comment I just made on sagemerlin's blog:
Lots of advice to the so many young kids down at the occupying sites for not knowing and doing more ... when the arc of their learning has not had the advantages of time and experience we have had and even the college educations we had. We armchair directors, many of us.
Give me young and confused primarily kids with some wizened older frustrated hippies still intrepid and willing to risk arrest over the pragmatic Obamacrats and even those who disdain them but play it safe spouting their wisdom from SAFETY but imperiousness.
My generation had college group think that went after the Viet Nam War after how many millions dead, but then our generation sure dropped the ball after Cheney and cockroaches saw America look away and seriously continued building the fascist state and dismantling the fourth estate. Our boomer poster boy, Bill C., was willing to throw Glass-Steagall under the bus, so he was and still is a MAJOR sell out as is his wife, war mongerer extraordinaire, anything for power I guess.
When people giving advice to the occupation actually begin calling themselves occupiers and joining with them directly, when THEY reach that tipping point, there is hope. Otherwise, I wonder how many of the hardy and awake and angry souls at Zuccotti, say, caught pneumonia or hypothermia last Saturday, as our New York City sadistic powers that be picked that day to get rid of the heat generators, just in time for the frigid cold and snow.
I am ashamed of my generation. We had potential, but ego and money and patriarchal cronyism seduced. Now we have a corrupt charade instead of democracy.
Don't blame the kids who recognize crap, SO MUCH CRAP. They need help. Finally the occupy movement is an umbrella organization and the lefty spines can organize beneath it if they are smart and get as committed as the kids.
I was hoping the Green Party could do that, be the big umbrella. It has the structure in place for a third party candidate, etc. And some older generation brave souls. But the Green Party has the divisive history with Nader running against Gore and the circular firing squad Dems can't get over that even though Nader was right, that Gore's party was just as big a sell-out as the Republicans in terms of being pimped by the oligarchs, and many of the Greens are soberly angry at Israel about Palestine, etc. and Americans don't want to go there, since that issue triggers so much stress and breaks up cronyism. So safer not to take up that issue and remain coolly removed and cherry pick our dissatisfactions with those actually committing to save our human rights in this country.
The older generation is too chicken sh*t to really go after the huge hypocrisies and travesties imho. And the kids willing to take on the adult generation of deniers or chickens get crapped on by both groups. Pragmatic Obamacrats and those less in denial but uncommitted as Kenneth Keniston wrote about so long ago.
So let the occupiers twist in the wind, and then blame them later when the movement fails.
Time to catch up with the kids, not wetblanket them. Imho!!!!
Give me young and confused primarily kids with some wizened older frustrated hippies still intrepid and willing to risk arrest over the pragmatic Obamacrats and even those who disdain them but play it safe spouting their wisdom from SAFETY but imperiousness.
My generation had college group think that went after the Viet Nam War after how many millions dead, but then our generation sure dropped the ball after Cheney and cockroaches saw America look away and seriously continued building the fascist state and dismantling the fourth estate. Our boomer poster boy, Bill C., was willing to throw Glass-Steagall under the bus, so he was and still is a MAJOR sell out as is his wife, war mongerer extraordinaire, anything for power I guess.
When people giving advice to the occupation actually begin calling themselves occupiers and joining with them directly, when THEY reach that tipping point, there is hope. Otherwise, I wonder how many of the hardy and awake and angry souls at Zuccotti, say, caught pneumonia or hypothermia last Saturday, as our New York City sadistic powers that be picked that day to get rid of the heat generators, just in time for the frigid cold and snow.
I am ashamed of my generation. We had potential, but ego and money and patriarchal cronyism seduced. Now we have a corrupt charade instead of democracy.
Don't blame the kids who recognize crap, SO MUCH CRAP. They need help. Finally the occupy movement is an umbrella organization and the lefty spines can organize beneath it if they are smart and get as committed as the kids.
I was hoping the Green Party could do that, be the big umbrella. It has the structure in place for a third party candidate, etc. And some older generation brave souls. But the Green Party has the divisive history with Nader running against Gore and the circular firing squad Dems can't get over that even though Nader was right, that Gore's party was just as big a sell-out as the Republicans in terms of being pimped by the oligarchs, and many of the Greens are soberly angry at Israel about Palestine, etc. and Americans don't want to go there, since that issue triggers so much stress and breaks up cronyism. So safer not to take up that issue and remain coolly removed and cherry pick our dissatisfactions with those actually committing to save our human rights in this country.
The older generation is too chicken sh*t to really go after the huge hypocrisies and travesties imho. And the kids willing to take on the adult generation of deniers or chickens get crapped on by both groups. Pragmatic Obamacrats and those less in denial but uncommitted as Kenneth Keniston wrote about so long ago.
So let the occupiers twist in the wind, and then blame them later when the movement fails.
Time to catch up with the kids, not wetblanket them. Imho!!!!
---------------
Libby ~ great points made here about the Occupy movement. I read about the generators being taken away by the FDNY and NYPD, although I believe they weren't providing heat, only for keeping communications equipment going and recharging batteries, etc. Some figured the city was emboldened after watching protesters being treated like their 1st Amendment rights did not matter in some other cities. The generation that was in its teens in the '60s has much to answer for now that many of them have had positions of control for many years!
