and grateful for their courage.
They have set out a list of achievable goals I wholeheartedly support. Do they relate to actual legislation we can ask congress to consider? Maybe not yet but isn't that actually congress's job to write legislation? While our job is make sure we have a congress willing to represents our needs? These occupations are putting our needs front and center like they haven't been for decades and it just feels good.
The majority is just 'mad as hell' and this movement is opening the windows we need to shout "We're not going to take it anymore!" That's good enough for me!
Please help get a single voice coming out of there !
My understanding is they are calling for restoration of democracy. Well sweet things, democracy, or the American dream allows greed, to some would say even encourages greed. This group needs to get a handle.
Agree...the NY cops pushing them around is in violation of their 1st right amendments, that is bad news. But, come on greed has existed since the beginning of time. Read the Bible! It's part od the human condition. Alls one can do is account for theirself on this one....they are not going to change those with greed.
Scope is a major fault of /your/ argument as well: rather than confining yourself to concrete issues and actual challenges which face the occupation, you quickly jump to be a jaded doomsayer casting into a hypothetical future which you've already set neatly. Not a wise observer above the fray, you directly contribute to the narrative which squashes and dismisses a valid and *admitedly* fledgling moment of hard resistance, hard nights out on a cold street by the water.
If you'd like a constructive starting off point, I suggest that you opine upon a specific proposal rather than a Bradley Manning pizza boy strawman. There is at least one set of specific proposals being drafted which is open to the public and subject to voting, review, and debate. Here is one: http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009. Come one, you're supposed to be something like a journalist, learn to Google.
I will bet you a cheesesteak hoagie with mushrooms if this thing is alive and growing it will be because it will have found a singular voice.
Since you seem to think this can support multiple issues and gain traction - what is the maximum number of diverse issues this movement can sustain?
BTW - your link was dead - it sent me to a site that was talking about alien ruins on the moon. a link from the middle of the page - http://coupmedia.org/seti/nasa-s-secrets-revealed-alien-ruins-on-the-moon-2602 .
but you keep calling me the crazy one.
http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009
Anyway, my impression is that these kids are mostly very young and very naive anarchists who really believe in everyone doing their own thing and aren't too concerned with presenting a focused, coherent unified message. For the most part, their just burning their youthful energy having a wild intense party in the streets. Some are probably young enough to think they're accomplishing something. And they are networking and learning about lots of causes and their interconnections. The only impact they'll likely have on any others, though, is probably limited to getting a few cops punished for excessive aggression. Still, I wish I were there!
How do we break-free from the debt-based currency system and debt-paying-wage-slavery that is strangling the sovereignty of 'we the people' and our representative 'Government'? How do we wake up from collective delusion and ignorance that keeps the system in place? It takes sustained focus in diagnosing the simple roots of the complex problem and taking small steps in the right direction, both locally, and national and global level.
Peace
http://conscious-capitalism.blogspot.com
thanks for sharing.
7. the increasing militarization of police and expansion of the national security state and government secrecy, and violent suppression of non-violent dissent ....
and I could go on. This is why their demands are so numerous and apparently disconnected. They're addressing the symptoms, the endemic corruption of the American republic, and not the problem itself. The answer may very well be "regime change", and in the past, this has been accomplished in a peaceful manner, through real elections in which the parties represented the real interests of their supporters, instead of the sham which the electoral process has become. In 1864 there were four major political parties which had very different stands on policy; now we have two parties which act as one, and the Congress is unrepresentative of American people. Perhaps the best answer is to go back to the system outlined in the Articles of Confederation, and decentralize government even farther, so that most of the power is held and exercised at the local level, and maybe this is what the protestors will eventually get to. Remember that the Continental Congress went thorough years and years of endless debate before 1776, this current effort has only been in existence for two months.
I do not agree with your solution of destroying the structure of government.
(I am pushing the idea of doubling Congress because at 720,000 people per Congressperson - they HAVE to listen to the money people and lobbyists.)
1. the prosecution of wars which are not supported by a majority of the American people, and the pandering to the greed of the military industrial complex by our supposed "representatives in Congress;
2. the bailouts of the "too big to fail" companies on Wall Street with the money of the current and future generations of middle and working class taxpayers, to the tune of trillions of dollars, massive amounts of which go to benefit the most wealthy people in the US;
3. the corruption of the electoral process by ballot access laws and the disdainful treatment of candidates who do not support corporate interests, leading to elections in which the policies of the Democratic and Republican candidates do not differ to any significant extent;
4. the corruption of the legal process by courts which act in blatantly partisan opinions giving little if any regard to the rights of non-corporate persons;
5. the corruption of the educational process by profit-driven schools which con students into getting worthless degrees and selling themselves into virtual slavery to pay off student loans which are not dischargeable in bankruptcy due to laws written and paid for by the financial industry;
(continued in next post)