Recognizing the Two Year Anniversary of the Occupy Movement Two Years After ‘Occupy’ — Joy Arises, Rules Fall Apart September 17, 2013 by Rebecca Solnit

I wanted to write this for the actual date of the two year anniversary of the Occupy movement, which would have been September 17th - four days ago as I write and publish this.

Unfortunately, I got sidetracked.

But the Occupy movement was too important for me not to mention it. It is still relevant, and the issues that the Occupiers demanded gain attention are still very relevant today. Perhaps more relevant, because still, little to nothing has changed, and the Occupiers, and the Occupy movement, as needed now more than ever.

We all remember the immediate impact that the "Occupy" movement had. It began (at least in the United States) on Wall Street, the site of so many legal crimes. It spread over time, but the beginning was right where it needed to be, where it fit in the most, and where respectable business people complained about it, with particular emphasis, predictably enough, on how it was disturbing the local businesses. Eventually, the Occupiers were forced to move on.

One night, I went there, meeting a friend of mine there. We spent a good part of the night, joining in the meetings, walking around and seeing what was what. It felt good to be a part of it, and I am glad to have done that to this day. We made plans to go back, tentative plans that lacked concrete and never actually came to fruition, unfortunately.

But at least for one day, we were actually a part of the Occupy Movement, and it pleases me still that I was at least a small part of it. Because that was a movement of the people, by the people, and for the people. In that sense, it really did benefit from the same spirit that the very best that American history had to offer benefited from, as well.

It was, in many respects, a positive reinforcement of the best of Americans traditions. It was trying to detract from the excesses of the wealthiest and most powerful, who had long been greedily reaching for more and more, at the expense of everyone else. They had also been increasingly comfortable with bending, even breaking, the rules. They were growing far too comfortable with their de facto immunity, and were pushing their already overly flexible exempt status still yet farther.

The rest of us were supposed to sit and watch, powerless to change anything. Mere observers in the game of life, watching these movers and shakers grabbing more wealth. Hording more wealth - again, at the expense of all of the rest of us.

And finally, there was some resistance. A movement that was unlike anything that had been seen before. A movement that perhaps took some inspiration from activism during the sixties, but which was different. Less divisive, frankly.

Because more of the country was struggling, and reaching that point where making an honest and relatively comfortable living was growing far more difficult.

We all know the facts by now. For decades, the standard of living in the United States has not increased. Changes, even great changes, have been seen all over the world over these last decades. Communism fell in Eastern Europe, and a divided nation was reunited. Apartheid fell in southern Africa, first in Namibia, and then in South Africa itself. The Arab Spring ushered in changes in a region that had seen little to real real substantial changes in decades. A dictatorship fell in Burma. And all of these changes were expressions of people trying to empower themselves, to take matters into their own hands.

Of course, the news was not all positive. Change often brings turbulence, and that turbulence often, unfortunately, sees excess. Ethnic cleansing came to Yugoslavia, but that came to pass. Ethnic cleansing also rose, and fell, in Rwanda, and in Sudan. Now, we are seeing that the excesses from the Arab Spring have given rise to more instability in an already versatile region. We see the headlines daily regarding Palestine and Israel, as well as Egypt, and especially Syria at the moment.

Inevitably, however, change is inevitable, even if changes are scary. Of course, change is scary. But it is also inevitable. It seems fitting now to acknowledge just how wrong interpretations can be, and if there has been anyone more misunderstood since his works revolutionized the world than Charles Darwin, than I have no idea who that person would be. Many view Darwin and his works as borderline evil, but nothing could be further from the truth. Moral and religious arguments aside, Darwin himself was a peaceful man who, it should be noted rather reluctantly, found a scientific truth that he grappled with the implications of for many years before releasing his findings to the general public.

Yet, many understood his findings to be applicable to human beings, and from this misinterpretation, a whole manner of thinking came. Many subscribed to this so-called "Social Darwinism", which essentially amounted to one basic, overriding principle: "Survival of the fittest."

Let us remember now that Darwin never said anything remotely like that in regards to human beings. Moreover, that was not his argument with species, either. So, why the radical misinterpretations? What exactly did Darwin say, then?

Here is a quote from Charles Darwin himself that more or less encapsulates what he actually said about evolution:

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."

Not the strongest, or even the smartest. Simply, the one who adapts to change the most successfully. Nothing about "Social Darwinism", nothing about nations and individuals competing in a life or death struggle. Nothing justifying fabricating some notion of master races. Nothing that justifies hogging as many of the world's resources as possible.