Lib, I've been advocating that protesters chant, "USA, USA. USA" when the cops look like they want to get aggressive or start arresting people, etc.. Also to make leaflets with bullet points quoting the testimony of ex-NY cop, Stephen Anderson from two weeks ago which showed that New York police AND their superivisors engage WIDESPREAD practice of falsely arresting innocent people and planting evidence in order to make their "arrest quotas" AND get overtime pay.
I also suggested that this get tied into the Republican caused budget cuts that have slashed police budgets, caused a lot of layoffs etc. and is complicit with how cops are making up for this by engaging in anti-Constitutional practices.
The set-up and then mass arrest of 700 protesters in Brooklyn Bridge and hundreds/thousands nationwide fits this paradigm perfectly. Cops made tons of overtime and exceeded their arrest quotas.
Using the media is so important in generating sympathy for the cause. There is NO direct line to the "mainstream voting" public's ears and eyes EXCEPT through the media. Even Presidents are constrained by this reality.
Ultimately, it's about the political economy of power and how to influence political economic outcomes through bottom-up processes and mass movements that also engage the electoral process so that the system reflects less the "powers that be" and more the "powers that ought to be." Everything else, in my opinion, is a sideshow and a masturbatory blowing off of steam :)
Like you I remember the outcomes of previous wetblanket mass masturbations:
1968 - Nixon
1980 - Reagan
2000 - Bush
I wished the saying, "never again," would apply, but I'm too pragmatic for that ;)
I also suggested that this get tied into the Republican caused budget cuts that have slashed police budgets, caused a lot of layoffs etc. and is complicit with how cops are making up for this by engaging in anti-Constitutional practices.
The set-up and then mass arrest of 700 protesters in Brooklyn Bridge and hundreds/thousands nationwide fits this paradigm perfectly. Cops made tons of overtime and exceeded their arrest quotas.
Using the media is so important in generating sympathy for the cause. There is NO direct line to the "mainstream voting" public's ears and eyes EXCEPT through the media. Even Presidents are constrained by this reality.
Ultimately, it's about the political economy of power and how to influence political economic outcomes through bottom-up processes and mass movements that also engage the electoral process so that the system reflects less the "powers that be" and more the "powers that ought to be." Everything else, in my opinion, is a sideshow and a masturbatory blowing off of steam :)
Like you I remember the outcomes of previous wetblanket mass masturbations:
1968 - Nixon
1980 - Reagan
2000 - Bush
I wished the saying, "never again," would apply, but I'm too pragmatic for that ;)
"I am ashamed of my generation. We had potential, but ego and money and patriarchal cronyism seduced. Now we have a corrupt charade instead of democracy."
I could quote the whole post, but we get the point: a correct and relevant view. It is always pleasant to read something right. Well thought out and well said. R
I could quote the whole post, but we get the point: a correct and relevant view. It is always pleasant to read something right. Well thought out and well said. R
You have allowed yourself the same delusion that was present in the sixties. Do you really think overindulged children are the harbingers of revolution. Well let me quote Steven Stills “it’s the woman in you that makes you want to play this game”. Revolutions come at the hands and arms of grim faced soldiers that know only that it is time. What is this Peter Pan? The currency of change is blood, as Mao once said a revolution is not a tea party.
I know I should read Sage's post first, but I agree. Us old geezers (not you Sage, I haven't read you post yet) who sit and bitch, are just that, old geezers!
Yes libby. I am also of the view that many of that generation (60's)need take a hard look in the mirror.
And shaming does go a long way, when accurate, and constant enough... a major tool for igniting the conscience...
As for physical battles, that goes without saying, but the degree to which one must get physical *can* be tempered by the potency and prescience of the argument... for that, words and workable ideas are forms of amunition, humane and imprescindibles .
And shaming does go a long way, when accurate, and constant enough... a major tool for igniting the conscience...
As for physical battles, that goes without saying, but the degree to which one must get physical *can* be tempered by the potency and prescience of the argument... for that, words and workable ideas are forms of amunition, humane and imprescindibles .
I agree. I love a movement that causes bitterness in both the left and the right. I don't see how anyone can argue with people voicing their opinions or with nonviolence - but they do, every damn day!
I have apologized in public for the excesses of our generation when I was the commencement speaker at a local public high school two years ago. We should be ashamed.
There have been numbers of practical pieces written about 'winter strategies' for OWS, most recently at www.reportergary.com (and elsewhere). They're worth reading.
designantor -- thanks! a lot of my own memories of hope and confusion and frustration from the Vietnam era are coming back to me. Especially remembering an older generation back then that seemed so disconnected from reality and vitality and social empathy for mankind at a basic level and locked in a collective ego-driven American "exceptionalism." And the young mostly men then in my generation back then, so many were being asked to die for an irresponsible government, too, as they are today. And a serious number of us voiced our anger at the establishment and its injustices. It seemed so easy to recognize the stupidity of racism and misogyny and homophobia and war, why wasn't more being done to end them?
