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Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Personal account from Occupy Dallas camp: “Now, I get it”
These people are just people. And they don't have all the answers.
Photo by Alexandra Olivia
A protester carries a sign bearing a common sentiment of the day.
DALLAS — An astute and intuitive friend, Justin Nygren, teased me with the prospect of personally visiting the Occupy Dallas encampment in order to perhaps get to some truth about it all. Presumably, this was to either verify or cut through some of the clearly dubious, de-personalized, media-hyped rhetoric these folks were being branded with. Putting real faces with real names on a situation like this could be enlightening. So I spent a few days talking with people at Occupy Dallas.
However, I still remained conflicted. My heart identified with the real life stories unfolding and the tangled frustrations people have when they feel they been marginalized to the point of having almost no control regarding some powerfully negative factors which are shaping their lives. However, my head insists on taking the more logical approach to it all, attempting to evaluate the reasoning, purpose, and net effect of this well-intentioned, yet outwardly confusing group.
Here's what I learned:
Observation One: Occupy Dallas has value
There is a very good chance the movement is already near accomplishing its highest and best purpose. It has better established a needed sense of urgency for more vigorous participation by the broader public and especially by the rapidly shrinking middle class.
This has value. For corporate, and especially, governmental entities, it has also piqued the prospect of far greater and more widespread public events if measurable progress on the issues is not soon made. Instilling a sense of urgency is no small task, and likewise, is a thing of value.
Observation Two: It's difficult to measure Occupy Dallas' success
This is not the kind of protest that culminates in an easy-to-acknowledge, instant victory.
Photo by Alexandra Olivia
Occupy Dallas protesters are part of the nationwide Occupy Your-City-Here campaigns.
When wars end and peace treaties are signed, it's over. When brutal dictators abdicate their offices or are killed, there is a victory. When a Berlin Wall is converted into pavement, there is a time of rejoicing at its disappearance and all it stood for. These are clear-cut, instantly acknowledged victories, and everyone goes home with that knowledge.
The issues faced here are a multi-layered, squashed menagerie of failed policies, errant philosophies, innumerable corrupted, interwoven individuals, corporations, and agencies. The citizens are suffering the strangling and near-lethal effect of generations of improper and often unsound thinking and behavior by their elected and appointed officials in concert with the unchecked, rabid behaviors of large corporate and financial parties apparently bent on making capitalism a term of vulgarity. We have a cancerous philosophy gone malignant without proper diagnosis nor intervening therapy for several decades. It can't be fixed by Friday.
By any standard, measuring success as it relates to the numerous issues raised by those joining the Occupy movement is going to be methodical, at best. Solving so many dilemmas is going to take longer than what spontaneous tent city communities can endure.
And here's the thing: Whether they know it yet, I do not think they are designed for that purpose. Seeing the proper offending parties and entities taking large, effective first steps towards solutions will do, for starters.
And, I sense the Occupy movement may already be much closer to maximizing their success potential than even they likely realize. Their success will depend on how well they can evaluate and measure their constructive impact potential; design and manage an intelligent and effective long-term strategy of consistent efforts; and how much of a big-picture philosophy they can envision.
Observation Three: We're asking the wrong questions
Widely diverse groups of people from every walk of life are spontaneously gathering and participating in this public demonstration of something a bit stronger than mere general discontent. They are each demanding full accountability from the government and corporations and are especially concerned with seeing workable solutions to the numerous economics related issues affecting them. That’s a mouthful.
But, most folks observing this with interest apparently aren't seeing the forest for the trees here. They are continuously asking for more specifics and a more serious, thoughtful dialogue concerning any and all of the specific issues. After all, asking for the specific whys and whats of this movement seems appropriate, doesn’t it?
The ambiguous and undefined aspect of these protests has frustrated me from the start. As many others, I am a solutions-oriented individual and therefore logically thought it was the responsibility of those complaining to clearly explain all of their complaints. Then we could understand the matter and attempt to transfer the responsibility for those problems to the collective shoulders of the appropriate decision makers out there for resolution. Logical? Yes, usually. But here, it doesn't work that way.
This is not a picket line organization demanding that a renegotiated contract be agreed upon between all appointed representatives. This "happening" has no model. It is simply people of every possible persuasion and circumstance; a body of every color, age, and ethnicity; an unlikely, capsulized coalition of even the most disparate of beliefs, ideologies, philosophies, and theologies coming together in a living, breathing, human sculpture of suffering. They have simply had enough. In this sense, the "leaderless" moniker they have given themselves is powerful. They are saying We are you. You are us. You are me.
