Looney, not focused and irrelevant OR revolutionary, impactful and timely. Whatever your point of view, the Occupy contingency is not going away. Even if it hibernates during the winter, I believe it will come back full force next spring.
We are in the midst of an era, a marker in our history where radical change is sweeping across the globe. There are three camps for viewing this time; the gloom and doomers, the dismiss-it and go-back-to-sleep-walking-through-lifers, and those who are excited about the opportunity it brings.
We haven't often seen people unified and interconnected globally. Unified might be a bit of a stretch, but that could change as the message and the clarity of purpose comes into focus.
Consider "lasting change" as it has occurred historically where humankind received great benefits through peaceful movement and the power it projected. Can power and peace be used in the same sentence? Is this an oxymoron? Actually no.
In 1968 a small group of women working as machinists in a factory were classified as unskilled and they became the torch that would burn fires of inequality around the world. The Ford Motor Company, who was then the fourth largest car corporation in the world, went to great lengths to assure that these women would be stopped, even threatening the British Secretary of State that they would pull tens of thousands of jobs out of England if she didn't make the problem go away.
And still this small band of women held firm to their decision, that it wasn't right and it needed to be changed. It didn't take Congress, the House of Parliament or a war to cause this extraordinary shift that ricocheted around the world. It took 158 peaceful women.
There is exponential power in peace which has been realized throughout history; this often unexplainable domain where science and spirit merge to become cooperative evolutionary forces. This magnified energy field can initiate a force that is absolutely undeniable.
But the Occupy movement hasn't always been peaceful. Anger is a step up from being a victim where you feel powerless -- and isn't that what is at play here, whether it's from tyranny or subjugation? Anger is a reminder that something wants to change -- and once that awareness has arisen, which it clearly has, it bursts onto the scene like a boxer bouncing off the ropes, with single-minded determination to prevail.
Inconceivable opportunity arrives when mass consciousness evolves through connection to the indefinable power of Peace. This energy of peace resonating from the heart, sees no differences between people, religions, ideology, age or culture; people are valued more than the 'things' that are deemed necessary by those who are blindly focused on greed and solely their own survival.
The fact that this movement has begun without any specific agenda is not foolish. It's brilliant! Out of nothing, everything is created; leaving space for pure potential and possibility. If the movement had claimed one specific cause, it wouldn't have opened the door for others to join who also want to see intrinsic structural change developed worldwide.
Many of today's grievances are genuine and essential global concerns for establishing universal rights in the interconnected world we share. As people become unified, massive shifts that ultimately serve our joint interests will be instigated.
If the base of Occupy is to grow, violence will need to be viewed for what it is -- old patterns that don't support the rise of solutions. Dialogue that resonates from the heart invites new ideas to be birthed. When anger and fear diminish, more will join.
For the brave souls who sit on the streets today with hope in their hearts, know that you have already established a light in the darkness where exploitation, greed and destruction have reigned for so long. Imagine an end to those times.
PEACE delivers -- from the inside out. You can change the world are not empty words. As the innate power of peace expands within each of us, nothing can stop that invisible force from its destiny, to create lasting change around the world and peace that illumines the heart of all.
Follow Marlise Karlin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/marlisekarlin
-these brave souls and the world will see how the 1% will exploit this cause to their advantage. The 1% Think Tanks around the world are evaluating,formulating,conniving, planning. Unless this movement can police itself and be vigilant of infaltrators ( ie: anarchists) bent on shock versus peaceful protesting than the corporate controlled media will have their visuals and sound bites. Check out Toronto's G20 fiasco ,give police forces a reason and they will use there power, hell they train for these moments. Goodluck-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zboZGb0N6FM
I've seen that very point used to hammer home the idea that the Occupy movement doesn't have clear demands, which is resulting in less effectiveness for their cause. However, what I've also seen from this is the myriad of "issues" that people across this country (indeed around the world) have, that cannot simply be summed up in a pithy mission statement.
There are some major breakdowns in this world, and lets face... people are tired of sitting back and doing nothing, saying nothing. There comes a time when a person needs to stand up and say "No More"
And as I'm sure you know, there are many... many... kinds of challenges we're facing collectively and individually as a result of "business as usual". And although this movement is new, and as it takes shape and matures, and crystallizes its message... that power you speak of... through peace... can sure help to support a movement who's time has seemingly come. Thank You.
The force of peace can shift a slow moving train to an express ride. I believe many, many people want to see change that lasts, restructuring that aims to support an environment where people are valued over 'things'. Yes, i do think that time has come.