Isn’t it ironic how something like Occupy Wall Street (https://occupywallst.org/) that was met with such official disdain, such condescension, so totally ignored by the mainstream media still continues, and is growing?
This blog began as a place for sharing ideas for getting by, finding a job, surviving without one, keeping body and soul together, a building community, while raising a little hell along the way. As the general economic, political, and cultural climate continued to deteriorate it was hard for me to come up with hopeful, helpful things to say. I mean, what’s the point of clipping coupons when massive, indifferent or even malevolent forces were (and remain) poised to do so much harm to so many for the benefit of so few? But perhaps maybe, just maybe. That is changing. So, some reactions from an old guy who was born just a bit too late to fully experience the hippie movement, whose legacy still drives so much of what we see.
When I look at the protesters on Wall Street, I realize that is has been a long time since I was this proud of ordinary American citizens. These people are passionate, articulate, smart, creative, courageous, and determined.
These protesters are as far removed from the teabaggers as you can get. What’s more, they are bucking the conventional wisdom of their own leaders on the Left, who agree that public protests are no longer effective because the media studiously ignores them. While the media is ignoring Occupy Wall Street, the movement is growing (http://occupytogether.org). People are finding out about it. Today over 100 NYPD refused to work in support of the protest. The New York Transit Workers Union has voted to support the protest. Other, similar protests are popping up across the country.
These protesters are also different from teabaggers and many other kinds of protesters because they are not “single issue” fanatics. They have an actual list of things they are fighting for. No sound bites, no slick simplistic slogan that articulates their demands in seven seconds or less. These people are the best kind of rule-breakers. They didn’t ask permission, they didn’t get the permits, they just showed up to make their point until they are heard.
Where the teabaggers provided unintended comedy to observers around the world, Occupy Wall Street is earning their respect.
Because of that, and because their protest is growing in spite of corporate media silence or derision, I hold out hope that they have started to change the information dynamics. For a long time, political discourse has gradually become indistinguishable from advertising. You had to go through certain media channels to be heard, and those channels had their gatekeepers. Corporate media is increasingly irrelevant, both because its lame content and pandering make it untrustworthy, and because it is now easier to circumvent.
People don’t like to be afraid. There comes a time when the fear of rising up is less than the fear associated with everyday living. Maybe we have crossed that threshold.
Economics cannot be decoupled from morals. A national budget is a moral document first, a fiscal document second. This protest, this nascent movement, is a moral uprising. It is the right thing to do.
Join one of the many protests springing up around the country. Be there. If you can’t be there, find other ways to support it. Years later, you will be proud to have been part of it.
And finally, I will say it again…
The hippies were right.
PS: Next stop, Washington, DC. October 6th, 2011. Be there.
http://october2011.org