Organizationally, however, it drives those of us sympathetic to this crisis and wanting to assist in moving this effort forward with a productive, solutions-based strategy, absolutely batty. And in this case, it should.
Many of us sympathetic to what is driving these people to our parks and streets are actually searching for creative and effective ways to assist them in clarifying their purpose, hoping that might help satisfy media and authorities, and eventually, help promote a better understanding that will move us all toward the needed changes. That was a mistake.
We have been so busy looking, yet not seeing; listening and not hearing; seeking better answers to all the wrong questions. What we have here in this movement is a visible, bona fide symptom. These people and their presence and rhetoric are not the problem. Any attempt to cure a problem by simply treating one of its symptoms rather than the root cause is foolish. What patient goes into surgery for cancer of the brain or heart with the responsibility of instructing the surgeon concerning proper methodology and technique for its removal?
Photo by Alexandra Olivia
Protester Linda Foley expresses her reaction to the domestic financial situation.
The Occupy movement does not possess and cannot have by its very nature that sort of analytical responsibility thrust upon it.
Conclusion
If the presumed gurus and wizards of public policy, industry and politics, economics and law have failed us this badly – due to us not holding them rigorously accountable for four or more decades – do we really presume those thousands of people who are just trying to endure their personal versions of an economically torched misery are going to offer up sacred stone tablets inscribed with the secret code to unraveling entrenched corruption and incompetence within our business and governmental bedfellows?
These people are simply people. They are you and I. And together, right now, we are all the sad, culminating, multi-generational product of our own undoing.
What are they saying? In all of their various ways and means it seems to me to be the same, simple message: "No more. Stop it. Stop it now. And ... fix it."
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Pop icon Peter Max exhibits paintings at the Crescent Hotel this summer
"humbleness"??????
Um, Mr. Means (reporter), your fourth-grade English teacher is going to smack yo
nickss16, anonymous:
Wow... Stop it and fix it... really insightful. That really paints a very clear picture of exactly what we need to do. Don't you think that if there were a silver-bullet solution it would have been implemented a long time ago?
Bottom line is this: does our economy need work / overhaul? Absolutely. Should people blame their financial shortcoming on said economy? Absolutely not. The rules in this game have been in place a long time... if you simply ignored the rules, you have no one to blame but yourself. Take some responsibility, and direct your efforts to resolving your personal situation instead of wasting your time in a park.
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Jason Rice, verified:
Beautifully put nickss16
Bottom line - they are powerful because you gave it too them. In a free country -- imbalanced and imperfect as it may be - helplessness is a choice.
Nickss16 - I personally needed to hear that today. Thanks.
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
it seems like many of the people protesting aren't old enough to have had an opportunity to "ignore the rules" yet?
politicians are making the rules and they're receiving crazy money from the financial industry to vote in their favor. the November issue of Vanity Fair lists a few recipients: Chris Dodd -- who chaired the Senate Banking Committee -- received $4 million in campaign donations on a race he quit. Senator Chuck Schumer received $6.2 million, Harry Reid received $4.7 million.
according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the financial industry employed 2,565 lobbyists in 2010. They spent more than $175 million on lobbying during the 2009-10 campaign cycle.
Citigroup got bailed out with $45 billion of taxpayer money, and JPMorgan Chase got $25 billion -- and yet they've each spent $14 million on lobbyists since 2009. Goldman Sachs, who got $10 billion in bailout money, spent $7.4 million on lobbyists. money we gave them
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Dan Levitan, anonymous:
And yet here we are again nearing another election cycle and who are the front-runners on both sides? Obama and Romney (most likely) - two establishment candidates who are essentially different sides of the same exact coin and who will continue the bailout/welfare mindset that the U.S. has been propping up for decades. Then we gripe and moan about how nothing ever seems to change... and call Ron Paul a "radical" and "nutjob." America, you deserve every ill you have experienced these past several years.
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kristi096, anonymous:
As a protester old enough to have "ignored the rules," I'll say this, we didn't ignore them... in fact we played them to a tee, but what people especially the "system" fails to respond to are these simple facts about those of us who are 30 something +...
