Will There Be "Son of Occupy"? Will its Saturn side start to show?

As the Occupy Movement's visible presence begins to fade, as we suspected it would, either by force or due to winter weather, journalists and bloggers are taking sides for and gainst the view that either OWS has been either an abject failure, or alternatively has done a worthwhile job of raising awareness and will winter "underground", revitalising come springtime 2012. (Photograph from http://www.phibetaiota.net/)

It's obvious that, if OWS's main aim was to raise awareness, they succeeded. The movement's best known signature: 99% versus 1%, in spite of its over-generalisation has caught a mass attention that was absent this time last year.

If I had to give a zodiac sign to the Occupy movement(s) it'd be Aquarius. Aquarius has 2 rulers: Uranus and Saturn. We've seen the Uranian, surprisingly unexpected side of Occupy, now I believe its Saturn side should come to the fore, at least for a while.

"The end of consciousness-raising leaves people with no place to go, and the lack of structure leaves them with no way of getting there...."

That quote comes from a feminist book Quiet Rumours: An Anarcha-Feminist Reader . The feminist movement aimed to be "structureless", using "horizontal" decision making rather than hierarchal. OWS has aimed to emulate this and to remain leaderless. With no figurehead(s) to act as targets, they feel individuals remain less vulnerable to attack. The feminist movement must have dealt with similar problems. There's a very good good piece on these very issues, written by Jo Freeman :

The Tyranny of Structurelessness

SNIPS:
(Highlighting is my own)

"Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a structureless group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose will inevitably structure itself in some fashion........

....... A "laissez faire" group is about as realistic as a "laissez faire" society; the idea becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony over others. This hegemony can be so easily established because the idea of "structurelessness" does not prevent the formation of informal structures, only formal ones."

"The more unstructured a movement is, the less control it has over the directions in which it develops and the political actions in which it engages.... Given a certain amount of interest by the media and the appropriateness of social conditions, the ideas will still be diffused widely. But diffusion of ideas does not mean they are implemented; it only means they are talked about. Insofar as they can be applied individually they may be acted on; insofar as they require coordinated political power to be implemented, they will not be."

I've been on the side of OWS from the get-go, but lately have wondered about their insistence on remaining leaderless. Leaders are a part of our nature, human nature, and the nature of many of our fellow creatures on planet Earth. Think of a V-shaped flight of geese, a pack of wolves, the bees with their Queen - and so on.

OWS would argue that "hierarchies have been tried - look what happened. We must try something different", they'd say. Hierarchies, of one sort or another, have been part and parcel of human history and experience - forever. Like it or not, they are an embedded part of our nature. The 21st century trick will, in my opinion, be to allow for hierarchies of wealth, but to protect those at the base of the pyramid. Legislation should be put in place to ensure that the wealth of the top tier should not be allowed to subjugate those beneath. I'm using a bit of hyperbole there -subjugation was more Roman Empire style.....Hmmm - I don't know though, maybe I'm not using hyperbole after all.

One of the biggest problems (I believe it to be THE biggest) for the 99% in the USA is the now unlimited ability of the most wealthy 1%, both corporate and individual, to buy power via lobbying with "benefits" and HUGE contributions to political campaigns of those running for seats in Senate or House or as president. Not to mince words: bribery.

To make such a dent on the status quo would require a Constitutional amendment. That would involve an impossibly high level of politicical support. Politicans are bought and paid for by the very people who would lose out badly if such a dent in the status quo were to come to pass.

Catch 22!!!

If OWS would adopt, initially, a spokesperson to present a single defined aim (the one above for example), publicise it among supporters online and elsewhere, also offering a means of showing support - e.g. financial support for TV adverts or billboards. A strong, charismatic leader might eventually emerge. A figure from their own ranks, or a known public figure. (Importantly without links to the two-headed one-bodied Democrat/Republican monstrosity). Such a figure, wielding a certain amount of clout, with intention to influence other heavy-hitters, could herald the next stage of OWS or "Son of OWS".