The righteousness we felt then was delicious, empowering. The music, heart-rending folk songs, freeing and angry rock carried us along as well as egos and hearts that hadn't been eroded by the daily demands of day to day survival and "you can't fight city hall-ness" and the chronic stress that invites narcissism and numbs out empathy for others. Back then we felt we could once and for all force the "establishment" to be responsible. We constituted that irresistible force against the immovable object of our parents' generation's spiritual indifference and/or surrender.
We ourselves hadn't been as worn down and out by the "system". But there was a backlash building against our "fighting" of the system that had begun. And the cockroaches that survived in the political establishment learned their lessons well. And our generation was moving into its own passage from the luxury of peer-gathered opportunities for union in our college years to being diluted as a focused group into a bigger and colder world of having to economically survive and challenged at the bottom rungs of career and job climbs -- more than a little distracting. Still, we had enjoyed those years of awakened conscience and trusted our wake up call to America was long lasting.
Finally, there is a similar movement happening among the young like it did in the late sixties, and the realities of corruption and pathology are as dark as they seemed then, more so in some ways, the injustices so in your face to be called out and this generation is doing just that, some of them. And I am hoping that we remember what it was like and we can join with this generation and not "leave it to them" to do the fighting, especially those of us that recognized so much then, and we did drop the ball collectively on that mandate. Less walking the walk in our lives. Egoism not action prevailed.
We didn't sustain the "ability to respond" to reality collectively. We also tuned out in many ways. And it is understandable and human perhaps but it was IRRESPONSIBLE. We need to own it and now we can make AMENDS by exercising courage and commitment.
There is a movement to save our human rights and we need to join in with the youth earnestly. We need their energy and hope, but they need our (my age group's) wisdom from our experience and education, to work together. They also need our NUMBERS!!! The kids know that sustaining democracy is not a spectator sport, but we have been seduced by a dishonest and seductive media, and a cynical and opportunistic and gamed political class and corporations that are fascistic entities with psychopathic priorities. Profits for the tiny core of oligarchs over people -- ruthless and willing to go to any lengths for profit. We need to put ourselves on the line with the kids.
We near boiled frogs need to rally and climb out of the boiling water and wake up to the very cold reality of what has happened to our country! The kids aren't as boiled as we are, acclimated to the insanity and can recognize it and have more hope than we have to defeat it. Again, we need their mojo of hope, they need our wisdom of experience.
My two and a half cents on this! libby
The righteousness we felt then was delicious, empowering. The music, heart-rending folk songs, freeing and angry rock carried us along as well as egos and hearts that hadn't been eroded by the daily demands of day to day survival and "you can't fight city hall-ness" and the chronic stress that invites narcissism and numbs out empathy for others. Back then we felt we could once and for all force the "establishment" to be responsible. We constituted that irresistible force against the immovable object of our parents' generation's spiritual indifference and/or surrender.
We ourselves hadn't been as worn down and out by the "system". But there was a backlash building against our "fighting" of the system that had begun. And the cockroaches that survived in the political establishment learned their lessons well. And our generation was moving into its own passage from the luxury of peer-gathered opportunities for union in our college years to being diluted as a focused group into a bigger and colder world of having to economically survive and challenged at the bottom rungs of career and job climbs -- more than a little distracting. Still, we had enjoyed those years of awakened conscience and trusted our wake up call to America was long lasting.
Finally, there is a similar movement happening among the young like it did in the late sixties, and the realities of corruption and pathology are as dark as they seemed then, more so in some ways, the injustices so in your face to be called out and this generation is doing just that, some of them. And I am hoping that we remember what it was like and we can join with this generation and not "leave it to them" to do the fighting, especially those of us that recognized so much then, and we did drop the ball collectively on that mandate. Less walking the walk in our lives. Egoism not action prevailed.
We didn't sustain the "ability to respond" to reality collectively. We also tuned out in many ways. And it is understandable and human perhaps but it was IRRESPONSIBLE. We need to own it and now we can make AMENDS by exercising courage and commitment.
There is a movement to save our human rights and we need to join in with the youth earnestly. We need their energy and hope, but they need our (my age group's) wisdom from our experience and education, to work together. They also need our NUMBERS!!! The kids know that sustaining democracy is not a spectator sport, but we have been seduced by a dishonest and seductive media, and a cynical and opportunistic and gamed political class and corporations that are fascistic entities with psychopathic priorities. Profits for the tiny core of oligarchs over people -- ruthless and willing to go to any lengths for profit. We need to put ourselves on the line with the kids.
We near boiled frogs need to rally and climb out of the boiling water and wake up to the very cold reality of what has happened to our country! The kids aren't as boiled as we are, acclimated to the insanity and can recognize it and have more hope than we have to defeat it. Again, we need their mojo of hope, they need our wisdom of experience.
My two and a half cents on this! libby
Libby, my reaction is to wait and see. They give me and others hope and that can't be bad. They seem smart and articulate, organized, and with good bs detectors. I'm driving over to Oakland on Wednesday to see.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Ron. I have been reading about how the peaceful protests can be demonized and discredited and destabilized with actual sabotaging operatives within it as well as over-militarized homeland security from without thanks to 9/11 though it was there always ready even before then to push back citizens of conscience. Destabilizing also from a media that will drumbeat titillating disinformation to a malleable public to sabotage movements for justice and humanity.
