Posts tagged ows
If we want a revolution in culture, we liberate ourselves from an outlook that blinds us from our already abounding creative resources.
Occucrats—Notes on a future that looks different from today
Occucrats are your friends, at least today they are. As for tomorrow, or in twenty years? Who’s to say? As a history of movements have—Occupiers will grow, morph, change, and evolve in to different beliefs and practices. Don’t we all know more than a few hippies, that traded in their workin’ class denim for a smart pair of khakis? You know, “Nimbie”s who protected their suburban backyard, while the “Pibbies” got overlooked. I mean, how did we become a more conscious nation, with a greening attitude, meanwhile asthma rates shot through the roof in Harlem’s backyard? Nevertheless, we are making progress.
Take a look at our two most common political platforms. One used to hold the values of the other… they swapped. Who knows where the ripples of the Occupy Movement will take us in a few decades? It could fizzle in five, or be the messy and chaotic beginnings of something grand, or grandly disastrous. Who knows? The women’s suffrage movement faced improbable odds of validation, yet they fought on not knowing how they would touch the future. We could be looking at an Occupy Movement, or moment, or the future party of Occucrats. Do we recall the NWP? The National Women’s Party was a force in it’s day… it certainly inconvenienced a Nation, and a political system that left their best interests out of its majority initiatives.
What’s that stuff called? Primordial ooze! We came from that, and my don’t we love our eco-friendly cars, and iPads, and political beliefs. A lot can happen over the course of billions of years. I seem to recall when I was just a little boy learning about politics and the constitution, coming home and excitingly sharing with my parents what I learned. My mother telling me that she only had the right to vote for the last fifteen years. What? That places her in her mid-thirties before she was able to have a voice and vote of influence in this country.
The point is, we have two things going on here—we have a process, and we have perspectives.
Now, I don’t need to focus on how that is so wrong, rather, I can choose to focus (not blindly) how far we’ve come. And yes, look what we have done—here, here. The point is, we have two things going on here—we have a process, and we have perspectives.
The process is as good as any one’s beliefs. Sure, there is a set (or multiple) of political theory that say generally what this Occupy movement is, and where it may lead. But the truth is, the future is anyone’s guess. Some theorists will be proven correct, and others not. So what do we have, if we don’t know the future? We have today.
Movements of the past… began without popular support, and inconvenienced an entire nation
The Occupy Movement is very valid. Everyone is talking about it. And otherwise validation comes from its national foothold, and global roots. Whether it is helping or harming, we simply don’t know. What seems valid today,becomes passé tomorrow. What is seen as reason in Colonial Rule, is deemed an atrocity in post modernity. What is now seen as morally unacceptable today, only became so over time.
Movements of the past that began without popular support, and inconvenienced an entire nation, eventually led to greater freedom, and expansive, inclusive autonomy for, in this case, an ethnic group—under colonial, post-colonial, and modernity’s rule—whose interests, and well being were far from being a concern of political parties and business leaders. Take that scenario, and place it in several key points in American history that opened our Nation into greater unity. Why the unity? Because more people were awakening to what was morally acceptable. What did these people do? Well, if you have all of your freedoms, and you’re living on the plus side of life, all you have to do is vote. Whereas, if you’re among the oppressed, you fight. The fight doesn’t necessarily mean fisticuffs, it simply means standing up for your beliefs. And you don’t do that by staying in your own neck of the woods—you occupy the center.
When black folks were being hung from trees like a sport (another scenario that happened at more than one key point in history), did you see the likes of Frederick Douglas or Martin Luther King Jr. hit cruise control on the crusade for freedom? No. That’s when you PUSH! But we’ve gotten comfortable, we’ve gotten intimidated, we’re waiting for someone to do it for us. We’ve fallen into a state of disbelief, that there’s no way we can change things. Gosh, what if Harriet Tubman would have thought that?
We don’t even have to risk our lives, in the same way, to get our perspectives heard. So what’s our big deal? Why would it take us until the point of our lives being threatened before we commit to some action? Not to say that is what we’re delaying on. We’re all responsible for what’s going on in this country, and world. Let’s get over the guilt and shame. Let’s surpass the degenerative nature of blaming.