I realise that this idea isn't in line with the ideology OWS has embraced, so far. But - when you're playing on a square-shaped sports field, it's not helpful to keep complaining that the game would be better played on a circular one. Use what skills are available to try to win the game on the field as it stands, then the ability go about shape-shifting would be yours.

For a more positive assessment of Occupy's current situation see Occupy: We Are the World, by Patrick Kingsley and Adam Gabbatt at Common Dreams.

And - one I've just seen, re our Oklahoma City contingent - good on 'em, and especially on Jay Vehige!

Arrested for Supporting Local Business: Occupying Black Friday at the Big Boxes in Oklahoma City, by Lori Spencer

SATURDAY-SUNDAY SUNDRIES (Occupy; kinky; Pleasantville.)

A comment I noticed the other day struck me as funny yet clever. It was after this week's police crackdowns and occasional rough behaviour towards Occupy protesters, and it went something like this: "We pay our taxes - the taxes go to pay the police - the police beat us and rough us up - that's kinda kinky when you think about it!"




On another level of "kinky" altogether, X Factor USA is beginning to make me feel a wee bit queasy at times. Last week was supposed to be Rock Week, only one singer (our favourite, Josh Krajcik) actually sang any valid rock, but that's by the way. I'm increasingly concerned about the way the very young contestants are being treated. I'm not sure that the Stones' "Satisfaction" was a suitable song for a 13-year old Rachel Crow to be singing on national TV. Nor was it very edifying to see a 15-year old rapper brought to tears by remarks made by Simon Cowell and L A Reid. Admittedly the young lad, "Astro", had displayed rather too much arrogance (but he's a teen for goodness sake - what do we expect?)

The minimum age for X-Factor is far too low in my view. If a talent show for teens is what they want, it'd be preferable to market it as such, keep it separate from shows for adult performers; give the kids age-appropriate songs to sing, and not use them as cynical publicity stunts!




Among some VCR tapes I bought for $1 each recently was Pleasantville, picked at random, I knew nothing about it. We watched it on Friday night; it happened to be on top of the "pending" pile, room too dark to read the sleeve. What a treat! A fun but still thought-provoking movie.

Released in 1998, written and directed by Gary Ross (a Sun in Scorpio person by the way, who also wrote screenplays for movies Big, and Dave). Pleasantville stars Toby Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen and Jeff Daniels among others.

It's a fable, parable, allegory, piece of subversive satire, fairy story, fantasy - it defies exact categorisation. The more I think about it the more I see in it, the more amazed I am at the layers within layers of insight. It's not only relevant to the late 20th century but also to today - truly, moreso today. It only takes a tiny amount of squinting the mental eye to see it as having been written last week!

In a nutshell: two present-day (1990s) teenage siblings, squabbling over the TV remote, he wanting to watch his favourite nostalgic sitcom, about which he knows facts, figures and detailed trivia ready for an upcoming quiz, and she, rather more worldly, wants to rock to MTV. They are magically pulled, against their wills into the world of the nostalgic TV sitcom with the help of a TV repair man - played by Don Knott (a bit of mischievous casting there).

Their 1990s sensibilities contrast wildly with the two dimensional black and white images of the sitcom brought to life. There are so many clever hints and tricks throughout the movie, too many to list. The real meat and potatoes doesn't begin to reveal itself until around half-way through. I had one of those "sharp intakes of brreath" as I recognised what it was all really about, and even more amazing, how it still can be applied today, with slight adaptation (history rhymes, not repeats - remember!)

Resistance to change, closed minds, fear of change and what some will do to avoid change is at the heart of the message. There are multiple inter-related messages coming at the viewers throughout the movie....and not preachy messages.

The soundtrack is excellent, from Dave Brubeck's Take 5, Miles Davis' So What, Randy Newman's Suite from Pleasantville to, towards the end of the movie the Beatles' Across the Universe sung by Fiona Apple: "Nothing's gonna change my world.....nothing's gonna change my world........"




