Dear Folks, You already know my personal viewpoint about Occupy Wall St (OWS), that because all significant political change in history begins from the bottom up, OWS is so significant that it has now become the elephant in the room that even the brightest people are not seeing. I have been reading pundits who, pointing to this years election, are discussing strategies, but seldom are they including in their reflections the power of the people when that power is collectively felt. Now we know that this people presence is worldwide. I say this because of one of the most remarkable articles that has been written in recent decades. I learned that it was coming when I listened when Charley Rose had the Time's Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, on his talk program, discussing not only OWS but also protest movements in the world in sink with we Americans. Now we have Time magazine's vol l78,no 25 historical article, 'Person of the Year: The Protester : From The Arab Spring to Athens, From Occupy Wall Street to Moscow." The article is 50 pages long, written by Stengel, with input from people worldwide. Remarkably, this worldwide movement began with a young man who burned himself to death in Tunisia in protest against indignities laid on him by police and government officials. His mother says, "My son set himself on fire for dignity." His sister added: "In Tunisia, dignity is more important than bread."
Apparently dignity is more important than anything material in the entire world. For that terrible fire that consumed a despairing man has ignited a worldwide conflagration that it is so extensive that it is affecting populations that "total at least 3 billion people." This number is near one half of the entire world's population. It is becoming the primary educational force in our times, because "education" means in Latin, "to draw out." To "draw out" what? Plutarch, the Greek philosopher, has the answer from long ago, when he wrote: "The mind is not a container to be filled but a fire to be kindled." The protesters have awakened to not only their own fire, their own passion for justice as well as having their own voice to be heard, but this worldwide movement has also a profound communal quality. The leaders, Stengel, are talking to and supporting one another, Half way through the article, a two-page spread shows what is happening in twenty five countries. People uprisings are occurring even in China and, of all places, Burma. Stengel calls these two pages "The Protest Network: Their demands are very different, but they found inspiration in one another." For example, in July of last year, the "proto-Occupiers in New York met with some veterans of the protests from Spain, Greece and North Africa to figure out what OWS might mean." David Graeber, a prominent anthropology scholar encouraged the leaders to set up "a long-term encampment… a democratic protest village" minimally and with the general goal of protesting injustice, before going for specific agendae. Graeber "also coined the ingenious slogan, "We are the 99%." (p. 73)
"It is remarkable how much the protest vanguard share:" (p.61) the young, middle class, educated, initially independent of parties and political leaders, a recognition that only the rich are making it and the majority are not because of greed and power; the majority are being left out. "They are fervent small--d democrats." Instead of using the internet to enter into an "induced fugue state, they use the internet to find one another and take to the streets to insist on fairness and (in the Arab world), freedom." This includes the protesters in Syria, who government forces have killed 5,000 of them. Given this their president said on our television that no rational folk would do such a thing. Soon I hope that this person will end up hiding in a tunnel. I listened to public radio the other day reporting that in one town in that country, snipers are on so many tops of buildings that they have practically stopped all commerce, including safely buying and selling food.
I want to end with another evidence of this remarkable world development. In Newsweek, Jan 9 and l6th, an article entitled, "Al Qaeda on the Ropes" points how killed leaders, especially Bin Laden, has seriously affected the influence of this insurgent movement. Here is the deeper reason as stated by a young fighter's prestigious uncle: Money for Al Qaeda has dried up in favor of political rather than violent action as shown in the Arab Spring. This prominent man said the significant following words: "The peaceful struggle on Arab Streets has accomplished more than bin Laden and Xawahiri ever had." (p. 27)
One final note. While I admire enormously what OWS has done, in changing the dialogue in this country back to injustice and its correction this great Elephant must now take up the work of turning its political power into specific agendae and supporting democratic persons who will not only give us four more years of (hopefully now an awakened) Obama, but also a Congress that is democratically functional in both houses. We also need this movements functioning effectively in every state --as we have seen recently in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana-- so as to take back state legislatures, and counter the many attempts to reduce the number of democratic voters by new restrictions. I for one will seek to engage the OWS in these regards. John Giannini
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