What has struck me is the cultural and generational aspects of the Occupy Movement.
It is still in its infancy but some outlines are becoming clear. This is just preliminary and it all could change but I am struck by how their cultural rules are so diffferent from those of my generation.
Political:
The first item to note is their beliefs on politics. They obviously do not trust our current politics, our political system and our poliltical leaders. But this not mean they mistrust politics rightly done from their point of view.
The aspects of Occupy politics include:
1-Politics as direct democracy. This is the politics of the small town, the small village, not the large city, not the politics of a republic. This is face to face politics, politics done in the Greek Demos style, in the Greek city-state.
Therefore, politics is fine if done in this direct style. The question is whether this village style politics is possible, sustainable and exportable.
(Apparently, it is in the short run, at least before winter sets in.)
Whereas a large country generally has to become a republic or rule by representatives and/or lobbyists, this direct village style, while not possible even a decade ago, is possible given the advent of social media, instant communications and face to face contacts on the streets or by talking to a face on an Iphone.
The preconditions for villiage and face to face contact are now in place and this was not possible even ten years ago. So in principle this style of politics is sustainable. It is the style of this generation which has been raised on social media. Note as well, there are over 70 sub-committees in Occupy Wallstreet, all in contact with one another instantly everyday. That is significant. Most governments don't do this. Technology has made the villiage model viable again.
The second political aspect is the demand that there not be leaders. This, to me, harkens back to the citizen as political speaker, not being represented by others, or having others speak for the citizen. The citizen can in person or on the Iphone, or on facebook or twitter can speak directly for her or himself-this is the ultimate importance and meaning of the internet.
This is the first time this has been possible in modern times. This harkens back to the past where small towns and small villages were the rule. Small face to face communities have, historically, been the dominant model for most of the world where most humans lived in small communities of less than three hundred souls.
Third, the "no need for leaders" idea is aligned to the "no demands" aspect of the movement. The media is upset by the tenet "no leaders," and the fact that there are no demands coming from the movement.
But this flows from the street model which has been installed. The goal clearly is not to make demands upon what is viewed as a broken system, the goal, as least in part is to model and create alternative visions of what is possible and to build or model those alternatives. One doesn't clamor to get into a system which one considers a corrupt, inept system. Will this work out? Unknown at this point.
Four, we see demonstrated here a politics which is at heart, the politics of equality-but a specific kind of equality created by the life-circumstances of the Occupiers.
Each person can speak in the general assembly, no one is allowed to take control of the stage, all can speak and consensus decision-making is one of the cardinal rules.
Note this is not majority decision-making, but consensus decision-making, everyone or virtually everyone has to agree (90 percent) on a given course of action.
This is a higher bar than majority decision-making, time-consuming, slow and exhausting, but the pay off is tremendous loyalty and committment, a committment which has sustained for over 40 days. Few demonstrations in American history have been able to do what these folks have achieved using these methods.
There is an emphasis on local action and local supports, and a mistrust of large centralized institutions, the banks, insurance companies, financial giants etc. America, we see by this model, is to be rebuilt from the bottom up rather that the top down.
Lastly they have in NY at least a functioning village, lots of support and 500,000 in the bank to take care of their needs. That is a surprizingly good start.
But we ask come winter will it all fall apart, will this way of modeling politics fall into factions and divisions and disillusionment?
Unknown at this point.
But few movements have enjoyed such widespread support as this Occupy Movement.
Tommorow we continue this generational analysis and notions of equality looking at race, gender, equality, attitudes toward money, community and sex among movement members of this generation. What do we find there?
11-8-11
What may we ask distinguishes this younger wall street generation from our own and especially their notions of equality and politics I noted above. Where do these ideas come from?
I have raised children, who are now grown, so I speak from both personal experience and from trying to see what the young people who occupy in 82 cities are like.
This is of course speculation but I am seeing the Occupy generation as perhaps the first generation which will not do as well as us, their parents. They know this.
This is the first time in American history this has occured for the middle class at least.
So given this over-all context what can we say about the Occupy people?
1-They are poor and in debt, most of the college graduates among them come out of school in debt for their education at an average of about 24,000 dollars.
The total student loan amount now is about one trillion dollars, matching credit card debt in the US. This is a tremendous burden on them especially when they leave school and find there are no jobs waiting. Paying the debt without a job, a debt which the banks have made non-dischargeable in bankruputcy, is horrendous. So the young people are stuck with this debt for life-especially since the banks can have their wages garnished-taken from them.
In all this they don't have the capacity to buy a house, or even sometimes a car and have developed a culture that is based on a sense of volunteering; most can't get jobs so they volunteer at organizations hoping to get hired eventually.
