I have spoken to a number of people about the occupy movement sweeping the globe in recent days. Today I was on a call with Peter Block and John McKnight of Abundant community. The conversation among participants was robust and the insights valuable relating to this event.
Back in February I wrote a post called “Egypt Thou Art Me.” The premise was that we Americans should not watch Egypt’s citizen movement passively but rather be inspired by it and remain mindful of our own strife and internal challenges.
Occupy Wall street is what this blog and that post are about…people having a sense of the need to regain local control and power over their lives. In constitutional terms it is referred to as the sovereign right to economic, social, educational and spiritual liberty.
The occupy movement runs deeper than the redistribution of wealth or compensation. It is a rebellion against a culture organized around interests, rights and entitlements. An increasing number of people are feeling compelled to go because they feel isolated in their lives, without control of economic, social, educational and spiritual issues. They hope to connect and reestablish a local conversation to consider their alternatives. They are finding each other at these events all across the country and world.
To the participants Wall Street and Washington are the same and synonymous with taking away their individual voice. Both have become out of reach or too big to fail or something, and have blatantly ignored our individual citizen and consumer interests in favor of their own. Instinctively occupiers understand that the decisions and governance of these two behemoths are affecting their lives…they feel swept up in it all…powerless and are not willing to take it anymore.
Occupy is an attempt at restoration of citizen local control. It is a rebellion against the value of nothing...where mortgages that have no value are combined and called an asset. Where debt is bundled and is called an asset. Where corporations limit choices and ask more for less. Where political parties argue ideology and maneuver for power and accomplish nothing. Occupiers are no longer willing to tolerate the result of such actions that benefit the few yet so severely impact the many. They seek to reestablish a connection to their own real assets with real value and locally control the transfer of value in those things to money or currency…to engage in local food, business, banking, education, neighborhoods and trade.
They are criticized for not being able to articulate what they want. But they are smart to not get into specifics and stay on a set of principles which only our democracy can address. They understand that if they do get issue specific they will be no better than a political party. Then like all special interests, they will find themselves in an argument, which will divert the point. This movement is not to be underestimated and will not go away anytime soon.
