Today, I was (am) reading NPR about the occupy rally in Charlotte, NC. Best statement: "The absence of a clear strategy hindered the Occupy movement for months." Dear god, Occupy, I think I have your solution.
Overall, if you broke out into separate groups
of people who would specialize in a certain issue, maybe more changes
would start rolling. Right now y'all are just a bunch of people standing
around with a million different signs that all point in a million
different directions. You know the cartoon that walks up to a sign post
and never figures out which way to go? That's what you're doing.Say, for example, you don't like how women are being treated. How their rights to their bodies are constantly fought over, taken away, given back, rinse and repeat. Get a leader who is well voiced in the problem, promote a group, and specialize in gathering people around and discussing changes to be made to that issue. NOTE: That group will only work on one issue: Women's rights. "The Women's Rights Branch of Occupy."
You want people to focus more on protecting the environment, you say? Again, find that leader who's willing to take on the issue, gather others who'd like to participate in effecting change on the issue, and only specialize in issues dealing with harm to the environment and ways to protect it. "Environmental Protection Branch of Occupy."
I'm not saying members (or even leaders) should be confined to one group. Take on two, three, four groups! But realize that you're going to need a chain of command in the one issue to get anything done with that certain issue. Standing around in a mix group of people who have no sense of direction, no overarching purpose, and thinking "something" is going to come out of that, is the exact wrong way to do anything. Occupy is losing participants, funding, and credibility with the rest of the world, because all we're seeing is people circlejerking around this word: Change. Sorry, but that word is way too arbitrary and superficial to base an entire world (or country, or city) innovation on. Remember how well "change" worked for President Obama? Oh wait, he's actually a huge disappointment. Just like you are becoming, Occupy.
In the 60s there were groups of African Americans working on one thing - more rights for African Americans. Some would educate others to broaden their minds, others would organize sit-ins, bus boycotts and the like, and they had a leader, MLK. Don't believe me? Read a book. Oh, and guess what? The blacks of this country succeeded. No longer are they (openly) segregated, no longer do they have to sit at the back of the bus, and no longer can they (openly) be denied a job. Yes, I realize people still discriminate and target the black community of the United States, but christ, we've come a long way from slavery and lynching, haven't we? And it was all because of the ORGANIZATION of the African American community.
Organize yourselves, Occupy.
Organize, or get the fuck out.
NPR: http://www.npr.org/2012/09/02/160393442/occupy-movement-targets-charlotte-for-resurgence
