Let's Occupy Existence.

I've been trying to figure out why I am not more engaged with the Occupy Wall Street protests beyond reposting and commenting on stuff online. In my student days I was a member of the Student Union and went to anti-apartheid marches, anti-poll tax rallies and anti-student loan protests. Later I was a member of the Labor Party (campaigning for Tony fucking Blair of all people), and when I worked at the BBC, a member of BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union).

Now I am sitting here clicking on a mouse, sharing information and helping push the message for a movement that I can't quite decide how I feel about. I know they have the right ideas and I admire their tenacity and use of the media but something is bothering me and I can't quite work out what it is.

There are various manifestos posted on line, and also various people who say there should be no manifesto at all. This is part of my problem I think. There needs to be some kind of concrete manifesto, even if it is an entirely idealist one that will never be realized. They are after all fighting against a system that is built on an illusion, the illusion of worth. That dollar bill or euro note in your hand is just a piece of paper until it is notarized, then it instantly becomes valuable. Why? Illusions.

It sounds silly but when you have major party candidates running for President on a platform of zero taxes or abolishing the federal reserve then you have to start thinking. Illusion.

Start getting some concrete ideas and aims. Stop acting like a bunch of directionless hippies. Abbie Hoffman might have been a fun guy but I doubt he really changed anything significant in the cultural zeitgeist so stop trying to be him.

At this point I think I should add that I hope my own observations in all of this are completely wrong. I will be very happy if they are and this movement actually does coalesce into some kind of viable revolution.

The hippy analogy is one that the press will obviously continue to overuse and I don't wish to add to that particular pile-on so let me make this argument.

The real social change in the 60's came about by grassroots community organizing by people like the SDS and the Black Panthers. They went into the schools, they started soup kitchens and built community centers. Almost every activist I have met who is still involved in politics got involved at a grassroots level like that and they are the people, through hard work and patience and tenacity, that have affected real change, not a group of photogenic flower children.

It disturbs me that the Occupy Wall Street movement did not start until the destruction of the banks and corporations and other non-democratic organizations spread to the middle class. Those same people have been enslaving and ripping off working class people in every country in the world for decades, why was there no real outrage until the property bubble burst, college fees skyrocketed and unemployment reached 10%?

If you've read any Naomi Klien or even more mainstream writers like Paul Krugman then you'll know that the economic destruction reaped on the working classes is not an accident. It has been a very deliberate and slow erosion of human rights in the name of profit. They've been screaming that message from the rooftops for years but no-one seemed to care. Again, it was the loss of the middle class dream that spurred the Occupy Wall Street people into action.

I'm Scottish and I'm aware we tend to be over obsessed with class struggle and again I hope I am wrong and I hope this movement serves as a catalyst for the kids involved to go on to much greater things and to stay involved in politics at a grassroots level after the occupation is over. That may be the real revolution.