Our government has been destabilizing anti-corporate freedom fighters in other countries for years as well as those fighting hard fights in this one, like for women's rights., protesting the wars, the mass destruction of the environment, etc. The betrayal and onslaughts happen, but count on a media that doesn't report on them readily. Cuz it is paid for by the corporatists who put profits over people -- even to the point of the destruction overtly or covertly of people.
The militarization of our police just like our soldiers comes from "demonization" of the supposed enemy of innocents. People exercising their conscience and what used to be free rights to assemble and protest are framed as being threats to the state. The more of us that join the protests, the clearer it is that this is not about maladjusted bad apples breaking the law. It is the citizenry of 99% fighting the monster 1% who are exploiting the "security labor forces" of this country to do its dirty fighting for them. That labor force is part of the 99%. To stop being demonized and controlled by them working for the fascists is a huge problem for us and challenge. They are like the soldiers who need to deny reality to keep functioning abroad. Also, as you mention, overtime pay and job opportunities. All you have to do is oppress your brother and sister citizens!
The fact that the NYPD arrested 700 protesters in one shot that day is astonishing. That they were willing to go to that length to discourage mass protest, the rat bastard politicos working for the rabid rat bastard oligarchs. And it had its effectiveness of course!!! That is playing serious hard ball with people's lives.
Appreciate your statement, Ron:
"Ultimately, it's about the political economy of power and how to influence political economic outcomes through bottom-up processes and mass movements that also engage the electoral process so that the system reflects less the "powers that be" and more the "powers that ought to be." Everything else, in my opinion, is a sideshow and a masturbatory blowing off of steam :)"
WELL SAID, MAN!!!!
I consider myself a cherry-picking activist, too much, and I need to ramp up my own courage and commitment. It is not easy in this world. I also see with friends and acquaintances that when I want to talk about the corruption of politics there is some sympathy but I am regarded often as inconveniently eccentric, a tad too passionate and expecting too much from fellow human beings and myself in terms of activism. And I often back off -- don't exercise tough love with them or myself to honor my own convictions out of cronyism and its social convenience. Probably why I can be such a loud mouth here talking the talk, as compensation maybe.
But we don't have much time as I see it. We all have got to get a lot more serious FAST. And there are a lot of courageous heros and heroines out there to link up with. Courage is contagious. As is indifference and narcissism.
TWO ROADS... we all gotta commit now to the less travelled one.
To be continued, my friend! libby
Our government has been destabilizing anti-corporate freedom fighters in other countries for years as well as those fighting hard fights in this one, like for women's rights., protesting the wars, the mass destruction of the environment, etc. The betrayal and onslaughts happen, but count on a media that doesn't report on them readily. Cuz it is paid for by the corporatists who put profits over people -- even to the point of the destruction overtly or covertly of people.
The militarization of our police just like our soldiers comes from "demonization" of the supposed enemy of innocents. People exercising their conscience and what used to be free rights to assemble and protest are framed as being threats to the state. The more of us that join the protests, the clearer it is that this is not about maladjusted bad apples breaking the law. It is the citizenry of 99% fighting the monster 1% who are exploiting the "security labor forces" of this country to do its dirty fighting for them. That labor force is part of the 99%. To stop being demonized and controlled by them working for the fascists is a huge problem for us and challenge. They are like the soldiers who need to deny reality to keep functioning abroad. Also, as you mention, overtime pay and job opportunities. All you have to do is oppress your brother and sister citizens!
The fact that the NYPD arrested 700 protesters in one shot that day is astonishing. That they were willing to go to that length to discourage mass protest, the rat bastard politicos working for the rabid rat bastard oligarchs. And it had its effectiveness of course!!! That is playing serious hard ball with people's lives.
Appreciate your statement, Ron:
"Ultimately, it's about the political economy of power and how to influence political economic outcomes through bottom-up processes and mass movements that also engage the electoral process so that the system reflects less the "powers that be" and more the "powers that ought to be." Everything else, in my opinion, is a sideshow and a masturbatory blowing off of steam :)"
WELL SAID, MAN!!!!
I consider myself a cherry-picking activist, too much, and I need to ramp up my own courage and commitment. It is not easy in this world. I also see with friends and acquaintances that when I want to talk about the corruption of politics there is some sympathy but I am regarded often as inconveniently eccentric, a tad too passionate and expecting too much from fellow human beings and myself in terms of activism. And I often back off -- don't exercise tough love with them or myself to honor my own convictions out of cronyism and its social convenience. Probably why I can be such a loud mouth here talking the talk, as compensation maybe.
But we don't have much time as I see it. We all have got to get a lot more serious FAST. And there are a lot of courageous heros and heroines out there to link up with. Courage is contagious. As is indifference and narcissism.
TWO ROADS... we all gotta commit now to the less travelled one.