I later scooted through a few comments about the movie from several different websites. I was amused, but not too surprised to see some strong opposition to the movie's themes, and on a couple of Christian-based websites were comments raging about certain "sinful" parts of the movie, and concentrating on "biblical themes" it presented. The movie did indeed present some biblical images: the apple, the burning bush (or tree) for instance, but it rapidly moved beyond them as part of an overall evolution of attitudes.

I shall watch the tape again, there's far too much to take in at one viewing, once one cottons on to the movie's intended theme it's too late to catch all the references.

Highly recommended!



From a selection at About.com some examples of signs carried at Occupy protests:

Wear Light Purple to Show Support for OWS. Also UPDATE Re Sad News of Occupy OKC

The Occupy Wall Street movement has adopted a signature colour: light purple. The colour was chosen by the original New York Group with the idea that light purple is obtained when the red/blue/white colours of the USA national flag are mixed together.

It's a nice idea, and one which could also represent the UK group. I'm not sure what Occupy groups in other countries might feel about the colour choice, but irrespective of national flag colours, light purple has other connotations.

Astrologically purple/violet links to Jupiter and Sagittarius: an expansive planet and a sign well-known for endowing its natives with optimism. That can't be bad!

Purple is associated with the right side of the brain which stimulates intuition and imagination, and the color is associated with peace.

Adopting a signature colour means that people unable to take part in the occupation camps could still show solidarity with the Occupiers, as well as indicating to others that the movement's support is more widespread than might have otherwise been imagined, and ought to be taken seriously.

Roughly-made armbands, torn from a piece of cotton in the appropriate shade, were one suggestion. Scarf, tie or tee-top would be easily obtainable alternatives, possibly already to be found in our closets.

See also OWS PURPLE


UPDATE Re Occupy OKC (See last Saturday's post)

Referring back to my post for 29 October and our visit to Occupy OKC, I've read some very sad news. A young man was found dead in his tent at the Occupation site in Kerr Park on Monday.

The police were called, they suspect the death was from natural causes but the matter is being futher investigated. Articles online, and comment from those who knew the young man indicate that he suffered from asthma. The colder weather in The City of late might have brought on an extreme attack, I guess.

Something startled me even more than the sad news, when I saw a video featuring the young man who has died. He had joined the camp as a homeless person, around a week before his death, and had become known among the Occupiers as "Street Poet". He had spoken at a Vigil for First Responders in The City on the evening before his death (see video). I recognised the young man as the one who had spoken to us and posed for a photograph on our vist last week.

RIP. His story, available HERE is a sad one.





I wasn't certain at first, but from the description in the linked piece (regarding his missing front teeth) and from the top he wears in both video and photograph, I'm pretty sure the young man we met was Street Poet. RIP.

What sickened me, to my stomach, when reading around, were some of the comments on various sites reporting the incident - comments from inhuman creatures. I use the word inhuman advisedly. Really and truly, if there are people who think and react that way about the death of a fellow-human, then there is, and never will be any chance for the human race. None at all, and we do not deserve a chance.

OCCUPY OKLAHOMA CITY (no astrology today)

We spent a couple of days in Oklahoma City, 90 miles north of our hometown, this week. Timing, as it happened, was a bit off - or rather a lot off!

During Wednesday night, after we'd arrived, the temperature dropped around 20 degrees, it started to rain and storm - heavy constant rain - and it didn't stop until well into Thursday afternoon, even then starting again after a brief respite. It remained bitterly cold - unusually so for OKC in October.


I wanted to donate something to the Occupy Oklahoma City group and had, stashed in the closet, an unworn warm padded coat I'd brought from England and never had need of in south-western Oklahoma. I decided it would be useful for someone camping out or protest marching during the coming cold weather, if not in OKC, then it could be passed on to more Northern cousins; I felt certain there'd be some co-ordinating activity going on.