Just a note about being flexible to the inevitable, really. Not arming ourselves to the teeth, in more ways than one, in order to combat changes to the status quo that we artificially impose on our world, to avoid dealing with the fears and uncertainties of an inevitably changing world. A world that is changing, in fact, at a very fast pace.

Yet, modern human "civilization" wants to control everything. We belong to a "civilization" that is, effectively, playing God. An all-knowing, all-powerful entity that tries to create conditions, and that sees itself as more powerful than any surprise conditions that may arise. That is why we react with such shock and horror when the inevitable changes do come - increasingly weather related, but not always related to weather. Indeed, we have seen more famines in the last decade then ever before. We see longer and more severe droughts, and that includes in the Midwest, what has long been viewed as the "breadbasket of America", not very long ago. But we also see more severe floods, and all you have to do today to see evidence of this is turn on the news, and see the images of severe floods in places like Colorado and Mexico.

Last year, we saw a relatively moderate hurricane in terms of severity nonetheless lay waste to a whole coast, right here in New Jersey (where I am writing this from). There is a knee jerk reaction to it. We have bumper stickers that read "Jersey Strong", and we have commercials that assure us that New Jersey is "stronger than the storm". But I wonder if that is true. I wonder if that is not just some half-baked justification to start overdeveloping on the coasts once again. If that is the case, than I fear that we will find out that we are not "stronger than the storm". That, in fact, Mother Nature is, always has been, and always will be, stronger than us. We can build along the shore once again, and maybe those who can afford it will begin to grow more comfortable with houses that are literally right on the shore, with the ocean serving as the backyard. They will deem this little slot of land their personal "private property", essentially preventing the rest of us from gaining access to what belongs, rightfully, to everyone. The message that is supposed to be interpreted by one and all as positive, for all intents and purposes, amounts to a declaration of supremacy over Mother Nature and her impact, as well as another underlying message: "Let's keep on doing things exactly as we have always been doing them before." Sure, sometimes things like the hurricane will happen. But why make any changes? We're good. Let's keep developing the shore once again, and get it back to the way that it was. Most importantly, let's get back to what's good for business, because we all know that is what really matters here more than anything else. Those are the interests that trump every other consideration.

Indeed, our society's faith in "ownership" is as strong as it ever was. Perhaps stronger than ever, even, although that is arguable, since our faith in ownership in the United States led to the genocide of those who were here before us, as well as to the institution of slavery - that is to say, ownership of other human beings, based on race. Perhaps we have come a ways. But then again, we are only a few years removed from a President who proudly proclaimed, in his second inaugural address, that the United States was to become the "Ownership Society".

Perhaps this is balanced out a bit by our rethinking and reconsidering these values, as the destructiveness of our collective surrender to blind desires has begun to show it's destructive nature. This is just as the natives had warned us it would be. And perhaps our rethinking of them shows something, as well. I remember during my own childhood, not really ancient history that we're talking about, how many of the movies (mostly reruns) still showed the perennial battle of the "good", white cowboys, and the bad, clearly uncivilized Indians. Such black and white thinking denies the existence of the various shades of gray in between, but we are not finally coming to see beyond this limited approach. In truth, it seems that we are only acknowledging that the native way of thinking and approach to life and land was, indeed, far more balanced, and far healthier, than our own.

I remember the impact of the immortal words of Chief Seattle, who asked those who were rapidly encroaching on his people's land and way of life: "How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?"

He went on to say:

"Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Yes, and maybe that includes destroying the coastline. All up and down the eastern seaboard, we have private homes that lines the shores, and at least in part, block easy access to the beaches and coasts. We have private beachfront properties and even communities. Even those communities where there is public access to the ocean, you often have to spend quite a bit of money to gain access to it, with parking and entry fees, to say nothing of the businesses that are lined alongside the shoreline. Then, these communities are rebuilt following storms that lay waste to them, and this at taxpayer expense (that is to say, the rest of us) so that they can keep on doing what we have always done, even if it does not work. Even if we are rebuilding simply so what we have rebuilt can be swept away by the next storm.

This is where denial of the realities of global warming, of rising ocean waters, becomes a problem. When our own attitudes, and our own collective sense of invulnerability becomes our own worst enemy.

Our resources are rapidly being depleted, and privatization is like a machine running in overdrive. We hear the monstrous roar of it whenever it is working properly, and no matter what we try to do to blunt the deafening sound, we still hear it, because it is all around us. And when that machine does break down, we grumble about the increasing costs of maintaining it. Yet, we unquestioningly keep this process going, even though it clearly is not working. And we pride ourselves on our superior intellect, to boot.

