Occupy Your Mind
Lately, I've been thinking about the Occupy movement in relation to past revolutions in the US. I'm thinking specifically of the labor movement in the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the social revolution and civil rights movement of the sixties. What we're seeing today is, I think, in the same vein. It has the potential to be a sea change in our culture, but we need to allow that to happen.
In other words, we need to get involved. I know, that's an odd statement coming from someone who hadn't done much more than post links on Facebook, but I think that may be just what we need. Sure, we need the crowds in Oakland and in Wall Street, but I think we also need the people who voice their opinions and normalize what's going on. The more we allow the the media to hide what's going on, the more we accept the status quo. By speaking out in support, we're normalizing what's going on, and that will actually make the movement less radical and more general. Once it's general, it will be impossible to decry as radical, and the climate will shift. Classic example is the labor movement- once enough common people chimed in, it became patently obvious where the lines were drawn, and change happened.
I've also been thinking about general acceptance of what's going on. Why can't I, a self-styled radical, not get myself to go out there and protest?
The answer, of course, is that I have too much to lose. I'm in the system now- I have student loans I need to stay on top of or risk being indentured for the rest of my life, having my tax returns and my wages garnished, my credit destroyed, all sorts of nasty thing. I can't afford to be arrested, because I can't afford to lose my job. Sure, for me personally that's a relatively small risk (I have a pretty awesome company), but for thousands of others that's a big deal. In any case, I really can't afford a criminal record- in a climate where finding jobs is so difficult, having a record could make it impossible. Then, rather than being able to subsist on shit jobs like most other people with criminal records, I'm screwed because of my debt.
I fall into that gap of people who went into a system that they couldn't afford, but which still had the climate of one that they could. When I was in highschool, the economy was booming. I knew that finding a job once I got out would be easy- and it was. 2006 was not as good as 1996, but I was still able to land a good job within a week through some good connections. The young people who are in their early 20's today are growing up in a culture where that sort of optimism is, frankly, stupid. They know better than to let themselves get indentured because they're already screwed. They're young enough to have nothing to lose, and so can really get behind this.
Putting it in terms of the sixties, they were born in 1950, I was born in 1940. In the summer of love, they were in highschool- I was in the work force, and even if I agreed with the love generation, I couldn't afford to take part in it for social and economic pressure (really, the same thing in this case). By the time things were in full swing in 1970, they were 20- I was 30. At twenty, a brush with the law can be gotten over, at thirty it's harder.
Looking at things it in that light for myself, it makes it easier for me to see what's going on and why. Why I, and people my age, are so ambivalent about this whole mess. Yes, we agree things have to change, but also remember a system where it was possible to win (or seemed to be). The police, to us, weren't always in the pay of the big corporations because they never had to be (at least not visibly). They were a pain in the ass to young skateboarders, but there was no reason to believe they would actively shield a banker they didn't personally know, and although we have all the evidence to the contrary, we still find that hard to believe. In any case, we're now in the cycle, and breaking out of that is hard.
So how to fight it?
For the time being, I can write. I can keep my head down and not get arrested, but I can spread the word, put the thoughts that everyone has in words so they're articulated. I can work my ass off to get my loans out of the way so I can risk dropping out of the system- if I have no debt, an arrest and criminal record becomes an issue, but not necessarily a disaster. I can take calculated risks. Now that I know what's at stake for me, both from a personal and fiscal standpoint, but also from a cultural and generational standpoint, I can play my odds with tighter margins. And finally, I can call myself on the bullshit. I can stop saying "well, the system worked in the past, so maybe people just need to adjust things and move on" and realize that yes, this is a revolution, and I'd damn well better hope it succeeds, because otherwise we're all fucked. I can attack my life with a vengeance, really look at the pros and cons, and start making decisions.
Part of that decision process is going to be the future. I'm still committed to applying to graduate school for one more year- I've started this process, I'm going to see it through. But I'm less and less committed to the idea. I still want to write and to critique the world, but I'm starting to realize that the university system is not longer the safe haven designed for that, but just another relic of a time when laws were a bit more clearly designed for the good of the nation. Criticism, going forward, will require a certain amount of risk. So if I don't get in (or do, but decide not to attend, for whatever reason), I need to start angling my life into a direction to make a difference. I need to keep writing on my own time, no excuses. I need to look into more blogging, or even actual journalism- commentary, certainly. Could there still be a place for harsh, critical media? Perhaps. But for that, this revolution needs to succeed. We need to have a thriving marketplace where capitalism can work on an even playing field. And in the meantime, I need to keep working to free myself from an obligatory inclusion in a system which demands my capitulation. If you can't fold, you can't bluff.
