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:D Occupy time: What I learned from #occupywallstreetOctober 20, 2011 <snip> Last weekend, I was in NYC. I went to Zuccotti Park three times, Washington Square Park two times, a working group meeting, a strategy session, and I occupied Times Square (yay!). Since I got back, I've been embedded in the media feeds, but I've also started to reflect some on the experience rather than just the politics and the issues. In part, this reflection has come from talking with students and friends as we think about how to extend the occupation form up here, to the town and campus. It's also come about because of how much time all of this takes. Yesterday I noticed that I spent about three hours in different face to face conversations with people. That's rare for me. I usually work alone, in front of a screen or text, for hours on end. And I usually prefer it that way--for reasons personal and inchoate as well as determined by capital: chatting is not productive (I try to trick myself and the system in me by writing about new media--that way, being online all the time is work).
Anyway, endless meetings: the drudgery of socialism or the thrill of activism? Can't have one without the other. But #occupywallstreet is suggesting something different to me--that the endless meetings, the constant meetings, are the occupation; they are the break with everyday life. Activity in around the movement, generating interest, making plans, writing, making signs, consulting, discussing, debating, and listening--with a patience and generosity that is very hard to maintain--all of this is the occupation. It is what is breaking with the everyday, breaking with business as usual, breaking with consumerism and mindless grazing in social networks.
It can be, but isn't yet, the way we break with capitalism. I don't mean that this is how capitalism collapses--our breaking with the system doesn't yet mean that the system won't keep running on, like a zombie or an automaton or an abandoned strip mall. It will still keep coming for us, trying to eat us and suck up everything we have left. But to the extent that it can't run without us--that people can stop doing jobs that requires them to foreclose on others, to cut of power from people who can't pay their bills, to deny insurance claims, to demand repayment of student loan debt--to the extent that we can stop doing these things to each other, the system continues to crumble.
Imagine, Lloyd Blankfein depends on lots of people to do his dirty work. What happens when lots of them stop? When no one will drive him anywhere? When no one will tell him his schedule? When no one will prepare his food or take out his trash or fix his furnance? What if everybody is too busy occupying everywhere?<snip> Link: http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2011/10/occupy-time-what-i-learned-from-occupywallstreet.html:kick: |
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