Now that most cities have caught on to removing your encampments do not accept defeat and go back to your cave.
Now is the time for you to organize on a intellectual level where you utilize the power of money to your advantage.
Your protests should be held in front of McDonald’s and anywhere Coca Cola is sold.
Your sit ins should be in front of Apple Stores, The Gap and Old Navy, and any other corporation that does not respect humanity.
USE YOUR POWER IN NUMBERS AND YOUR BUYING POWER AS CONSUMERS TO BOYCOTT PRODUCTS.
LET YOUR SIT INS BE PUBLICIZED ON SPECIFIC ISSUES OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND MOTHER EARTH.
Here are some links to discover the truth;
You certainly have started a campaign of awareness, but now you must hit the ball out of the park and make the world change through the power of consumer buying power.
As Aristotle once said “Anger is a gift”….now use it !
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KkUeRPjc-Y 450 300]It’s empty in the valley of your heart
The sun, it rises slowly as you walk
Away from all the fears
And all the faults you’ve left behind
The harvest left no food for you to eat
You cannibal, you meat-eater, you see
But I have seen the same
I know the shame in your defeat
But I will hold on hope
And I won’t let you choke
On the noose around your neck
And I’ll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I’ll know my name as it’s called again
Cause I have other things to fill my time
You take what is yours and I’ll take mine
Now let me at the truth
Which will refresh my broken mind
So tie me to a post and block my ears
I can see widows and orphans through my tears
I know my call despite my faults
And despite my growing fears
But I will hold on hope
And I won’t let you choke
On the noose around your neck
And I’ll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I’ll know my name as it’s called again
So come out of your cave walking on your hands
And see the world hanging upside down
You can understand dependence
When you know the maker’s hand
So make your siren’s call
And sing all you want
I will not hear what you have to say
Cause I need freedom now
And I need to know how
To live my life as it’s meant to be
And I will hold on hope
And I won’t let you choke
On the noose around your neck
And I’ll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I’ll know my name as it’s called again
I was hoping to do a post on what “went wrong” with #OWS, but you beat me too it. The Last 30 years have basically been protest free in this country, so all of the grassroots leaders of past protests are either politicians, lawyers, or just plain old citizens. Even Howard Zinn has passed on to the other side.
While the #OWS crews should read a People’s History to “get schooled”, it certainly is NOT sufficient to mount an effective effort. I really believe the the original creators of #OWS (their name escapes me at the present moment), did a great disservice to their cause by using the word “occupy”. It’s not really about occupying anything. It’s about effecting change.
I could go on and on. The tea party, even if it is much astroturf, did many, many things things right. Could you imagine that they would have been taken seriously if they called themselves “Occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue”?
Anonymous
Yogi,
#OWS should only be a start. The word occupy is meant to effect change by creating commotion and attention. Sort of like a strike.
#OWS in my mind is being taken seriously. It is the media and those who fear it that are trying to discredit and trivialize it.
That is in effect racism, class ism, or a way to categorically put down the movement.
#OWS needs to take it o the next level.
I think collectively we the people can use our buying power as a weapon to affect change.
Imagine the entire U.S. decided to boycott a product or companies services. Change would happen immediately.
In place of Zinn you now have John Perkins and there is still Noam Chomsky.
I met Howard quite a few times. Chomsky once at a party. He took a sprouts with cheese sandwich. I don’t recall the bread or the type of cheese…
I find the vitriolic reactions to Zinn quite amusing. I was a not more than a foot away from him as he recounted his experiences as a bombardier during WWII. How that man I heard, can provoke such reactions with his words is a testament to the power of words and ideas.
I agree that voting with one’s feet or purse is the most effective means of dissent in our society today. Even if the #OWS movement flames out, the issues that sparked the anger will remain and will surely give rise to new leaders and movements.
the path to truth is a long road. only in numbers can it be made long lasting and sustainable.
I could support #OWS if I didn’t believe it will inevitably lead to a larger gov’t and less individual freedom.
Not to mention “burning down New York” is not a very good platform.
Wood – Imagine if they only educated their followers how to “vote with their feet”. In a free market economy, it’s the most effective tool we have. Governments can be bought, as ours has. Individual citizens can have a great impact. Look at $NFLX. It’s the perfect example of the power that individuals can have against corporations that they disagree with.
Great points raised by both Yogi and cronkite.
What made #OWS successful was in having occupiers synchronize events all over the country, making full use of real-time social media, kinda of like organizing a giant flash-mob, much like what we saw with the Arab Spring events.
Before now it’s been tough to organize large scale protests since email is a little slow, and technology was not that accessible to everyone in the recent past compared to now.
The fact the economy has been doing better up until 2008 also explains why we haven’t had large scale protests since the Vietnam war. With disgust at politicians and Wall Street and high unemployment there was a larger pool of dissatisfied people to be recruited into the #OWS activities.
However, just because you can organize a giant flash mob doesn’t mean you can wield that power effectively.
Where #OWS failed to be sustainable was a matter of the facts: the demands were not focused, and there were not enough unhappy people to join their cause. Plus the actions of #OWS were ironically impacting the lives of people who had nothing to do with greedy enterprises, so that was also reducing public support.
In contrast, the one successful sub-movement was the Bank Transfer Day movement, which is more along the lines of what Cronkite is advocating. Consumers not satisfied with banking services and fees moved their accounts en mass to the credit unions.
Events like Bank Transfer day movements are more of what we need to see, since:
1) The movement was effective and caused economic change;
2) No police involvement was required, which indirectly reduces taxpayer’s expense;
3) City and public infrastructure were not negatively impacted, like with #OWS
4) Consumers benefited from the actions since they got better deals;
5) The banks now have to rethink their commercial banking operations, which is also economically efficient;
THIS IS HORSESHIT
Look on the bright side. It gets comments. Something I can’t seem to generate over in the blogger network. Jeez, I can’t even get posters to respond to my comments.
BANNED?
You can feel for the anger all you want.
OWS may have the heart and the soul, but they haven’t got the talent.
I look at that crowd and think one word – primal.
It’s comical seeing the progression of the group; it started as a completely leaderless entity. Oh but wait, then necessity dictated the creation of some basic rules and regulation.
Oh, hey, can’t have the entire body deciding each and every little thing, let’s create an oversight committee that can handle the small stuff and “the people” will just vote on the big stuff.
Wait, now the goods and wealth are being hogged by a select few? And not all resources and being distributed evenly? Idiot drummers versus hippy librarians?
These trollops might have rediscovered capitalism, if they were permitted to keep at it long enough.
There are a many rules that they broke. First off, don’t piss off the cops. Second, don’t piss off the neighbors. Third, don’t piss off the workers walking through the neighborhood trying to get to their job.
Like I said, I could go on, but they would never listen.