First problem on Thursday, early afternoon, was finding a place to park the car reasonably near to Kerr Park in the heart of the city, where the Occupiers are camped. We spied the encampment from the road, saw a guy with a tripod and camera heading that way, but no other warm bodies were to be seen. It took around 20 minutes to find a place to park, and another ten to walk back to the encampment. Fortunately we'd hit a space between heavy showers. The guy with the tripod had gone on his way by the time we arrived, and two young guys were boiling some water, they generously offered us coffee, which we declined having only recently drunk some. I handed the coat, covered in a big plastic bag, to one of the guys with an explanation. He was obviously unused to hearing English-type-English, for he looked completely blankly at me as though I were speaking Swahili. The other young guy stepped in, took the bag from me with profuse thanks and put it in one of the tents, which appeared to hold supplies.







We chatted for a short time about how wet and cold it had been during the night and all morning. They agreed it had not been fun. Nobody else showed up, other Occupiers were either inside the twenty or so tents, or had repaired to warmer, drier places. A young woman passed by and was asked "Are you joining us today?" She shook her head, "Not today, sorry!".

My husband took a few shots of the tents, and any signs not obliterated by the rain. Young guy number two posed in the opening of the supply/donation tent, raised his arm in the clenched fist salute, so I joined him. There was little time left on our parking meter so we had to rush off, and as we walked back it began to rain - again.



So, due to such awkward circumstances our visit wasn't a resounding success. It was very bad timing and bad luck that after months and months of heat and drought in the region, the one time we needed a bit of dry weather it decided to pour down with very cold rain!

A young journalist, Zac Smith, whose timing had been better than ours, visited Kerr Park earlier in the week. He posted a report online SEE HERE.
Snips ~~~

Occupy Oklahoma City, the largest Occupy Wall Street solidarity group in the state, has staged an around-the-clock occupation for the past 15 days in Kerr Park.

About 40 demonstrators are occupying Kerr Park on a continuous basis, sleeping in portable tents. Their numbers are supplemented to varying degrees during the day.
Since the commencement of the occupation, protesters have staged marches through the streets surrounding Kerr Park at least twice a day or more. Local media coverage of these activities has been shallow and police surveillance casual to nonexistent.

In the words of union organizer Nicholas Klein, “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”

While the New York occupation currently exists somewhere between the second and third phases of this process, Occupy Oklahoma City is stuck firmly in the first.
Despite this, the mood among protesters is buoyant. Given Oklahoma’s enormous political conservatism, simply gathering to acknowledge there is a fundamental problem with the American economic and political system is a great stride forward...........Though conversation and debate at Kerr Park is generally congenial and relaxed, some protesters seem increasingly conscious of the existence of conflicting political philosophies within the movement.

Thus far, Occupy Wall Street has sought to be entirely inclusive, often treating fundamental political disagreements as superficial and irrelevant..............

“It’s actually beautiful that you can have two people from opposite ends of the spectrum agreeing on something, but we’re agreeing on what’s bad; we’re not necessarily agreeing on how to fix it.”

Frodnonag on OWS & Sorely Needed Change

What follows is another part of Frodnonag's comment, posted with his permission. For the first part, spotlighting "The American Dream" see yesterday's post. Here the writer looks at the current state of affairs in the USA, and the Occupy Wall Street movement.



Comment was dated Oct 19 2011 - 9:22pm at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/19-6

"I want to be as positive as possible, and I do wish the (Occupy Wall Street) movement success, but also know that Wall Street and the NYC authorities are counting on the weather to put a stop to the demonstration, and it probably will. The people now on the street will be able to find warm shelter when winter comes; most likely, every single one of them. When things get so bad economically that people are forced to live out in the cold, that is when people will stay out in the cold, and not before.

The big players of banks and of Wall Street, and the government authorities, are being indulgent with the protesters, for the most part, because that is the easist path for them to take, and costs them nothing. It is not a concession, nor charity, nor brotherly understanding, but just more self-interest.