The other thing we’re talking about is perspective.
These are steps towards taking action. There are many processes happening within a larger Universal process, at any point we a free to create a new one. But be sure to give it time to unfold, and always challenge your moral integrity in way that is prolific. The other thing we’re talking about is perspective.
Why do I example these instances that have taken place over a wide swath of time? I believe that a conditioning effect of American culture is this sense of expectancy. We expect a return on investment almost immediately. Our focused perspective, is concentrated, narrowed, impatient.
Can you imagine being born into slavery? How about being a 5th or 6th generation slave, but never letting go of your dreams of freedom? And then one day the opportunity strikes, and you go for it!
We’re no different, in that we were born into a particular perspective. But when we realize that we are dissatisfied on an honest to goodness moral level, its not that there is anything wrong, it is just that consciously we are outgrowing our perspective. You could see it as a good thing, we could still be living in a time when people lost their lives for stealing a loaf of bread. We were born into this way of life folks, and it will take an extreme amount of courage to see our way out of it, into new unchartered territory.
July 12, 1887 The city of Mound Bayou, Mississippi was founded as an independent black community by formerly enslaved people led by Isaiah Montgomery. Montgomery led the town through the 1920s. The population according to the 2000 census is 2,100 and 98.4% African American, one of the largest African American majority populations in the country. (Source: Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History)
I share this in hopes of reaching the #OWS stream…
Change in the face of what seems impossible, is possible. Revolution isn’t always about destruction… sometimes you have to bravely go out there and create something NEW, as you imagine. This is a decade before Plessy Vs. Ferguson (legalizing segregation, making way for Jim Crow laws).
I’m sure it wasn’t perfect, most likely dealt with some unsavory’s… but the place still exists today.
By Jordan Luftig "As with God, So with Money"—compelling look at #Occupy Movement
Jordan was one of my Professors at JFKU… he has a way of eloquently breaking down, what sometimes appear as conundrums. From loaded subjects like Phenomenology, POST-metaphysics, and the current state of the Occupy Movement.
As with God, So with Money? Luftig reminds us that Modern Revolutionaries dethroned the fear [the “rule”] of God, in its place came Capitalism. Inquisitions, [Monarchies], Holy Wars—the Founding Fathers had enough. In the New World would be free markets, [the demise of serfdom], and the rise of free minds.
There was a total rejection of a system of living—although elements of God and religion remain—but not with the omnipresent oppressive power of late.
Jordon closes the article with a rejoinder to criticisms that the Occupy Movement lacks direction and purpose. As with the Founding Fathers, so with the Millennials (et.al):
The Occupy movement has made a point of operating independent of existing institutions of power because it protests our entire institutionalized way of life. It rejects the materialistic values and the coldhearted, self-interested, you’re-either-a-winner-or-a-loser culture of business, politics, modern life. Period.
That the Occupiers have made no demands has prompted observers to criticize the movement for failing to offer a new vision. The confusion is understandable, and the critics can be forgiven. No demand is big enough for the Occupiers’ intention. The Occupiers envision a true revolution. Their movement has a mission: dethrone the corporate kings of modernity. Give birth to a new, post-modern age of humanity.
This is the real, incredible, unfolding story.
WW OWS DO?
Life is a messy, complex, and chaotic process. We don’t know what we got, ‘til we get it. That said, correcting a path that began hundreds of years ago—a path that has disenchanted people for as long as its been going… this will take time. For all we know, OWS is just the beginning of some kind of larger awakening at the level of culture. The fact that OWS went viral in our country, and then went global, is nothing to blink an eye at. How beautiful it was to see the diversity of individuals—a congregation that obliterated the meaning of coming together based on majority and minority, ethnicity, sex or orientation. Onward…
photo credit: damien crisp
Notes On: An Evolutionary Perspective of Occupy Wall Street
Every movement has an antithesis. In fact, see Movement and Antithesis as two components of one thing. Between the two is tension. Tension is an absolute necessary in the creative process. Nothing evolves without an impetus. Nothing evolves without an objective.
Cultures continue to evolve for this reason. Cultures have continued to evolve and grow because collectively we know we can do better. Collectivity is consciousness; a shared knowing that is both material and intersubjective.