To be continued, my friend! libby
Thoth, thank you. That means a lot! I want to be proactive and make up for a lot of lost time spent as an ostrich while our basic human rights were being removed, myself and my fellow human beings right to survival let alone happiness being jeopardized more and more with each passing day. I want to take responsibility for living in what's left of a democratic society and gain some ground back and not let more be taken! I am tired of contributing to the dead weight of the problem and want to live in the solution!!! libby
Jack, the powers that be play hard ball. I admire the courage of the kids -- a bravado that is now being sorely tested as time goes by and the threats and punishments continue. There is also naivete among them but also in all of us as to what lengths the corporate sociopathy will go to especially using militarized force as well as legalizing evil thanks to pimped out politicians. I quote you back Joplin whom you reminded me of, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." I think we are all hitting bottom collectively as a nation but also as a world community. Time to fight the denial and fight TOGETHER. Stress invites narcissism, and we have to fight that tendency because that separation is what dooms and what has been exploited by the top 1% -- to get the 99% to turn on each other and compete for crumbs and not unite to demand what should be our rights and privileges. To be distracted from the economic violence done to us by the top 1% which continues to exploit since it is enabled by a corrupt system of government at all levels. Governments in so many countries joining forces as a cartel to keep down the global 99%!!! libby
thanks, scanner! I wasn't focusing on anyone in particular or even os in general with the above "rant". I think I was feeling worn down by so much analysis of what the occupiers are doing and people writing about them as the "other" and expecting them to do the heavy lifting for us as a society when the call is out there and the need for us to join up and do it with them.
My times at the nyc occupation were spent primarily with much younger people than myself and I was so impressed with their openness to whatever consequences will come at them because of this refreshing and inspiring sense of COMMITMENT!!! The whole package of the experience is about fear and hope and discovery and community. It illuminates the lack of commitment, a sustained one, in myself and so many others I see. And once one commits to what one asserts one believes in, there is such a vitality in one's spirit. Finally walking the walk.
We all have this "ideal self" our ego maintains we are, but when tested as human beings, so often we discover we take the easier softer way and sacrifice our spirituality and integrity and self-respect. We as human beings can't make hair pin turns to become spiritual mensches, but we sure can begin to exercise more and more of our courage and citizen muscles. They say, energy follows attention. I want to be better and realistically informed as a citizen and I want to support the more courageous than myself and want to be supported by others, myself. I think we all find our best ways to contribute. The key is to sustain that energy and not numb out. It can sting initially recovering from numbness (like with frostbite) but it is worth it to get back to aliveness.
And those analyzing the occupation both negatively and positively deserve credit for contributing for sure their intelligence. It can help all, occupiers and others. But doing armchair analysis has been seductive in this country thanks to the media, that we must fight that enthrallment!!! Passivity is a national disease in America imho.
There is also the game of "ain't it awful" -- you know, games people play (that old book) -- whereby people sit around complaining about how bad things are and getting off on that to some extent, without having to do as I said the heavy lifting of creating the change they profess to want to see.
thanks for commenting my friend! :) libby
My times at the nyc occupation were spent primarily with much younger people than myself and I was so impressed with their openness to whatever consequences will come at them because of this refreshing and inspiring sense of COMMITMENT!!! The whole package of the experience is about fear and hope and discovery and community. It illuminates the lack of commitment, a sustained one, in myself and so many others I see. And once one commits to what one asserts one believes in, there is such a vitality in one's spirit. Finally walking the walk.
We all have this "ideal self" our ego maintains we are, but when tested as human beings, so often we discover we take the easier softer way and sacrifice our spirituality and integrity and self-respect. We as human beings can't make hair pin turns to become spiritual mensches, but we sure can begin to exercise more and more of our courage and citizen muscles. They say, energy follows attention. I want to be better and realistically informed as a citizen and I want to support the more courageous than myself and want to be supported by others, myself. I think we all find our best ways to contribute. The key is to sustain that energy and not numb out. It can sting initially recovering from numbness (like with frostbite) but it is worth it to get back to aliveness.
And those analyzing the occupation both negatively and positively deserve credit for contributing for sure their intelligence. It can help all, occupiers and others. But doing armchair analysis has been seductive in this country thanks to the media, that we must fight that enthrallment!!! Passivity is a national disease in America imho.
There is also the game of "ain't it awful" -- you know, games people play (that old book) -- whereby people sit around complaining about how bad things are and getting off on that to some extent, without having to do as I said the heavy lifting of creating the change they profess to want to see.
thanks for commenting my friend! :) libby
Inverted Interrobang, always love to hear from you. I have prayed that the spirit of the 60s in my generation was temporarily (though a long period of "temporarily") dormant but not forever gone. That Burke line about when good people do nothing is how evil prevails. Inaction creates a vacuum where the evil opportunists can do their dirtiest.
I don't want to be a shame/guilt mongerer, but I know the more I push at the conscience in myself and others, the more I make myself have to exercise more courage or I am a damn hypocrit if I don't. And there is so much more I can do, I don't even know all those opportunities yet, but they will enhance me as a human being.
Staying awake and educated (which can be hard, even with places like the Newshour skewing reality from corporate and political pressure or simple acclimation) and being courageously honest with others and role modeling as best one can what it means to be a committed citizen of this country and a committed human being within the global human family.
Pete Seeger said when it comes to politics, think globally, act locally. I believe in the momentum. I haven't been going to Greens meetings long, but at one meeting I was suddenly asked if I was ready to run for office. I gulped and shook my head vigorously. Of course, winning an office being a little old third party Green in nyc was let's admit it an impossible shot but it sobered me to the need for citizens to step forward and be the people their ego convinces them they already are and yet are so not. I realized that there was an opportunity for me to be a proactive citizen and I was reluctant to embrace the experience as well as humbled and guilty that I was so seriously uneducated to the reality of my local and state and national governance. This is one reason why I think I may be useful developing a civics workshop for young people. It will make me learn more and it will also help educate the next generation of Americans, one citizen or small group of young citizens at a time!