1) We can't sleep (so we are given sleeping pills)
2) We can't eat (so we are given anti-depressants)
3) On average we work more than 60+ hours a week but only get paid for 40)
4) The cost of our healthcare plans are bankrupting us (co-pays and specialists additional)
5) We are EXHAUSTED with no where to turn- the more we work, the more we are taxed, the more we are taxed the less we see
6) The great LIE of becoming a professional to get higher pay is only thwarted by the great ANXIETY that exists when you are $100,000 dollars in debt just so you can become the first in your family to become a doctor!
7) Meanwhile Corporations are deemed "citizens" and are given the rights of a human- pay next to ZERO in taxes while the aforementioned problems pervade our poor meager little middle class lives...
8) THE RULES WERE NOT WRITTEN FOR US TO SUCCEED. We ARE the 99% ~ where is our voice!!!
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Teresa Gubbins, staff:
that same issue of Vanity Fair has an excellent story by Michael Lewis on the US economy, about how Americans are sacrificing long-term interests for short-term rewards. Good quote: "Americans have the core of the average lizard." And for things to change, we have to experience pain.
i can't recommend this November issue enough. Johnny Depp on the cover, Courtney Love profile, Mario Batali's kitchen
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tmanaugh, anonymous:
We are in the middle of what can be a peaceful revolution to re-establish our civil rights and democracy. The revolution needs to succeed if we are to stop destruction of the environment by global warming and unsustainable uses of natural resources. The revolution needs to succeed if we are to reform a legal, political and economic system that unfairly favors the rich and powerful. Can the revolution stay peaceful, and will it be successful? We are among the 99% who will answer those questions in the affirmative if we make a long-term commitment to educate ourselves and take non-violent action to support the Occupy movement.
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nickss16, anonymous:
"it seems like many of the people protesting aren't old enough to have had an opportunity to "ignore the rules" yet? "
It also seems like most of the people protesting are completely ignorant and can provide no specifics as to what they're rallying against, let alone a provide a coherent solution as to how to improve the system.
In response to kristi... that is the typical overly dramatic nonsense that defines the OWC movement. You can't sleep? Try getting some exercise. You can't eat? Our society is more obese than ever, so clearly there is a disconnect here. The average American works 60+ hours? That is just completely erroneous. The average American works less than 45 hours per week, and that is after taking into account the "evil" wall street types who are punching in 100+ hr weeks.
The OCW group would have so much more credibility if they could: 1) Hire someone to speak with any sort of intelligence about the major issues (of which there are plenty) and identify some steps to take to resolve those issues. Otherwise, the entire movement just sounds like a bunch of self-entitled whiners who think they "deserve" better, but are unwilling to put forth any effort to identify solutions. 2) Stop trying to claim they represent 99% of the population. It's laughable.
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OEsophagus, anonymous:
It seems like a lot of the people willing to characterize occupiers as one thing or another haven't set foot in an occupy camp, or read their sites or met somebody involved in the movement to actually find out what their employment situation is or what their personal economic situation is.
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razorphreak, anonymous:
I personally have some sympathy for the occupy movement in that it does at least in some small way bring to light the fact that greed is the reason for the corruption of an otherwise incredible system. They are right to protest the fact that politicians, especially the politicians, are the reason for the debt, the flawed approach to the fix, and how the laws they enact only seem to make the problems worse.
That is where my sympathies end however. Because the occupy movement attacks the very system in which America is based on, the very system that gave them the freedom to protest, they are not part of the solution. In fact, for the most part, they have no solutions, only complaints. Sure, it's great to say "We are the 99%" however what does that truly mean? Are you the 99% that only values your worth based on your bank account? Are you the 99% that feels some sense of entitlement without putting in any effort? Or are you the 99% of Americans who still feels, still knows that working hard will bring you the American Dream (vs. being handed it). Is that number still 99%?
Protesting the Gordon Gecko lifestyle is one thing; protesting capitalism and democracy because you came up on the short end all of a sudden is anarchy and that is hardly a solution.
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Clay213, anonymous:
Fischer Price Hobo Camp.
Use napalm.
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AnnaLou, anonymous:
I am part of the 99% by the OCW standards, and yet, when I hear them make all of their complaints, when I hear them decry the officers doing their jobs, when I find out their "occupation has cost the city 2.4 MILLION dollars, money that I will end up paying for in my taxes, I believe that my part of the 99% would like to smack the OCW part of the 99% upside their heads. Protesting is a wonderful American way of making your voice heard, the OCW people are just making a mess, costing us money, and cannot seem to give a clear and concise accounting of what exactly it is they want. Abstract is all well and good if you are putting something in an art gallery, but when these people wander about city hall, interrupt meetings to take over a meeting area for no other reason than that they think they are entitled to do so, I have an issue. Quit saying you are the voice of the 99%, you are your own voice, speaking for yourself and yourself alone. Do not put words in my mouth, do not think you are above the law. I am part of the 99% and believe it or not, I am only speaking for myself, I do not have the unmitigated gall or arrogance to believe I have the right to speak for anyone else. And looky here....this is my voice.
