[Vision2020] Occupy <insert placename here> musings

[Donovan Arnold]

Paul,
 
Those are all great ideas, just like peace on earth is a great idea. However, how do you implement those not so easy goals?
 
Donovan Arnold
 

________________________________
 From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: Vision 2020 <Vision2020 at moscow.com> 
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 10:16 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] Occupy <insert placename here> musings
 
I know that certain people already predisposed to hate on my posts will do so, but just remember that in my own way I'm trying to help.

The biggest reason the Occupy movement irks me at the moment is this:  the gods have handed them a prime opportunity to actually effect some change and they are (imo) fumbling the ball.  If I didn't agree with them, I'd just ignore them and move on.  But I do agree with them at a very basic level on a lot of issues, and it saddens me that they are falling on their collective faces.

FWIW, here's my advice.

Drop the occupy portion (I know - that's hard for the Occupy movement to do).  Failing that, at least prepare better.  Think about things like sanitation, restroom availability, food preparation, and so on.  Don't piss off members of the 99% that you are trying to get interested in your plight by pissing in their doorways or whatever.  Police yourselves and throw out the trouble makers.  I would recommend maybe keeping a presence there for political reasons, but move on to organized protests.

Get everyone on the same message.  Make use of the Internet better - get all the Occupy movements on the same web site and choose a topic to protest about for the next day or the next week or whatever.  Choose something like reinstating Glass-Steagal or amending the 14th amendment to specifically exclude corporations from equal protection under the law.  Pick something concise and practical.  Do your research.  Get information together that everyone can look at, and agree on.  Have protesters study talking points.  Give them suggestions for what to put on signs.  Make little Word files they can print out on colored paper and handout to passersby.  Have people prepared to tell the press in quick easy-to-understand snippets what you are protesting about.  Send them out there all on the same day with the same message, from OccupyParis to OccupyHoboken.

Ignore the unconstitutional legal fiction called "free speech zones".  If the police try to get you to go somewhere else, ignore them.  If they try to physically move you, plant your ass on the sidewalk and make them move you like so much dead weight.  Do not strike back, even when they are pepper spraying you.  You've got the moral high ground.  Don't lose it.  Expect to be arrested, and plan accordingly.  Have a few people at each event there with video cameras just to document things.  Most important of all, don't get violent.  Be polite.  Be Gandhi.  Plan your protests for a given time range.  Be out there from 7am to 7pm or something.  It's much easier to get people to show up to protest if they can take a vacation day and join in rather than having to be able to take an extended period off of work.

I think this would be far more effective.  Take the issue of Congressmen and insider trading for example.  There's a bit of buzz about it right now, but if history is any indication it will just die down and life will meander slowly forward.  People will lose track of it amongst all the other issues and the media coverage of protester violence or whatever.  Even the police handing the movement the pepper spray card will likely not be enough.  However, I guarantee you that if every city had people out there specifically protesting that one issue in a clear and concise way, with more and more people getting out there and jumping on the bandwagon as the week progressed, some Congressmen would be pissing themselves right now knowing that everyone out there involved with this issue will be looking for someone to throw under the bus.  And it's not going to be the SEC or the CEO of Halliburton that goes down for the count.  These Congressmen will become
 the most pious bastards you've ever seen, and they will be leading the charge to put through legislation to "remove this injustice".

So, what do you think?  Is this the way for the Occupy movement to be more effective?  If not, then how?

Paul

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