1. Occupying is good. Occupying, protesting, and creating a ruckus draws attention to the discontentment of the world, which seems nearly universal. Making a ruckus and occupying, even without a coherent message, at least lets the brainwashed masses see that, perhaps, not everything is as it seems.
Perhaps reality isn't as pretty, today, as advertised on Comcast and Direct TV. Occupying also drains the resources of a government which puts its resources into weapons of death that are used against its own citizens, it's so-called enemies, and innocent non-combatants in far away lands. It may seem counter intuitive to some, but draining the resources of the government, straining it financially and otherwise, are good ways to slow down the machine of war and oppression.
2. Humility is key. I find the rhetoric that proclaims "We are the 99%" to be a little arrogant, in a world of 7 billion people. World health statistics indicate that there are one billion people in the world who are starving or malnourished. Some of those people exist in America Most do not. Most Americans, no matter how they compare to millionaire and billionaire bankers, have a world of abundance and plenty when compared to truly impoverished nations.
America is, more or less, the world's 1%, and as such, I believe it would serve the occupy-wall-street movement well to incorporate as much humility as possible into their activities by acknowledging what they DO have. I am a person who does not have a lot compared to many Americans. But I am a person who can look at what I have objectively, most of the time, and see that I really do have way more than enough. I am warren buffet's 99%. I am the world's 1%. I am not in danger of starvation.
3. Corporate greed fills a very real void, and reflects my own greed as a citizen. I do not mean to absolve of wrong-doing the people that run destructive corporations or peddle their phony market derivatives in order to make millions, here. I mean to simply say that the wall-street system, the banking system, the credit system and the corporate infrastructure of America all seem to be a reflection of either my own greed or my own inability to stop from being indoctrinated by advertising.
I walk into Target and I see that they are selling about twenty different kinds of hair dryers, and approximately 500 different kinds of shoes and a preposterous array of food, much of which is inefficient and unhealthy. I know that for most of my life, I thought: "wow, how nice that there are so many hair dryers to choose from," or, "how nice it would be to have some more shoes, since there are so many kinds to choose from," or, "wow, this fruit by the foot candy looks like a good purchasing decision." Then I planned my life accordingly and over extended myself into the world because I had allowed the culture of consumerism to teach me that happiness was always right on the other side of that next purchase. I ran up credit-card debt buying iPods and iPads and TV's and eating at Chilli's, which doesn't even taste good.
My greed, my urgency to spend money on credit, and my belief that my self-worth could be wrapped up in the objects I owned, is ultimately what powers the entire system that is now so tremendously unbalanced. Corporations are, by and large, collectives of people under the same illusion I was. That illusion is that "more stuff equals more happiness." Come to find out, more stuff does NOT equal more happiness. More stuff equals more stuff. I can stop powering the system by first looking at my own greed and gluttony and trying to mitigate their influence on my actions. The fact that "more stuff" is not equal to "more happiness" can be taught. Most powerfully by example.
4. Minimizing is good. This plays off of point 4. If greed and over consumption power the system, and that greed and consumption has been relentlessly sewn into the fabric of my own world-view and my own sense of self, then to minimize my life will certainly kill two birds with one stone. First bird: I have minimized by getting rid of my TV, my iPods, iPads, the guitar I never played, and a whole mess of other stuff. I have minimized by simplifying my diet. This doesn't mean that I go pay inflated costs for "organic" food at "Whole Foods."
This means that I have stopped eating at chain restaurants as much as I can. I have stopped buying as many processed foods and meats. I cook simply, and at home. I am by no means perfect with this stuff, but there has been improvement. I am in the process of attempting to pay off my credit cards. As I get them paid off, I will be closing the accounts, to the detriment of wall street. I ride my bike or walk almost everywhere I go, not because I want to "watch my carbon output," but because the compulsion to drive somewhere when I could as easily walk or bike is a form of greed, and is what large violent corporations are counting on. They don't care about anything else except to keep me over-consuming. I am attempting to consume, then, as little as possible. THIS is the solution we seek.
Without my willingness to sit glued to my advertising machine, also known as a television, and without my willingness to buy 20 pairs of shoes when I only need two or three, the empire built of greed will crumble in upon itself. The second bird I kill here is a philosophical bird. Hyper-consumption blocks me from objectively seeing and experiencing happiness, because hyper-consumption DEPENDS on me being unhappy. At least, it depends on me being unhappy enough to believe that I need to buy a product I have no use for in order to attain happiness. I bought and I bought and I bought and attained no catharsis. Then, I tried giving. Holy shit…. let me tell you…. giving brings HAPPINESS.
5. Those who stand to make a profit beyond modest self-sustenance are suspect. Here I am referring to the media. This is key. Any for-profit corporate media outlet, no matter what they are saying, is going to spin the message of love and of modest living into a grotesque charade of itself. Their interest is not in the success of the occupy-wall-street movement, but in the profit that they can make regurgitating the most sensationalized garbage related to the movement that they can. I mean to say that the more someone has, the less valuable their words are. Just as Rupert Murdoch and Bill O'Reilly are suspect, so are Michael Moore and Keith Olberman. These are men who have over extended themselves into the world.
A millionaire who says "sure, tax me more, it's only fair," does not absolve himself of the misdeed of hoarding substantially more than he needs to sustain himself merely by offering to a pay a tiny fraction more on next year's taxes. I'm not saying that no person ought to be worthy of some luxury here and there. I am saying that, in a world where one billion people are starving, sitting on TV spouting liberal politics while wearing a suit that probably cost $1000 and then going home via a limousine to an estate that could house dozens is, objectively speaking, an act of violence.
I have come to the realization that, indeed, the less I have, the more meaningful my words become. When O'Reilly or Moore give up their fortunes, I'll be willing to listen to them. Subvert the corporate media by staying informed online with twitter and other such services. You can start by reading the Tsaritsa's blog. She be occupying. We no longer need the goings on of the world digested for us by men with money. The internet is here.
6. Love. This part is simple. Love every single day. Love every single person. Don't coerce people, and don't think that a movement that leverages a broken and violent government into coercing the rich into giving up more of their money will ever fix the economic disparities or the social ills of the world. Government can't redistribute the wealth of wall-street through taxes nearly as efficiently as we can by no longer using credit, by not driving our cars as much, by not buying a new car just because the old one is old, by living modestly and by turning off our cable or satellite services.
Turning off the TV is, in a sense, the ultimate act of love. Only by means such as these can we gently deflate the insanely ballooning machine of indoctrinated hyper-consumerism. It starts in the home, loving one another and helping one another. Then locally, finding those in true need and loving them and helping them. Then nationally we can love ourselves by learning how to see fellow people as people, and not seeing them merely as a dollar figure related to their fancy clothing. Then we can love on a global scale by feeding the unfed and by not shoving our guns in the faces of people we don't even know.
Love is about forgiveness. We can, and must, forgive everyone, even the people at the top of this economic disaster. After all, the people that caused this, like the men who run our government, and like the talking heads on TV, are children. At least psychologically, they are children, hoarding as a child hoards toys in a play pen. I was like a child, hoarding. I have found, though, the value of sharing. The value of making myself small. If I can learn it, anyone can. Even Warren Buffet. Although he has the mentality of a child, he is still human, and that makes him like me. And I love me. So I love him. And I love you.
Sick, greedy, altruistic, indoctrinated, smart, confused, giving, impoverished, loving or hating, we are all humans and we are all worthy of love. We are all, then, truly and simply, the 100%.
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