Many have been sounding the death knell on what was once known as the American Dream. Indeed, in the United States over the last few decades, salaries have generally remained stagnant. Increase in salaries are not keeping up with the increases in cost of living. As a result, American living standards, once the envy of the world, have decreased. Other nations seem to be getting it right, while we keep sinking further downwards. For the first time in decades, the expectations are that children will not enjoy a better standard of living than their parents. In fact, the projections are that they will live a lesser standard of living.

According to Bloomberg, costs of medical care have risen by 600% in the last three decades, and we keep having fierce debates and battles in Washington over the healthcare debate. This is even more true with the costs of education, which also according to Bloomberg, have risen by a staggering 1,120% during that same time period. We used to feel like we had all the answers. Now, new questions have risen to challenge all of our presumed answers, and shaken us out of our self-assurance.

Is it any wonder, then, when we actually take a look at what is going on? In the United States, supposedly the land of the free, we have more prisoners than anywhere else in the world, and by far. On average, we spend about $40,000 a year per inmate. By contrast, we spend about $8,000 a year per student. We have more tests than ever for them to take, as if that is the answer to teaching them the real life skills that they will need to be functional, let alone happy, in their future. We are playing the blame game with teachers getting the finger of blame pointed at them for all of the failures that are increasingly bleeding through, even when, deep down, we know better. We know the problem is not merely with a few bad apples in the teaching profession, which far too many Americans look down on. What is broken is the system, and not just those who work within it. Are there bad teachers out there? You bet. But that does not mean that we are justified in viewing any and every teacher as suspect, or that we have the right to criticize them and view them as fat cats enjoying the perks that come with their jobs. Right off the bat, in almost every way, we are getting it wrong with the process of preparing our children for the future. Then, we act surprised when these problems not only become apparent, but manifests themselves. We slap on some band-aids and pretend like we are actually doing something substantive about the problem, because some self-serving politician says that he can wave a magic wand and improve our education system without raising our taxes, and promises "No Child left Behind", and we convince ourselves that this is so because we want to believe him. But this system has failed, even though we are stubbornly refusing to see it.

Education, like almost every other aspect of American life presently, has sunk from a privileged status as the envy of the world, to a glaring example of what is wrong with this country. Our own attitudes, our own arrogance, are getting in the way of real solutions. There are examples of how we can truly make improvements, and what we can do to fix the problem. Yet, most of us are too lazy or self-absorbed to take this seriously enough to do something about it, and it is our children who pay the price. That is a reflection of our values in this society. Is this really what we want to pass on to our children?

What is wrong with the education system is what is wrong with our country in general, and a lot of it has to do with greed. Almost all of our problems have to do with greed. The problems from the very inception of the European experience in America, have been the result of greed. It was greed that was responsible for slavery, for genocide, for the privileges of the few at the expense of the many. It is greed that has continued throughout, that has caused the problems. At times, it has been exposed and recognized for what it is, and we did some things about it. But at other times, it has not only continued unabated, but grown. Unfortunately, in recent decades, it has grown because it has been actively encouraged. What passes for the American Dream these days is a mindless accumulation of material items and status symbols, and we are encouraged to do this because, presumably, this promotes a "healthy economy".

This, at least, is what we are told. And it's fun to buy new things, at least at the moment that we are buying them. There is that rush, brief though it may be, and we feel good. That is, until we get the bill from the credit card company later on. Debts are out of control in this world, but nowhere are they as out of control as they are in the United States currently. Everything seems to revolve around debt: our government, our spending habits, even our higher education system (perhaps especially our higher education). Our national debt is higher than ever, as is the national deficit. Our personal debts, on average, are also among the highest in the world.

But is it really any wonder? When we hear about the state of the economy, we hear about something called "consumer confidence". When consumers feel good enough to buy, buy, buy, we are told that this is good. When they don't, we are told this is bad. The very notion of saving for a rainy day has pretty much gone out the window. We want exactly what we want, everything that we want, right now, and we go to all lengths in order to get it.

This is what, we are told, creates a "healthy economy". And, we are constantly reminded, the economy is in recovery from the 2008 economic crisis. We are allegedly no longer in the "Great Recession". Yet, consider this quote from Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont:

"From 2009-2012, the richest 1 percent of Americans captured 95 percent of all new income, while the typical middle class family has seen their income do down by more than $2,100."

I ask you if that is really what is good for us as a nation?

We keep hearing that "trickle down economics" is the answer, that it is unfair that the rich, who can most afford it, should be singled out for higher taxes. Yet, though the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer. The middle class, for that matter, are increasingly, glaringly, sliding ever closer to the ranks of the poor. And in this country, as we know, you are punished for being poor. Harshly punished.