Same with the chimera that we want to believe is the media finally starting seeing things the 99% way. Nope. Maybe a little. But it's shallow, not deep, and its sincerity is questionable.

The method being used on us as American citizens these days is insulting and degrading, but sadly, it is also pretty effective; it is not too different from the methods used to calm a child before bedtime. "Take your medicine, say your prayers, have your warm milk, and enjoy your bedtime story time...."

"Hush now, child, and listen.....close your eyes. Once upon a time, there was a very handsome and wealthy king. But he was also a very sad King......" And then comes "the nod": drifting off- (while wishing we could help that poor sad wealthy king, for some reason)- one more time, like every time, "We the People" slip off to that ephemeral and unclutchable "American Dream"-land one more time; and everyone feels sort of proud of themselves for no good reason, and basks in it, but the net result is that it's all just warm air: nothing worth doing really gets done for the 99%.

We are people who are sometimes trusting to a fault and other times paranoid of those who would benefit us all. We are a people, it seems to me, inclined to thank someone who stabs us with a 12" knife, and then claims salvage rights on our bodies and selves after pulling the blade out 6". If We the People were high school chicks, and the government was the football team guys, I have no doubt we would be called easy. (or much worse). Sad but true.

It's good to trust. Unforunately, being trusting has its drawbacks when untrustworthy people are around. And without a doubt, Americans have been trusting the wrong people for far too long.

So it seems to me that the strategy from the "powers that be" is one of humoring the protest, and convincing the the protesters that their positions are being taken somewhat seriously, all without any real, meaningful, actual concessions from the 1%.

We live in a bread and circuses society as surely as the ancient Romans did, and of course govenment calculates to a fine point the tolerance of the people, and generally judges it quite well, and controls it via the modern-day versions of tried-and-true bread and circus methods.

As long as Americans have television, gasoline, alcohol, access to guns and ammo, fast food, and professional and college sports, and texting, (not necessarily in that order ) there will be no revolution but a very slow one.

Maybe that is, in the long run, the best way, compared to a revolution of more brisance, such as the French or American or Russian revolutions, all of which were extremely violent.

Maybe slow evolution, with infinitesimal concessions and changes made so slowly they seem to be in geologic time, is best overall. Or maybe not. I don't know. The down side is that the famous "fierce urgency of now"- which someone spoke about some time or other - gets lost in such slow social changes.

It seems that the hard truth about this country is that "the fierce urgency of now" only applies to war-making, or assassination, or executing some poor convict, or facilitating emergency bailouts and automatic forgiveness of crimes, within a morally bankrupt "old boy" buddy system.

And in the U.S. anymore, more and more it seems that you are either in the In Crowd, or you are not. Migration from poverty to relative wealth becomes more difficult with each passing year as the classes become more rigidly stratified. This is something which we are accustomed to think of as very "anti-American", strangely enough, but it isn't a new phenomenon.It may seem "anti-American" - this stratification, that is. You could just as well say that it's as American as apple pie, and that would be just as true. However, my "feeling" about it is that it seems to be happening at an accelerating rate.

Evolution, not revolution, may be best, and probably is - I really can't say I know a thing about it, to be honest. But with snail-slow evolutionary change of economic or political systems, in the interim before effective changes that really help people are actually enacted, many, many people suffer or die - unnecessarily, it seems - because of long delays, caused only by politics and prejudice, in accomplishing any improvements towards more equitable distribution of resources among the people, or other beneficial social change.

So while the nation dithers and argues and fumes impotently and works against itself, more harm is done. A more ideal situation would be that things are changed "as needed", if not before, with the kind of fervor and dispatch the U.S. showed when on the march to war.

When things don't change, it is sometimes because they can't be changed. But the issues of the Wall Street protest movement are all issues that could be changed, and with alacrity, too, if the will to do so was present among the people who have the capability to make the changes - that is, people in high corporate, financial, and government perches.