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Clay213, anonymous:
I don't want to be a part of any group that takes orders from credit card frauders in Guy Fawkes masks
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Russ Vandeveerdonk, verified:
Great, GREAT article. I spent time down there at Occupy Dallas last week, see my facebook page with pictures and comments under Russ Vandeveerdonk. Big day today the 16th of November for them all.
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klindley9536, anonymous:
If you don't like the way Occupy Dallas is doing it, why don't you oppose the dictatorship of the rich your way? The Occupy movement is not a product for you to buy. It is not an advertising campaign to manipulate your emotional frailty. It is not a candidate telling you lies you like. It is an attempt to unite people -- yeah, you! -- against the corruption and ruination of our country by a tiny few who have bought our government at every level.
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Travis Bush, verified:
So..we are supposed to treat the OD group as just another Special Olympics participant in the world of politics? I watched yesterday as their lawyer went on about "we won't smoke pot on public property"..they all repeated it back..."we won't drink on public property"...they all repeated it back..When he decided to pronounce they would start really protesting the issues, not one of them chimed back. It was disconcerting.
Sure, it is a great way to get people together and share common grievances, but at some point the rubber has to hit the road. One issue I take with this article is as follows:
You say Their success will depend on how well they can evaluate and measure their constructive impact potential; design and manage an intelligent and effective long-term strategy of consistent efforts; and how much of a big-picture philosophy they can envision.
And then you say The Occupy movement does not possess and cannot have by its very nature that sort of analytical responsibility thrust upon it.
Which is it?
Protest is great...gathering people and showing solidarity for a cause is great...it won't matter though if the powers that be don't take you seriously.
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sojourner109, anonymous:
It's good to see quite a number of thoughtfully developed responses to this story. It appears some have understood what I was attempting to say more than others. Several of the questions raised (such as some by nickss 16's two comments) were actually addressed within the story or seem to misrepresent what I expressed. While I can't respond to all of the questions presented perhaps I can clarify the last one raised by Travis.
The statement is: "Their success will depend on how well they can evaluate and measure their constructive impact potential; design and manage an intelligent and effective long-term strategy of consistent efforts; and how much of a big-picture philosophy they can envision." Future possibility: I do not know whether they will eventually evolve into a more articulate and strategically inclined entity that can do this or not; that depends on a number of things.
The other statement, is: "The Occupy movement does not possess and cannot have by its very nature that sort of analytical responsibility thrust upon it." Present reality: That refers to most of those participating in the current, spontaneous and visible manifestation of frustration and anger we have been witnessing. Most of these people seem to simply be expressing their deep discontent with a large number of failed or improper governmental policies which have allowed corporations and financial institutions to engage in behaviors detrimental to the country's economy and future. These people are not out there to offer expert analysis and remedy, only to put a face on the impact these problems have had on citizens from all walks of life and to get these issues on the minds of people and the decision makers who "are" capable of analyzing and resolving them.
And yes, like it or not, I have found people everywhere demanding the exact same thing from their corporate and governmental decision makers as these folks are, namely: "No more. Stop it. Stop it now. And ... fix it."
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Travis Bush, verified:
Thanks for coming back to comment on your story. I understand what you are saying. Even though I have been critical of several aspects of the Occupy movement, there is no doubt it has stirred up discussion and awareness in the economic disparity. That is a god thing. I'll keep watching.
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smw_2, anonymous:
When your tooth aches, it isn't expected to tell you how to relieve it. As the author stated, it is a symptom of a problem. An indicator if you will, that ultimately requires attention by someone knowledgeable of the affected system and how to effect a solution.
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Clay213, anonymous:
The tooth ache comparison is apt, as these losers are a decay that should be removed by force.
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nickss16, anonymous:
"When your tooth aches, it isn't expected to tell you how to relieve it. "
So you're comparing the OWC to something that has no reason or intelligible thought process? Sounds about right.
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nickss16, anonymous:
Clearly I meant OWS, not OWC... I blame the weak coffee one of my coworkers made this morning =)
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What do you think?