There is a saying that people who do not learn from their past are condemned to repeat it. In the 1920's, greed became the norm in the United States. The very wealthiest individuals and corporations had very low taxes, and spent extravagantly. This was a prime example of "trickle down economics". Do I really need to remind anyone of what happened next? It was Franklin D. Roosevelt and his work on the "New Deal", and on curtailing the excesses of the rich at the expense of everyone else, that helped the country get back up from it's knees. The war also probably helped matters economically, but the recovery came from rebuilding the nation.

More recently, "trickle down economics" once again became the flavor of the moment. And, once again, the extravagant spending and unchecked greed led to another economic near catastrophe. It has a proven record of not working, yet the nation is sticking to it's guns. We are the ones that are paying the price. Oh, and future generations, as well. Unchecked greed triumphs again, and the news media tots it as good news, because the hands that feed them all stand to benefit from such a system, discredited though it may be.

Noam Chomsky has said, "The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum."

Not only are our imaginations politically thus limited, but on top of it, as a nation, we are easily distracted. Really, how else can we explain the dominance of Miley Cyrus shaking her ass in the news headlines and major network television morning talk shows?

I mentioned earlier that we have been shaken out of our self-confidence. But when people begin to feel that confidence taken away, and when instability begins to take over, these extreme conditions can become dangerous, as people always want to feel that they have answers, even if these answers are wrong. We have obviously been taken by false answers before, and we seem to almost want to be taken in by them. We seem to want to cover ourselves with that blanket of false security. How many times can we take that gamble, just so we can justify ourselves, and what we have been doing?

Yet, justification often comes, even if it makes no sense. And we see signs all the time of excess greed, especially by the very wealthy, and by corporations. Scams galore dominate the headlines. We are disgusted, yet nothing changes.

For one short moment, however, things indeed began to change. The Occupy movement began to attract serious attention, and people actually began to ask serious, piercing questions. The President himself acknowledged that maybe the protesters had a point, although that was most likely a soundbite geared for political profit.

The Occupy movement awakened in many that sense of urgency in taking back the nation. It has somewhat faded back into the background for now (at least in terms of the mainstream news), but I do not believe it is over by a long shot - particularly since the exact same conditions that created the movement in the first place continue to exist. I am guessing that we have not heard the last of the Occupy movement, or the questions that it raised.

And today, I recognize the significance of the Occupy movement, and the impact that it has had on the consciousness not just of a nation, but of all the nations that it played a part in. It spread around the globe, and raised consciousness everywhere, as more and more people began to believe that, indeed, we can take back this world, and our place in it, from elite special interests groups. What we need in this world, and perhaps especially in the United States, is real "hope" and "change", not just some political posturing from the candidate of the moment, using these lofty notions and trying to symbolize a certain spirit, only to promote his own political ambitions, and then come to symbolize more of the same. Two year ago, Occupy came to represent that spirit, and it was not embodied in one person, some figurehead leader. Occupy aspired to be a popular movement of all people. In the best American tradition, it tried to be a movement of the people, by the people, and for the people, and as such, it deserves not only our respect, but our attention.

There are no shortages of problems in this world, or in the United States. But for a short while, Occupy began to pierce through the layers of false answers that have covered our eyes, and allowed us a glimpse of how much a better world this truly can be if we allow it. It encouraged us not to look to some hero or charismatic leader, but to look to ourselves, to rely upon ourselves, to do our own thinking, and to act in our own interests, with the all-important sense of restraint and balance. It was a movement born from experiences that we almost all  have tasted and endured, and their was a wisdom that emerged from these experiences. Today, I honor that spirit, that gained so much attention just a couple of years ago, and still hold my faith that this movement and spirit might still blossom into some true solutions to fix what truly is at the heart of pretty much all of our problems today: greed and arrogance. But it was more than that, too. There was a spirit within the movement that recognized not only the need to take back this world from those who's greed is destroying the world as we know it, but also to promote a more balanced approach to the world, with the emphasis on moderation and sustainability. To check ourselves, as well as all-powerful government and corporate entities. That, I think, is what we need to hear more of.

Today, I honor the spirit of the empowerment of we, the people, that Occupy reminded us of.  

Here is an article from Moyers & Company about the two years of the Occupy movement  - "Two Years After ‘Occupy’ — Joy Arises, Rules Fall Apart" September 17, 2013 by Rebecca Solnit:

http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/17/two-years-after-occupy-joy-arises-rules-fall-apart/