A way forward?

Probably the most interesting facet of the Occupy movement is its implementation of a direct democracy rarely seen in contemporary society. The ‘People’s Mic’ system, whereby protestors banned from bullhorns and megaphones instead have their proclamations repeated by the crowd, is a sublime example. An individual’s voice is amplified by the many, but interestingly their voice will naturally fade if they are voicing something that does not have the assent of the crowd. If you venture too far outside of what another person in the People’s Mic relay is willing to accept, the person is unlikely to repeat your message. If you lose the crowd, you literally lose your voice.

The impression I have received of the Occupy camps, particularly the Zuccotti Park camp, is that of a place where likeminded people have created a place of questioning, and learning. By their small example, they have created a place where each person’s voice really does matter, and each person in the group is provided for by the whole of the group. In these broad strokes, at least, the movement is remarkable.

For the past couple of days I have been suggesting that the Occupy movement should have metamorphosed into something else by now. I think I’ve realized one possibility of what that could be. At the moment I’m writing this, the Occupiers have been granted a temporary restraining order which at least in theory allows them to return to the park. At the moment much of the conversation seems like people will just be trying to go back and continue with what they were doing before the eviction. That isn’t the answer.

Something in the culture of protest has left the idea that the aim of protest is to be a thorn in the side of power, and in the side of the those who simply aren’t paying attention. Marches, sit-ins, barricades — all of these are meant to force you to pay attention, at least for a moment, and hopefully in so doing create change. It isn’t going to happen. The surest way to effect change is to change how you live your own life, and to hold it up as an example to others.

What the Occupy camps (and for that matter, numerous communities of young entrepreneurs around the world) have demonstrated, is that it is within the power of dedicated people to largely bypass the systems and corporations that they oppose. What if the Occupy movement turned itself into a framework for demonstrating to people that buying from large corporations isn’t the only option available to you. You can do quite well buying from cool, interesting people that you know. Likewise, you can do alright by providing some service to that same pool of people. What if the Occupiers didn’t go back to camp out in Zuccotti permanently, but instead came back every weekend to give classes? Zuccotti and a thousand other parks, everywhere? Learn about how to grow your own food in an urban garden, learn about how to minimize your environmental footprint, how to raise bees — whatever.

The beast is too large to ever be disturbed by a thorn in its side. But I think if we just left the beast alone, it probably isn’t going to notice you. And that’s good. Let Occupy become a mechanism that shows people how to begin freeing themselves from the sense that they are necessarily beholden to that beast.

Well that was quick….

Ironically, just a short time after I got around to posting my thoughts on how the Occupy movement needs to metamorphose into something else — broader than a few thousand people camped in parks, the NYPD finally moved in to evict the protesters from Zuccoti Park.

That the police moved to evict the protesters from the park is hardly surprising — in fact, the most surprising thing is just how long it took for it to happen. What is surprising, and indeed disturbing to me, is the media blackout imposed over the area surrounding the park. Chief among the things that makes the United States great is the high protection it gives to freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. Simply put, it is vital to a healthy and free democratic state that the citizenry is free to observe and report whatever they deem worthy of their attention. Last night, news helicopters were barred from the airspace over the park, and journalists were forcibly removed from the area.

Independent journalists from The Other 99 managed to keep up a stream from the scene of the protests as they continued, demonstrating the importance and power of new social media like Twitter and UStream.

So, yesterday I said that I thought Occupy needed to figure out what the next step was to be. I still think that, and now it seems that the NYPD has forced change on the movement. We’ll see what shakes out. I can only hope that it will be a positive change.

Above all, it is important that we are allowed to observe both sides, and hold both the protesters and police accountable for what they do. And thanks to the new proliferation of camera phones, UStream, and Twitter, I think we will be able to, regardless of who gets a press badge.

Entropy

Years ago, when I was doing my undergrad at King’s in Halifax, NS, George W. Bush came to the city. This was in the middle of the Iraq war, in a famously left-wing city. 20,000 people marched in protest, gathering first in a park, then moving from there to chant outside the hotel Bush was meeting in. I tagged along, planning to write an article on the protests for the Watch, the university newspaper.

At first, the protest was impressive. 20,000 people, all gathered in common cause. From the hotel, the mass of people marched through the city to Spring Garden Rd., a major commercial street. They arranged themselves to block the intersection with another major street. People with megaphones spoke, the crowd cheered them on. They were being noticed.

But then a couple of hours passed by. The protesters had taken to marching about 1000 feet, up and down the street, alternately blocking one of two different intersections. Their numbers had long since begun to trail off, and by the time I left there were only a couple of hundred remaining, still blocking the roads.

What had started as an impressive display of public protest had gradually eroded into a symbol of the futility of such demonstrations. The police didn’t have to move to break things up. (I spoke briefly with one Officer, who seemed almost disappointed in the increasing aimlessness of the mob.) All it took was entropy.

I’ve increasingly been reminded of that protest as they current Occupy protests continue. The problem with the Halifax protest was that no one ever came up with what to do next. That initial outpouring of energy was allowed to slip away as the march went on too long, and morphed into a farce. I fear that the Occupy movement is in danger of doing the same thing. Whatever statement was to be made from the sit-ins in parks around the western world, has already been made. To go any further Occupy would need to morph into something else, find another way to continue directing that energy as a force for good in the world. There are a few thousand people camped out in those tents. In the beginning there were millions of people who agreed with them, and supported them. It is up to that core of thousands to come up with a new way to engage those millions before their patience runs out and their attention drifts away.

The power of protest has been eroded by those who treat it like a bonfire — it burns bright for a while, but eventually it cools, the fire goes out, and soon enough there is hardly any sign that anything happened at all. The point should be to capture that initial energy, and use it. A week ago, I thought Occupy might have the potential to do that. Now it is starting to look more and more like that Halifax protest, running up and down the street, looking more and more ridiculous with each person who walks away.