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Think Occupy Wall St. is a phase? You don’t get it.
Doug Rushkoff
CNN
Posted: Oct 6, 2011
Like the spokesmen for Arab dictators feigning bewilderment over protesters’ demands, mainstream television news reporters finally training their attention on the growing Occupy Wall Street protest movement seem determined to cast it as the random, silly blather of an ungrateful and lazy generation of weirdos. They couldn’t be more wrong and, as time will tell, may eventually be forced to accept the inevitability of their own obsolescence.
Consider how CNN anchor Erin Burnett, covered the goings on at Zuccotti Park downtown, where the protesters are encamped, in a segment called “Seriously?!” “What are they protesting?” she asked, “nobody seems to know.” Like Jay Leno testing random mall patrons on American History, the main objective seemed to be to prove that the protesters didn’t, for example, know that the U.S. government has been reimbursed for the bank bailouts. It was condescending and reductionist.
 More predictably perhaps, a Fox News reporter appears flummoxed in this outtake from “On the Record,” in which the respondent refuses to explain how he wants the protests to “end.” Transcending the shallow partisan politics of the moment, the protester explains “As far as seeing it end, I wouldn’t like to see it end. I would like to see the conversation continue.”
To be fair, the reason why some mainstream news journalists and many of the audiences they serve see the Occupy Wall Street protests as incoherent is because the press and the public are themselves. It is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped.
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Douglas Rushkoff is a fellow of the IEET, author of a dozen books and comic books, producer of two award-winning Frontline documentaries, and his essays have been published widely.
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http://arthurgraham.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-support-of-occupy-wall-street.html
“It is difficult to comprehend a 21st century movement from the perspective of the 20th century politics, media, and economics in which we are still steeped.”
And 19th century politics as well. It has been said: “we liked the 19th century so much, we tried to do it all over again in the 20th.”
For instance WWI was 19th century nationalism fought with 20th century weapons.
In fact, 21st century American politics is 20th century politics filtered through 19th century politics, filtered through 1776.
Nice article.
We’ve been posting it all over G+ and livestream.
Thanks.
“When asked about the thousands of people that have been protesting in lower Manhattan, Herman Cain said, ‘They’re basically saying that somehow the government is supposed to take from those that have succeeded and give to those who want to protest.’ He added: ‘That’s not the way America was built.’
Cain said people should instead protest the White House and President Barack Obama because the president has not created jobs. Bankers and others on Wall Street have created jobs, he said.
‘They’re protesting in the wrong place,’ Cain said. ‘I’m not sure I know why they’re there. If they’re there because they are jealous of Wall Street and bankers and people who have succeeded, then they’re there for the wrong reasons. This country is based on people who achieve their dreams and work.’
He added that the protesters ‘should go figure out what America is all about.’
Mitt Romney, who has called the protest ‘class warfare,’ brushed aside any talk of the protests during a brief stop in Tallahassee on Wednesday.
‘I’m just trying to occupy the White House,’ Romney said.”
Yes that’s it, he’s only interested in occupying the White House, nothing more; being president is all that matters.
Jeremy • Columbia, SC • Oct 7, 2011
The protesters need to stick this out. I think around the world we are seeing that with enough persistence - they can’t be ignored. If Wall Street police, etc. try to use brutality to stop this peaceful protest - it will only make the protest stronger. The only way this protest could screw up is if they give up or turn violent - the latter will immediately delegitimize their movement. So here’s to their non-violent efforts!
Mark Plus • Mayer, AZ, USA, North America, Earth • Oct 9, 2011
Uh, guys. America’s ruling class managed to turn back the social revolutions of the 1960’s. It wouldn’t surprise me if some new version of the Powell Memo has started to make the rounds on the Internet to provide guidance for managing & containing the Occupy Wall Street disturbance. These alpha rich guys already have the mechanisms in place to deal with these flea bites.
@ Mark..
It’s true what you say, but this notion, the idea of a “Global movement for social and economic change” has no borders, is now internet wide and cannot be constrained by tactics or political game plans.
It does not matter now whether there are 700, 7,000 or 70 Wall St protesters, as the real wave of dissent is spreading online. You cannot constrain, push against, or hold back the Sea of collective human consciousness that aspires for change.
The only way to appease the rising and “persistent” Global movement is through “real” changes to social and economic policies?
Ardent and persistent peaceful protest supported by individual participation and tenacity, and incite to action, will bring these policy changes if that is what you truly want? Now to decide, what do you really want?
And it is of great importance to think about what changes you do want, because sooner or later you will be asked? And how silly it would all come to be if we could not answer this simple question
It does appear that way, Mark.
Yet it It is going to be more difficult for rulers to manage & contain youths this time around; optimistically, this is a long-term revolution-in-stages. I remember quite clearly youths could escape to the counterculture and its spirituality way back when; however there is no counterculture to escape to in the 21st century: it’s been fragmented into numerous subcultures. Thus youths may very well become more desperate due to having nowhere to hide from today’s unseemly realities.
With today’s—and tomorrow’s—Internet, literate youths can ferret out more secrets than they could four decades ago; problem is, many youths are not literate. Yet they do possess a more developed sense of having the wool pulled over their eyes.
Occupy movement is a viral social media phenomenon by John Lothian
http://www.johnlothiannewsletter.com/2011/10/occupy-movement-is-viral-social-media.html
Remember:
not revolution, but revolution-in-stages from now until midcentury.
Eyes on the prize, guys.
I predict that by the end of the decade, government as we know it will have been replaced by social media/internet.
These are the prophecies of Clay Shirky and Marshal McLuhan.
The Elite have one card remaining: Genocide/global culling of the human population.
End game.
“I predict that by the end of the decade, government as we know it will have been replaced by social media/internet.”
If this is so, it is very good news- to say the very least.
TakePart • Los Angeles, CA • Oct 11, 2011
Thanks for this article. Its definitely not a phase. Its a movement that has been brewing a long time. Occupy Wall Street Outs Congressman Peter King—http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/10/10/occupy-wall-street-outs-congressman-peter-king
There’s something to be taken on board, though:
if capitalism is ended then America would end in its present form, it would be dissolved as the Soviet Union was 20 years ago; no wonder Adam Smith is worshiped in America as if he were Jesus Christ. But ‘patriots’ (nationalists) wont hear of the dissolution of America in its present form; they think:
“America right or wrong, it is the greatest country in the world”.
And how many tens of millions of those who think this way are there?
10 million?
20?...
We are cursed to live in interesting times.
This is from the Comments section at the latest IEET poll; posted by “Jack”:
“OWS is pure hype about nothing but puerile drivel. Less for you…more for me!! The same crap has been being shoveled by the have-nots for millenia.”
We will ignore how Jack’s comment was hastily written and concentrate on its unfairness. If OWS was nothing but crap being shoveled by have-nots, then why did have-nots, who have existed for millennia, not protest years ago? in 2004, or five years ago, say. Or in ‘08. Why did OWS protesters wait until autumn of 2011? because they now sense something wrong? did they wait until matters reached a head?
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