The will to do so is almost entirely lacking - partly because there have been few, if any, consequences upon the 1% for their excesses, crimes, deceits, thefts, etc.; they have bought and bullied and worked hard to make themselves almost above the law, and those who might prosecute them are of the same level of social/financial class. And so, it is a "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours" situation, or an example of a kind of brotherhood, of intrafraternal love, and, My Dear 99%, this brotherhood is much stronger than any charitable feelings towards any of us out here in the land of the Great Unwashed. We who with our pennies here, and our taxes there, and our penalties here, and our interest payments there, have financed their very rise to wealth, are really not appreciated by them at all, except insofar as we continue to enrich them.

Because the wealth was built upon our backs - we the people who actually work and produce, I mean - it seems to me that without enough low-level backs to hold up the rich people's pyramid, it would start to crumble and collapse.

One key is to start to control our own consumer desires, because all corporations play us for suckers and know just how to make things that people will sell their first-born AND their beloved Grandma to possess.

We are a gadget-happy bunch of trade rats, and shiny things that blink are our undoing these days. As a people we have become a cyber-herd of remote-controlled minds, controlled by mass media input from outlets which are highly selective about their choices of information to give to us.

And of what is given to us, a large proportion is literally calculated to produce an effect, often an emotional effect, followed by action - usually spending, but not always - because when it comes down to it, Americans are not all that different from Pavlov's rats, and will salivate on cue, and so forth, and this has all been worked out quite extensively by the advertising industry as well as by government agencies, I think.

When I think of the Wall Street protest movement I can't help but think of the Bonus Army of World War 1 veterans, and how they were an even more peaceful and respectful bunch than we have in the New York gathering today.

But eventually, when they would not decamp, MacArthur and soldies were sent into the camps to clear them out by force if necessary, and that is when it got a bit rough. The result was refusal of the promised, legally obligatatory bonus the veterans were demanding (until some time later) and also expulsion by force.

Had there been more resistance there would have been more violence. The federal government is not in the habit of backing down to citizen protests - it takes a lot of pressure for a long time, and even then, citizen protests are not so effective if there is no real effect upon the people being protested against.

I know that things always need to change for the better, and that most if not all of us feel that changes are slower than they should be or need to be, and that it is mainly just stubbornness and greed and so forth that prevents effective change. I also know that when there is a national will to do something, Americans can get stuff done in a way my old friend Doreice calls "going at it like killin' snakes".
So the problem is maybe largely: 1. the lack of will among the rich combined with 2. the lack of real desperation, yet, among most of the 99%.

I mean, from my limited perspective, it seems that way. I realize it is much much bigger subject than any little essay I might write about it.

It may be we are still a long way from a critical mass of discontent. It would be nice to have good changes made because we all want to, rather than hang on like stubborn children until none of us has any choice left about changing because it becomes a life or death situation.

But knowing humans, I expect that is how it will go. We are not stupid, but fall for tricks very easily, and fall for the same flim-flams again and again, generation after generation.

I think the education system could do something about it, but it too is subject to the big national hypnosis and delusion within which the U.S.A. and so may of its people are lost.

Also, as a populace we have been kept from unifying by the divide and conquer effect from 9/11 and the wars, which have caused lots of internal strife that keeps us from effectively banding together as a people to confront the vastly outnumbered ones who we allow to oppress us by allowing them to manipulate our desires, and effectively hold us hostage because of our own individual wants and cravings and dependencies.

I know that good changes could be made more quickly, were there the national will to do so; and I believe that the problem to examine is right there.

That is, perhaps we need to seriously ask the question of what our national will is, why it is so fragmented and riven by internal conflict more than it really should be, why Americans seem to be either angry, half-asleep, in denial, or Pollyannas; what role the huge surge in psychiatric prescription drug use has had on the national will; and finally, the real long-term effect of 9/11, after the yee-haw go get 'em phase I mean - and the effect of the bogus official explanation of it, and of the evil wars it enabled, which have plagued us and the world since then."