I hope the spirit of commitment from the occupation keeps on pulling more and more of us into a state of wakefulness and proaction! Words are the healthiest ammunition as I see it, too. Hearts and minds. We want them open and awake, don't we? libby
I don't want to be a shame/guilt mongerer, but I know the more I push at the conscience in myself and others, the more I make myself have to exercise more courage or I am a damn hypocrit if I don't. And there is so much more I can do, I don't even know all those opportunities yet, but they will enhance me as a human being.
Staying awake and educated (which can be hard, even with places like the Newshour skewing reality from corporate and political pressure or simple acclimation) and being courageously honest with others and role modeling as best one can what it means to be a committed citizen of this country and a committed human being within the global human family.
Pete Seeger said when it comes to politics, think globally, act locally. I believe in the momentum. I haven't been going to Greens meetings long, but at one meeting I was suddenly asked if I was ready to run for office. I gulped and shook my head vigorously. Of course, winning an office being a little old third party Green in nyc was let's admit it an impossible shot but it sobered me to the need for citizens to step forward and be the people their ego convinces them they already are and yet are so not. I realized that there was an opportunity for me to be a proactive citizen and I was reluctant to embrace the experience as well as humbled and guilty that I was so seriously uneducated to the reality of my local and state and national governance. This is one reason why I think I may be useful developing a civics workshop for young people. It will make me learn more and it will also help educate the next generation of Americans, one citizen or small group of young citizens at a time!
I hope the spirit of commitment from the occupation keeps on pulling more and more of us into a state of wakefulness and proaction! Words are the healthiest ammunition as I see it, too. Hearts and minds. We want them open and awake, don't we? libby
Harry, you make me laugh pointing out the bitterness from both the right and the left inspired by the movement. It certainly shows a dangerous "perfectionism" and distrust for activism in this country and a natural (or unnatural) proclivity to stagnation and numbness. Also, the paralysis of analysis.
I think we in the older generation desperately need the mojo hope of the "Why not?" askers among the young. I remember that was Robert Kennedy's old stance ... some ask "Why?" others who see the glass as half full so to speak ask "Why not?" Why can't we make things better? When liberals "pragmatically" became "progressives" too many of us imho lost the idealism baby with the bath water! Pragmatism killed this generation's opportunity for universal health care. I don't blame the wackjobs on the right. I blame the damn progressives who were too cool for school and didn't fight for full out basic rights for the citizenry!!! Pragmatism was about cowardism, cronyism and ego imho. Political gamesmanship with no moral imagination and vision. libby
I think we in the older generation desperately need the mojo hope of the "Why not?" askers among the young. I remember that was Robert Kennedy's old stance ... some ask "Why?" others who see the glass as half full so to speak ask "Why not?" Why can't we make things better? When liberals "pragmatically" became "progressives" too many of us imho lost the idealism baby with the bath water! Pragmatism killed this generation's opportunity for universal health care. I don't blame the wackjobs on the right. I blame the damn progressives who were too cool for school and didn't fight for full out basic rights for the citizenry!!! Pragmatism was about cowardism, cronyism and ego imho. Political gamesmanship with no moral imagination and vision. libby
miguela, I say "good for you". We need as a generation to acknowledge our lapse as responsible citizens and it is not too late to make amends and fight for the rights we have lost and those still to be lost if we don't! thanks for commenting! :) libby
jonathan, thanks so much for commenting and the link. i am most interested in hearing of the winter strategies for OWS! I will follow up. Sounds like a good blog in it, too! best, libby
Janice, good for you!!! These are great people, putting so much on the line. they are human beings. We must not overestimate who they are or underestimate who they are. Both are traps and they keep us separated from joining them. We must join with them as the 99% we really are. Also, what was it Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." By going proactive ourselves, it is not them and us separately any more. Big shoes but we can fill them. I thank the youth for having the staying power, but we need to keep the movement going, not just them. Good luck to you on your exploration and participation!!! libby
If I make any comments that might seem critical they would only be to provide some improvements; overall I think they've done a great job; certainly better than me. The one thing I wouldn't recommend is stop, or anything that sounds like that. Even if their are some inevitable flaws they can be worked out as they go along; no good movement avoids them without fixing them as they go along.
BTW looks like you've been busy blogging the last couple weeks; I'll have to catch up when I can.
BTW looks like you've been busy blogging the last couple weeks; I'll have to catch up when I can.
Libby, I hear your roar. To this day I'm at a loss in understanding how OWS will become cohesive. Mostly I hear a bunch of people blowing it out of their asses saying no "leader" is needed for this movement and acting is if change can actually come without a logical list of coherent demands, needs and valid ways to implement them. At this point I don't even know if there's a PROPER website set up. By proper I mean, clear/concise, easy to navigate and containing necessary petitions, ways to participate, lists of local representatives state by state with contact data, etc... People of my generation and below are the ones who know how to make this type of site, with ease... Generations above are not savvy to this kind of OCD tech crap but will surely be able to participate much better if there is a way to do so... A clear way! And that's just for starters...
