Jacket, Pocket.

slaughterhousefive:

There’s a problem with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Half the articles I’ve seen written by major news sites have stated that from what they can tell, there is no basic call for anything. And I agree with them. There’s no demand. I hate to make it sound like they’re holding Wall Street ransom, but isn’t that what they’re effectively trying to do?

Granted, the exact purpose of the movement was a debate that got shunted to the side in the face of the taped police brutality. But even their website(s?) don’t seem to offer even an explanation of why they’re doing what they’re doing or what the organization stands for. Even their first attempts at what they’re calling for are so maddeningly vague it makes me want to scream. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the idea entirely. But that’s the problem. It feels like they’re still stuck on an idea. It feels like a bunch of people got angry one night and walked over to Wall Street yelling random things and cliche slogans and once they got there they realized they didn’t know what they wanted. How exactly does anyone propose to bring about this justice? What are your ideas? What are your demands? The impetus behind any successful kind of protest begins first and foremost with a demand. Anger is coming from injustice, but anger and action are nothing without thought behind them and a means by which we are to move forward. If you don’t even have a goal, then opponents don’t even have to argue with you. They just have to laugh at you. Meanwhile on CNN, there are only photos of Occupy Wall Street, and they’re next to an actual headline and article that reads “Man bitten by shark despite warning.” Surely, this isn’t OccupyWallStreet’s fault, but the point is I don’t think they’re being taken very seriously, and that’s a problem, and the fact that they aren’t being taken very seriously is in large part OccupyWallStreet’s fault. This from the LA Times:

Now, its settlement has gelled into an organized community that hums along almost Zen-like, coexisting with the city that rages around it and ignored by many either too busy or too uninterested to stop. Harried commuters seem to barely notice the mishmash of humanity a few feet away as they rush down the sidewalks skirting the park.

Tourists stroll in to snap pictures and read the protest signs scattered across the ground, then wander off to their next sightseeing stop. Executives drop in on lunch breaks to talk politics and economics. Police hang back on the sidewalks, and follow along when groups of protesters stage marches.

Protest numbers vary as people drift in and out of the park. Some live in the area and come by for a few hours each day or week. Others stay there around the clock, their sleeping bags, guitars and clothing bundles spread on the ground. On Wednesday, they included a sleepy-eyed young man in a rumpled T-shirt cuddling a pet rat, and a woman who pranced about in her underwear.

There are committees, including one for finance, food and comfort, which ensures that anyone who needs blankets, dry clothing or perhaps a hug gets it. There are twice-daily meetings called general assemblies, where anyone can make a brief announcement. The assemblies draw everyone together in a tight huddle. To avoid violating a ban on bullhorns, the crowd obediently repeats in unison every phrase uttered by the main speaker, to ensure everyone hears. [bold mine]

And when you occupy a park just for the sake of occupying a park, you’re not a protest anymore. You’re homeless. If you want to be taken seriously as a political movement, you have to move beyond this sort of thing. You can’t be associated solely with sleeping in parks, topless women dancing, and a guy who sounds like he’s homeless with one of your expressed dreams being to eventually acquire office space. And frankly, it makes me angry, because I believe in the same things a lot of these people believe in, but nothing is going to get done by standing on a street and shouting vague slogans. The banks and politicians walk by in their suits and laugh and don’t care because they see that this is their opposition and they are unimpressed.

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   First of all, dipshit, I wrote this post, not marxisforbros, and I’m an American. And to answer your question, yes, I...

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15. bloodsugarsexmagic said: Their problem isn’t really a lack of thought put into a singular demand but rather a multitude of demands and no one demand has dominated their force. Also, as this protest continues, it seems to only generate more and more attention.
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    Americans cannot do anything right

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