This is has been called the "volunteer generation" by some--so prevalent is this practice. Others are woefully underemployed not using their skills, even on a paid basis.
Note that most of the people at the Face Book office are volunteers, forced into this volunteering work hoping to get hired.
Many more in this generation have to take unpaid internships hoping to show some experience on their resumes.
Fully half have had to go back home and live with the parents, or go back to school hoping that the additional training will help with work at a later time.
Others live with roommates not being able to afford to live on their own and through all this have created a culture of "equality" and a life style which is low consumption, friendship oriented, where often they has to rely on friends and roommates for aid and help.
There is the source of the strong sense of community among them--a sense of community better off people have lost because we as older adults, don't have to depend on friends and neigbors the way they do.
Moreover it is easy to get out people for the marches because these younger people are in contact with many many more people than us older adults.
They can, with the internet, organize quickly and efficiently, and have some times thousands of contacts on their face book pages. In a matter of a week 79,000 people responded to one person's call for a Bank Transfer Day and this with one posting. There was no need for phone banks, email or mail campaigns and the like; this is a powerful tool which my generation did not have.
Note as well that for some the free food, meeting people in their own generation and other supports available in the camps are important and reflect a generation used to supporting one another and liking that way of living. The Occupy movement and it accompanyments are a perfect reflection then of this generation and it's values.
Social media, therefore,has enabled this sense of community and gives the occupy people a sense of connection across time and distance.
Many Occupy camps are in daily contact via the internet and video streaming daily. They know what is going on around the world with the movement each day and talk via direct video contact and/or texting.
This is an incredible communication network, created virtually over night in the movement.
For many, friends and family exist on a computer screen primarily on social media and they are used to daily contact via this medium. This is more contact than my generation dreamed of.
So social media, therefore, is at the heart of how they see themselves. We older people, on the other hand, see ourselves as individuals. The younger people see themselves as part of a disadvantaged community and younger generation acting together.
Many can't date; dating is expensive; group dating is therefore, common, and some feel trapped in this limbo and others resent us older folks who some of the Occupy people see as having put their future in jeopardy and that of the planet as well.
They are more dependent upon one another than we were as young people. We could start a family at 23, buy a house and could be on our own at 25. They, for the most part, cannot do this.
This generation is literally camped out in life, in which true purpose is very fuzzy. From this is born a notion of equality among the disenfrancised and the future-less.
In this they see that young people in most of the world is in their exact same situation, from Egypt, to Tunisia to Spain, to Italy. High unemployment and poor job propects apply in the case of these countries as well.
This is in some sense the "impoverished equality of the young," of an entire generation--and it does not look to get any better any time soon.
Under these circumstances race, gender, and ideological differences which motivated much of my generation do not seem to matter as much to them. And that is exactly what we see in the Occupy encampments-the equality of the disenfranchised, of the self-named 99 percent.
Our generation says to them "work hard and you will succeed."
That maxim does not seem true or possible for many in this generation.
So where will this go?
We are in danger, I fear, of allowing a permanent young underclass to develop in America, one which will not be able to keep up in the global economy, unless we take steps, to prevent all of this from happening. Joining them will be returning veterans who too, cannot find jobs. That is explosive.
If we do not take steps to help our young people an entire generation may be lost.
In another blog "What America Must Do To Survive" and one on Obama. I lay out what I think has to be done. Here I will summarize a few points.
1-We need to create an internal peace corps and employ the young people and returning veterans in the process of re-building America from the small town and local level up. We need pay them go do this essential work. A plan is laid out in that blog and if we move money to local banks, the funding and the loans will be there.
2-We need to forgive the debt so that they have a fighting chance in life. This will happen anyway since most cannot repay at this point. Defaults will continue to rise and then skyrocket.
3-The Occupy people have modeled the fact that social media and the internet now make it possible to stay in touch and the population does not have to be crowed into large cities, where there are no jobs anyway. Back to the small towns with technical supports, back to a more local and less expensive life style is in order. This is detailed in the "Survive" article.
4-The economy must be re-oriented away from a profit basis into basically two economies-one where the necessities of life are within the reach of those with good skills but small incomes-and an economy based on cash and profits. We have a version of this anyway, what with entire groups of people having to shop in less costly stores for Chinese goods, while others shop in the expensive stores.
It is happening already.
I am suggesting we take charge of this process and make life possible for working families and young families.
These young families are America's future and we had better get on with helping them survive.
11-10-11
Occupy Wall Street: How Did It Start and Who Are These People?
The best article on the above questions I have seen is in the link below.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/occupy-wall-street-welcome-to-the-occupation-20111110