Using a simplistic example, there are American cultural habits that we continue to pass up through generations without being told to do so. That Collective Conscious will probably differ from say a Middle Eastern culture. However, between the two is our humanity, and that is the largest cultural perspective on the immediate horizon (the next is a cosmocentric).
When we grow dissatisfied with something IN culture, there is always a deep interior knowing that change has to come. We typically name the objects in culture (ie Wall St), of course we would… Because it is ready-to-hand; closest to our cognitive grasp. But digging deeper we will find the true impetus. This, that we Are… Wants to Evolve more than anything else. Consciousness, the Collective “value” of organisms is always expanding (cultural perspectives), it is always including more with or without our explicit knowing.
In reference to the OWS movement we see that the collective is growing physically in it’s representation. The demands point to the ready-to-hand manifest object things that more of us wish to change, however, the true unifying force points much deeper. Consciously, collectively we know we can do better.
When you see corruption, you have to seek truth. If not you choose to live with hypocrisy.
SIX PRINCIPLES OF NONVIOLENCE
Fundamental tenets of Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence described in his first book, Stride Toward Freedom. The six principles include:
- Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. It is a positive force confronting the forces of injustice, and utilizes the righteous indignation and the spiritual, emotional and intellectual capabilities of people as the vital force for change and reconciliation.
- The Beloved Community is the framework for the future. The nonviolent concept is an overall effort to achieve a reconciled world by raising the level of relationships among people to a height where justice prevails and persons attain their full human potential.
- Attack forces of evil, not persons doing evil. The nonviolent approach helps one analyze the fundamental conditions, policies and practices of the conflict rather than reacting to one’s opponents or their personalities.
- Accept suffering without retaliation for the sake of the cause to achieve the goal. Self-chosen suffering is redemptive and helps the movement grow in a spiritual as well as a humanitarian dimension. The moral authority of voluntary suffering for a goal communicates the concern to one’s own friends and community as well as to the opponent.
- Avoid internal violence of the spirit as well as external physical violence. The nonviolent attitude permeates all aspects of the campaign. It provides mirror type reflection of the reality of the condition to one’s opponent and the community at large. Specific activities must be designed to help maintain a high level of spirit and morale during a nonviolent campaign.
- The universe is on the side of justice. Truth is universal and human society and each human being is oriented to the just sense of order of the universe. The fundamental values in all of the world’s great religious include the concept that the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. For the nonviolent practitioner, nonviolence introduces a new moral context in which nonviolence is both the means and the end.
SIX STEPS OF NONVIOLENT SOCIAL CHANGE
A sequential process of nonviolent conflict-resolution and social change based on Dr. King’s teachings. The Six Steps of Nonviolence developed by The King Center include:
- Information Gathering – The way you determine the facts, the optiosn for change, and the timing of pressure for raising the issue is a collective process.
- Education – The process for developing articulate leaders, who are knowledgeable about the issues. It is directed toward the community through all forms of media about the real issues and human consequences of an unjust situation.
- Personal Commitment – Means looking at your internal and external involvement in the nonviolent campaign and preparing yourself for long-term as well as short-term action.
- Negotiation – Is the art of bringing together your views and those of your opponent to arrive at a just conclusion or clarify the unresolved issues, at which point, the conflict is formalized.
- Direct Action – Occurs when negotiations have broken down or failed to produce a just response to the contested issues and conditions.
- Reconciliation – Is the mandatory closing step of a campaign, when the opponents and proponents celebrate the victory and provide joint leadership to implement change.
We often view the Six Steps as a phases or cycles of a campaign rather than steps because each of them embodies a cluster or series of activities related to each of the other five elements.
The Most Powerful #OccupyWallStreet Clip You Will See This Month
0 plays
Blessed are those who struggle. Oppression is worse than the grave. Better to die a noble cause, than to live and die a slave.
The Last Poets “Blessed are Those Who Struggle”
Not that anyone should think about dying over Wall Street, or violent protest. This is a song about emancipation, about waking up to This. It is about taking a stand, and honoring those who took a stand before us, and said No to the status quo.
