November came and went. I did a little bit of protesting. I read. I talked with friends and acquaintances. I had some turkey and some pie.
The most important thing I read was a history of the early British colonies in North America, the so-called "Revolutionary" war, and the history of political 'agitation'. It's really a page turner! Kind of depressing and violent, but hey, truth is stranger than fiction. In historical context, the Occupy movement has hit on aspects of revolutionary social change that have a long standing tradition in America. Foremost is the tactic of 'protest for the sake of protest'. The relationship between 'agitation' and social change is unequivocal. The later never happens without the former.
Let anyone who thinks that the Occupy movement is 'pointless', 'unfocused', without 'goals', 'vision', etc...let any criticism of this sort be completely ignored. Political agitation is an end in itself, and an extremely important one. It is the only canvas on which social change can be painted. If not against the backdrop of social unrest, no revolutionary ideas will ever be taken seriously.
Social reform is not new. Slavery, womens' rights, civil rights.. all of these movements saw the same stuff going down pretty much the same way. But what these social movements lacked is the GA. Yes, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The General Assembly, the People's Mic, Direct Democracy...these are not frivolous aspects of the movement, not mere diversions or message boards or parties. The GA carries all of the hopes and dreams of the revolution on its back. And people in the movement don't even see it.
Historical perspective helps. For years...in fact, decades, before the Declaration of Independence was signed (by a handful of members of the 1%, by the way...not to be mistaken with 'the people', whose name they usurp) the aristocracy practiced a form of Parliamentary Burlesque...essentially forming an 'illegal' government. People's assemblies in the various states, town halls, political groups, etc.
This form of political organization led to the creation of a new government. THE 'FAKE' GOVERNMENT BECAME A REAL GOVERNMENT.
That government is the same government that holds its seat of power in Washington, DC to this day. To dismiss the Occupy movement and the GA...to scoff and laugh at the prospect of the General Assembly becoming the mechanism through which a new government, a new constitution, and a new social order is born...is to ignore history. Hell, it's to ignore what happened in Libya this year. What was the National Transitional Council a year ago? Two years ago? And now it's the operating governmental body in the country.
An important note about the American Revolution is that we saw a group of very wealthy aristocrats, i.e. the 1%, reject the rule of another wealthy aristocracy, win independence through violence, thereby transferring executive power to America without actually changing the social order much. So Occupy does not have the advantages the Revolutionaries had. We are not rich. We are not situated for any kind of violent resistance. Our government can meet us with physical force (if and whenever they choose) in a much shorter time span.
What do we have going for us? We are on the right side of history, and the whole world is watching. Social conditions are *almost* ripe for a wide scale rejection of 'rule by the 1%, for the 1%'. We are history's bastard children. Our government was born as repressive and tyrannical as the society that bore it. Our borders were established through military conquest as unjust and disgustingly violent as any history has ever seen. Our economic system was built on the backs of slaves and near-enslaved wage laborers. We were industrialized by capitalists who made themselves rich with the full support of the government, while handing out every human indignity imaginable to the working class.
Not one single United States citizen has more right to the land they stand on than the Occupiers have a right to Grant Park. The owners of 'business capital' have no more right to it than common thieves and murderers have a right to their spoils. How was the land got? How was the economic system built? We are an illegitimate generation...but we are a new generation all the same. We did not perpetrate the sins of our fathers. We have merely inherited the ill-gotten gains of their unjust wars and despicable social practices.
Now, why are social conditions only almost, but not quite ripe for throwing off the 1% as a ruling class, and establishing a new order where the 99% control their own destiny? Because people refuse to reject the legitimacy of their government. They refuse to accept the truth about the aristocracy/plutocracy. They refuse to acknowledge that what's best for the economy is not necessarily best for the people. They refuse to see that accumulating personal wealth is not the most meaningful way a person can spend their life.
We are a society of consumers. The ills of society, the abuses of government and big business, are meaningless. All that matters to us is that there is stuff out there to be had, and our social system allows us opportunities to get it. Wealth is our god. We worship the economy, and seem to be willing to sacrifice everything to it. The logic seems to go that if the economy is good, everyone is happy, because people have jobs, and therefore we can all get a piece of the pie.
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.
The GA has potential to plant the seed that will grow into the American National Transition council, demanding a new constitution, one truly written by the people, for the people...not by the 1%! But what's stopping our society from moving in this direction (a direction I would consider the 'forward' direction, from any reasonable perspective) is a seemingly undying patriotism and devotion to consumer capitalism in the USA and across a broad swath of the international community as well.
I don't know what it would take to change people's perspectives here, but at least Occupy has its sights set in the right place.
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