Obviously this is America. We won't make change by dragging our leaders out of the sewer, then beating them to death and posting the footage on Youtube. Nothing gets done here without solid organization. But to this day there isn't even a f'kn website. There isn't even a paypal account setup for donations. And donate to WHAT?
Obviously this is America. We won't make change by dragging our leaders out of the sewer, then beating them to death and posting the footage on Youtube. Nothing gets done here without solid organization. But to this day there isn't even a f'kn website. There isn't even a paypal account setup for donations. And donate to WHAT?
zachd and charlie, thanks for your comments.
i don't want to go angry "mother henny" about the movement and say everything it chooses to do is PERFECT. That dramatic rainy overnight that I was there without accessible toilets for half the night sure exasperated me a lot with the city and the occupation itself for being so ill-prepared, though later as I understood it, they could not get a permit for port-o-potties (thank you Mayor Mikie B) and were reliant on the ONE McDonald's in the area throughout the nite, while other retailers open all night raked in their money but NO TOILET FOR THEM EVEN IN AN EMERGENCY when the cops shut down McDonald's.
Of course it is finding itself and that can be infuriating at times to the participants within it directly (who acknowledge that) and also those of us witnessing from outside. It just aggravates me to hear people who don't register any respect as they go on about it ... don' t acknowledge the profound commitment these mostly young people have made to put their outrage on the line in the face of illegitimate militarized police state threats of the SURREAL ABUSE BY THE ONE PERCENTERS AND THE ONE PERCENTERS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY IN CHARGE IN THE WH AND CONGRESS ESPECIALLY who have stolen according to Glen Ford now $16 trillion from tax payer coffers and are about to suck dry what they choose to euphemistically call citizen "entitlements" which have been paid for out of our pays for years and our tax dollars. THANK GOD there is OUTRAGE!
I see these people trying to light the fire within the citizenry ... set the grassroots on fire. And then I see "too cool for school" people in my own generation and younger, helped by a spectator sport gamesmanship is all hang morality and truth media encouraging the aloof judgmentalism seducing a maturer citizenry who have zombied out on their own victimhood or maybe some are six-digit one percenters or almost one percenters themselves sitting back and contributing to the deadweight of the problem instead of joining the solution or working hard to make their own solutions!!!
We as a generation who have let the younger generations be betrayed and go off to murdering US wars to, along with destroying millions of innocent people and ruining their homelands, kill, die, be maimed, or eventually commit suicide or live homelessly or inflict domestic violence on their families so the safe and rich sociopathic corporatists can rape the profiteering resources of other countries as well as ours. You know that expression, if you are not outraged you are not paying attention.
Sitting through the public option bullshit right after Obama took office, and the FISA bullshit, and then his minimizing and immunizing the monsters behind the torture program, his ignoring habeas corpus basic right, his ignoring due process with his assassination program, pre-emptive warmaking without Congressional (though that is a waste of time expecting morality but still) consent, Bagram and Gitmo ... dear GOD, what is with this citizenry? Repubs in a tizzy about Obama's birth certificate and that he is a socialist and too liberal. and Dems indignant and ignoring his true FOLLIES AND CRIMES. IF ONLY he were a liberal socialist. And the Obamacrats who have "emotionally" bonded and push all Obama's scandalous anti-American choices in the far background justified because of the meanie Republicans who are crazy???? Lesser of two EVILS????? Careful for what you wish for!!!!! Al Loomis is right. moooooooooo. It is like invasion of the body snatchers zombiehood in America. And despite occupy wall street, the zombies continue to march up and pop off their anger at the WRONG TARGETS!!!! GEEEEEEEEEEEZ.
I have a relative in her forties, single mother of five, who had a stroke probably from her unemployed financial stress this past month, and has no health care and her chances of surviving and the horrifying financial albatross ever more so around her neck and the necks of her children who had to borrow to help her barely survive and now that she did not die (which was a miracle ... and btw, she had not gone to the doctor with no insurance to take care of the symptoms!) has to deal with the struggle to survive without governmental support (too young for medicare, though pretty soon that won't be about age either, just not there for all).
Every time I go to work I think it is my last day since my workplace has become ultra-fascistic and is overworking people and easily terminating people and people are having physical problems due to profound understaffing, and the upper management is "talk to the hand" obtuse or just plain exploitively cruel! As the serfs get their wages frozen or cut, and the one percenters get their bonuses and raises since it is OPEN SEASON ON THE LITTLE GUY, as it has always been, BUT NOW THE INDIFFERENCE TO OUR SURVIVAL IS OFF THE CHARTS!!!!
I say we gotta somehow join with the kids in our own ways, even if we don't camp out all night in the snow! Or don't get roughed up and go to jail. And there is a difference in exploring what they are doing and playing "ain't it awful" they are so pathetic and confused.
Charlie, here is the website I was given. I wrote to them with my idea to BOYCOTT media and got an auto-email back explaining they were getting 500 emails a day, which was great in a way, but meant that my voice was not being processed because of volume so that is a concern and organization will help that hopefully.
http://occupywallst.org/
I just don't want the fire they are lighting to be isolated and then burn out by the proverbial circular firing squad on the left. The tea partiers had passion but were being used as wind up toys misguided against their own interests by the oligarchs. WE HAVE NEEDED PASSION ON THE LEFT AND WE FINALLY HAVE IT. For God's sake, let's not wetblanket it is all I am saying. Aloof and cool leaves me cold. You know?