What are you doing to improve the world?
In other words, we need to get involved. I know, that's an odd statement coming from someone who hadn't done much more than post links on Facebook, but I think that may be just what we need. Sure, we need the crowds in Oakland and in Wall Street, but I think we also need the people who voice their opinions and normalize what's going on. The more we allow the the media to hide what's going on, the more we accept the status quo. By speaking out in support, we're normalizing what's going on, and that will actually make the movement less radical and more general. Once it's general, it will be impossible to decry as radical, and the climate will shift. Classic example is the labor movement- once enough common people chimed in, it became patently obvious where the lines were drawn, and change happened.
I've also been thinking about general acceptance of what's going on. Why can't I, a self-styled radical, not get myself to go out there and protest?
The answer, of course, is that I have too much to lose. I'm in the system now- I have student loans I need to stay on top of or risk being indentured for the rest of my life, having my tax returns and my wages garnished, my credit destroyed, all sorts of nasty thing. I can't afford to be arrested, because I can't afford to lose my job. Sure, for me personally that's a relatively small risk (I have a pretty awesome company), but for thousands of others that's a big deal. In any case, I really can't afford a criminal record- in a climate where finding jobs is so difficult, having a record could make it impossible. Then, rather than being able to subsist on shit jobs like most other people with criminal records, I'm screwed because of my debt.
I fall into that gap of people who went into a system that they couldn't afford, but which still had the climate of one that they could. When I was in highschool, the economy was booming. I knew that finding a job once I got out would be easy- and it was. 2006 was not as good as 1996, but I was still able to land a good job within a week through some good connections. The young people who are in their early 20's today are growing up in a culture where that sort of optimism is, frankly, stupid. They know better than to let themselves get indentured because they're already screwed. They're young enough to have nothing to lose, and so can really get behind this.
Putting it in terms of the sixties, they were born in 1950, I was born in 1940. In the summer of love, they were in highschool- I was in the work force, and even if I agreed with the love generation, I couldn't afford to take part in it for social and economic pressure (really, the same thing in this case). By the time things were in full swing in 1970, they were 20- I was 30. At twenty, a brush with the law can be gotten over, at thirty it's harder.
Looking at things it in that light for myself, it makes it easier for me to see what's going on and why. Why I, and people my age, are so ambivalent about this whole mess. Yes, we agree things have to change, but also remember a system where it was possible to win (or seemed to be). The police, to us, weren't always in the pay of the big corporations because they never had to be (at least not visibly). They were a pain in the ass to young skateboarders, but there was no reason to believe they would actively shield a banker they didn't personally know, and although we have all the evidence to the contrary, we still find that hard to believe. In any case, we're now in the cycle, and breaking out of that is hard.
So how to fight it?
For the time being, I can write. I can keep my head down and not get arrested, but I can spread the word, put the thoughts that everyone has in words so they're articulated. I can work my ass off to get my loans out of the way so I can risk dropping out of the system- if I have no debt, an arrest and criminal record becomes an issue, but not necessarily a disaster. I can take calculated risks. Now that I know what's at stake for me, both from a personal and fiscal standpoint, but also from a cultural and generational standpoint, I can play my odds with tighter margins. And finally, I can call myself on the bullshit. I can stop saying "well, the system worked in the past, so maybe people just need to adjust things and move on" and realize that yes, this is a revolution, and I'd damn well better hope it succeeds, because otherwise we're all fucked. I can attack my life with a vengeance, really look at the pros and cons, and start making decisions.
Part of that decision process is going to be the future. I'm still committed to applying to graduate school for one more year- I've started this process, I'm going to see it through. But I'm less and less committed to the idea. I still want to write and to critique the world, but I'm starting to realize that the university system is not longer the safe haven designed for that, but just another relic of a time when laws were a bit more clearly designed for the good of the nation. Criticism, going forward, will require a certain amount of risk. So if I don't get in (or do, but decide not to attend, for whatever reason), I need to start angling my life into a direction to make a difference. I need to keep writing on my own time, no excuses. I need to look into more blogging, or even actual journalism- commentary, certainly. Could there still be a place for harsh, critical media? Perhaps. But for that, this revolution needs to succeed. We need to have a thriving marketplace where capitalism can work on an even playing field. And in the meantime, I need to keep working to free myself from an obligatory inclusion in a system which demands my capitulation. If you can't fold, you can't bluff.
What are you doing to improve the world?