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Occupy is a Social Movement. Every social movement in history goes through the same phases.
1. A problem is realized.
2. Civil unrest occurs.
3. The movement grows.
From here, one of two things ALWAYS occurs:
A. The movement organizes and identifies leaders with clear vision, message & goals (Ghandi, ML King etc...) and continues to grow - eventually realizing significant change on a permanent basis.
OR
B. The movement does not organize and develops no clear vision, message or goals. Constant in-fighting, lack of vision and lack of a clearly understandable message causes the movement to lose momentum and eventually fail.
Occupy is at the turning point. Either "A" or "B" IS going to occur. There is no getting around it. I have been to camps and talked with people around the country is "B" is the overwhelming trend. Lots of bickering, contradiction and nothing getting done. A dozen different ideas about goals that should be pursued with nothing ever being done about any of them.
Guess what? If this doesn't change, we're going to fail. Period.
Lawmakers aren't going to change things because people in tents bang on drums. That got their attention but it won't get action. Have you seen a single piece of legislation introduced or discussed to address any of the goals of OWS? No. Because no one knows what the hell the movement wants. Ask 50 Occupiers, you get 40 different messages. Violence, Destruction, Law-Breaking and Rape are what the media prefers to cover because it's sensational and increases ratings. At least until someone is able to say "I speak for Occupy and here is our message."
CEO's certainly aren't going to give up their multi-million dollar jobs or stop making profits. They would be foolish to do so. Their jobs is to make profits. That's why they're hired. It's a matter of making it worth it, for them to look at the human cost of those profits. But banging on drums won't amke them think about this.
So it's time for some of us to start something new. We don't need to disassociate ourselves from OWS but we do need to create something that people can understand and get behind. If we don't, the movement will definitely fail.
We cannot take over companies. There is no peaceful, legal way to do so. So our only alternative is to go after our corrupt government. You can bang on drums or write a thousand posts about why this should be repealed or that should occur but until you develop a clear vision and get people into action toward those specific goals, you will accomplish nothing.
Most of you will read this and do nothing. To those of you ready to do something: Time for us to network and organize. To develop a clear message & vision. To educate people on the change we seek and why that will be good for them. Otherwise, why should they care? They need to know the difference between capitlaism and consumerism. Between a Democratic Republic and a Corporatacracy.
I don't care if you want to lead or you want me to. But we need leadership or we're nothing more than a novelty. Time to organize a political force to be reckoned with. Contact me. Let's talk about how to build voter blocs. Develop a clear message. Make permanent change and history in the process.
minilo1978@yahoo.com
I think that while your flow
Submitted by invictus99 on
I think that while your flow chart makes sense for past social movements, you are jumping the gun here. This movement is 2 months old. The Civil Rights movement also had infighting and it took years for anything in terms of legislation to be accomplished. I encourage you to stop looking at Occupy through the lens of a consumer and start looking at it through the lens of a human being. This is not some corporate funded, bullet pointed, official press released movement. This is 100% grassroots so it is only natural that after just 2 short months, the movement is still plugging along and trying to define itself. And, contrary to what you say here about not having leaders and "infighting" I actually believe that it is a strength of the movement to have many leaders. That way the opposition cannot committ character assassination on one person and have the entire movement undermined. Also, the infighting is a natural part of democracy. We are all learning how to exist in a more horizontal platform. I don't see internal conflict as a problem but rather a more realistic approach to life. It is how we handle that conflict that counts. And even if the process is clunky, there are still quite a few proposals that do gain consensus in GAs around the country. And you also see coordinated efforts of Occupy camps working together like the West Coast port shutdown.
I would gently advise you to stop being a pessimist. Great deeds are never easy and when people are this passionate there is bound to be disagreement. But it can and is being worked through. And also, people need to vent about it. That's called transparency. There is nothing wrong with being frustrated by the process.
I absolutely disagree that this is the point in which the movement succeeds or fails. But, if we all took such a pessimistic view, then we would absolutely fail. I will always choose the path of optimism.
Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. -Howard Zinn
"I encourage you to stop
Submitted by typicalowsguy on
"I encourage you to stop looking at Occupy through the lens of a consumer and start looking at it through the lens of a human being."
Seriously? You're going to go with a cliche label because I express views that don't conform to yours?
As far as being a pessimist, that's not the case. It's not like Occupy Indy is running smoothly or even at all. It's falling apart. Same with Occupy Las Vegas. And so on.
If you ask the average person on the street what OWS actually wants, what do you think they're saying? I'll tell you. They're saying that OWS wants to turn us into the Soviet Union, that it's anti-capitalism, that OWS has no CLUE what they want - they're just a bunch of spoiled brats, rapists and people who crap on sidewalks making a fuss.
What did the Civil Rights Movement want? EVERYONE knew right away. They may have opposed it but the purpose of the movement was clear to them. The Civil Rights movement had in-fighting etc... but at least people knew what they were about. The same is true of every social movement that ever actually succeeded.
No one knows wtf OWS wants unless they're IN ows. Income inequality? Really? And so our goal is what? To tell companies how much they can pay their execs? Good luck with that. I'm about taking control of our government back from those corporations. Until we reverse that trend NOTHING will be accomplished because we sure can't take over the corps. But is what I want, what OWS wants? Hell, I don't know. NO ONE KNOWS.
That's the difference between OWS and social movements that have succeeded and if it doesn't change, all that "healthy conflict" will insure OWS' place as the answer to a question in Trivial Pursuit 21st Century Edition.
I Feel You're On The Right Track
Submitted by SoulRebel on
You and I share similar frustrations about the potency of this movement. I consider myself a (1) Diplomat and (2) soldier. But when my rights are being violated and my People are suffering, diplomacy takes a back seat, while the soldier in me plans decisive actions to fix the problem. When it comes to social justice, that complicates things, but I still feel we should at least ponder a more aggressive approach.
If someone's reading this and is about to flip out over what I just said, I urge you not to. There's actually a methodology to my proposal, so please give me the courtesy of explaining it before you cut me down. I am certainly not proposing doing anything absurd - I simply propose that we match the strength of the oppostion used against us.
I would lay it out, but I'd like to get a temperature check before discussing it further. For more background on what I'm about, please check out the forum topic entitled "The Old Way Doesn't Work".
Agreed
Submitted by Occupier0530 on
I think most of us feel under represented by our governement, which stems from the powerful influence of lobbying firms, corporations, and special interests. I think the movement should draw up logical steps to make change. The first of which is working on getting Citizen's United Reversed (aka getting an amendment to the constitution in order). After that, the 99% can actually influence ideas in D.C., Sacremento and downtown L.A. such that our other concerns can be given the appropriate time and discussion they need. However, we can not just spray demands at the public and expect them to react. We need to say, we need this change so this other thing can change...
A_Moderate
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