:) best, libby
i don't want to go angry "mother henny" about the movement and say everything it chooses to do is PERFECT. That dramatic rainy overnight that I was there without accessible toilets for half the night sure exasperated me a lot with the city and the occupation itself for being so ill-prepared, though later as I understood it, they could not get a permit for port-o-potties (thank you Mayor Mikie B) and were reliant on the ONE McDonald's in the area throughout the nite, while other retailers open all night raked in their money but NO TOILET FOR THEM EVEN IN AN EMERGENCY when the cops shut down McDonald's.
Of course it is finding itself and that can be infuriating at times to the participants within it directly (who acknowledge that) and also those of us witnessing from outside. It just aggravates me to hear people who don't register any respect as they go on about it ... don' t acknowledge the profound commitment these mostly young people have made to put their outrage on the line in the face of illegitimate militarized police state threats of the SURREAL ABUSE BY THE ONE PERCENTERS AND THE ONE PERCENTERS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY IN CHARGE IN THE WH AND CONGRESS ESPECIALLY who have stolen according to Glen Ford now $16 trillion from tax payer coffers and are about to suck dry what they choose to euphemistically call citizen "entitlements" which have been paid for out of our pays for years and our tax dollars. THANK GOD there is OUTRAGE!
I see these people trying to light the fire within the citizenry ... set the grassroots on fire. And then I see "too cool for school" people in my own generation and younger, helped by a spectator sport gamesmanship is all hang morality and truth media encouraging the aloof judgmentalism seducing a maturer citizenry who have zombied out on their own victimhood or maybe some are six-digit one percenters or almost one percenters themselves sitting back and contributing to the deadweight of the problem instead of joining the solution or working hard to make their own solutions!!!
We as a generation who have let the younger generations be betrayed and go off to murdering US wars to, along with destroying millions of innocent people and ruining their homelands, kill, die, be maimed, or eventually commit suicide or live homelessly or inflict domestic violence on their families so the safe and rich sociopathic corporatists can rape the profiteering resources of other countries as well as ours. You know that expression, if you are not outraged you are not paying attention.
Sitting through the public option bullshit right after Obama took office, and the FISA bullshit, and then his minimizing and immunizing the monsters behind the torture program, his ignoring habeas corpus basic right, his ignoring due process with his assassination program, pre-emptive warmaking without Congressional (though that is a waste of time expecting morality but still) consent, Bagram and Gitmo ... dear GOD, what is with this citizenry? Repubs in a tizzy about Obama's birth certificate and that he is a socialist and too liberal. and Dems indignant and ignoring his true FOLLIES AND CRIMES. IF ONLY he were a liberal socialist. And the Obamacrats who have "emotionally" bonded and push all Obama's scandalous anti-American choices in the far background justified because of the meanie Republicans who are crazy???? Lesser of two EVILS????? Careful for what you wish for!!!!! Al Loomis is right. moooooooooo. It is like invasion of the body snatchers zombiehood in America. And despite occupy wall street, the zombies continue to march up and pop off their anger at the WRONG TARGETS!!!! GEEEEEEEEEEEZ.
I have a relative in her forties, single mother of five, who had a stroke probably from her unemployed financial stress this past month, and has no health care and her chances of surviving and the horrifying financial albatross ever more so around her neck and the necks of her children who had to borrow to help her barely survive and now that she did not die (which was a miracle ... and btw, she had not gone to the doctor with no insurance to take care of the symptoms!) has to deal with the struggle to survive without governmental support (too young for medicare, though pretty soon that won't be about age either, just not there for all).
Every time I go to work I think it is my last day since my workplace has become ultra-fascistic and is overworking people and easily terminating people and people are having physical problems due to profound understaffing, and the upper management is "talk to the hand" obtuse or just plain exploitively cruel! As the serfs get their wages frozen or cut, and the one percenters get their bonuses and raises since it is OPEN SEASON ON THE LITTLE GUY, as it has always been, BUT NOW THE INDIFFERENCE TO OUR SURVIVAL IS OFF THE CHARTS!!!!
I say we gotta somehow join with the kids in our own ways, even if we don't camp out all night in the snow! Or don't get roughed up and go to jail. And there is a difference in exploring what they are doing and playing "ain't it awful" they are so pathetic and confused.
Charlie, here is the website I was given. I wrote to them with my idea to BOYCOTT media and got an auto-email back explaining they were getting 500 emails a day, which was great in a way, but meant that my voice was not being processed because of volume so that is a concern and organization will help that hopefully.
http://occupywallst.org/
I just don't want the fire they are lighting to be isolated and then burn out by the proverbial circular firing squad on the left. The tea partiers had passion but were being used as wind up toys misguided against their own interests by the oligarchs. WE HAVE NEEDED PASSION ON THE LEFT AND WE FINALLY HAVE IT. For God's sake, let's not wetblanket it is all I am saying. Aloof and cool leaves me cold. You know?
:) best, libby
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