But what do they want?
Beginning with a clarion call to 'occupy' lower Manhattan in a
September issue of
Adbusters and citing the success of
Tahrir Square insurgents in issuing a "straightforward ultimatum" for
Mubarak's ouster,
Occupy's camaraderie was forged in
solidarity with that of an
Arab Spring by togeth- er asking, "what is our equally uncomplicated demand?" (#OccupyWall- Street,
2).
Consequently though, and only after
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demon- strators had elicited popular support following release of an internet video showing
female protesters being pepper sprayed (Day 8) and the
arrest of more than 700 marchers crossing the Brooklyn Bridge (Day 15) did
mainstream media (MM) begin to wonder, "
What Do They Want?". While this question has proved to be one of the movement's earliest shared issues, articulating a
consensus-based response has revealed
unique aspects about the group's orienting structure.
Having authored an article only three months earlier for the
Integral Lead- ership Review ("
Toward a Sustainable Future") however, and in aspiring to envision a form of 'complex adaptive' leadership for a '
New World Economy', I mused over the wisdom of opting "to legitimize or otherwise sanction" the imposition of debt (usury) on a global populace.
"As a result, it's disturbingly unconscionable, especially in view of Egypt's revolution earlier this year, to blindly ignore how the West's present centralized, debt-oriented, economic system, implemented globally towards the end of World War II, is perpetuating an ever-widening gap between the world's richest and poorest, and in so doing, fueling tensions increasing the likelihood of social upheaval across vast geopolitical sectors." from "
Toward a Sustainable Future: Integral Leadership in the New World Economy" (
3)
By way of an update then, but explaining why Occupy's response to the question, "What are your demands?" should be, "We demand that you stop demanding a list of demands",
Robert Jensen proposes instead, a deepening of "our analysis of the systems that produce" an "unjust dis- tribution of wealth and power".
"The demand for demands is an attempt to shoehorn the Occupy gatherings
into conventional politics, to force the energy of these gatherings into
a form that people in power recognise, so that they can roll out
strategies to divert, co-opt, buy off, or - if those tactics fail -
squash any challenge to business as usual." from "
Occupy demands: Let's radicalise our analysis"
Likewise, but acknowledging that while "(r)allying around a common con- cern about economic injustice is a beginning", Jensen further sug- gests "understanding the structures and institutions of illegitimate au- thority is the next step" (
4).
Being the 'Global Vision'
Along similar lines,
Jennifer Gidley too, describes a "crisis of consciousness" as evidenced in the findings of "(s)ev- eral contemporary ecologists, edu- cators, philoso- phers and scien- tists", but whose affects are experi- enced "environmen- tally", "economically" and "psychosocially" (
5). For these reasons however, and within what's otherwise been termed a 'leaderless' (
see - Leadership) movement, those expressing constancy with OWS, including
Chris Hedges ("
A discussion about Occupy Wall Street"),
David Korten ("
Why I'm in Solidarity with #Occupy WallStreet"), and
Douglas Rushkoff ("
CNN: Occupy Wall Street is Not a Protest but a Prototype") are all the more notable.
Also in a recent interview, contemporary philosopher and
Integral Operat- ing System (IOS) visionary
Ken Wilber discussed how a "major global (world) transition now under way" (1:40) doesn't merely embody a para- digm shift from a
Newtonian-
Cartesian worldview that's "bad", "fragment- ed and broken" to one that's "more balanced", integrated, holistic, and "all good", but more accurately, reflects the human mind's evolutionary devel- opment across a continuum of
five or
six subsequent phases.
As Wilber further acknowledges though, prior transitions of this type from a
modern,
scientific-rational worldview [
AQAL's lower-left (
LL) quadrant] involving
industrial and
corporate-state social (i.e.
political-economic)
sys- tems (
LR) for example, to that of a
postmodern,
pluralistic culture (
LL) within an
informational,
value communities environment (
LR) have in the past, entailed "very dramatic social and cultural upheaval" (14:40).
Referring to '
tipping points' (18:30) and the magnitude of change witness- ed by the 'modern' "rational-industrial era" (Stage 5 -
AQAL) in respect to
government,
value structures, and the
eradication of slavery; contrasted with "the emergence of pluralism or postmodernism" (Stage 6 -
AQAL) which realized shifts in "
multiculturalism", "
valuing all minorities equally" and an "
enormous emphasis on civil rights", Wilber similarly notes that both transformations occurred, "starting right about ten percent (10%) of the population (19:30)."
Following this same line of thought, interviewer
Todd Goldfarb then asks, "What is the emergent worldview that we are evolving to?" (21:40). Wilber responds by adducing
Clare Graves' analogy of a 'momentous leap' in
meaning making (see: "
Human Nature Prepares for Momentous Leap") from previous levels which to this point, have viewed their
own respective values and
those values alone as "real" (24:05), to one which is
integral and instead recognizes "that all of the previous stages have some sort of value. In other words, there's some reason that they're there." In this respect, and as Wilber further explains (25:05), the
integral level of maturation is the first to accept that "(t)o some extent" those earlier stages are "all necessary for the human mind to grow and devel- op" (
6).
Betraying Our Trust: "A Crisis in American Leadership"
"A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels." quote by
Albert Einstein in, "Atomic Education Urged by Einstein",
New York Times (25 May 1946)
In light of the scope and complexity of transformation to which I've already alluded; but within a context where the prospect of
systemic failure (see
Debt to GDP graph above) is ever present, humankind is concurrently witnessing the wide- spread faltering and even break down of conventional
economics,
politics,
traditional media,
higher education,
social justice, and
the church.
Consequently, and along these same lines, because an onset of
corporate fascism (e.g.
invert- ed totalitarianism) has informed my focus over the last ten years, begin- ning with
9/11 and a subsequent intro- duction to
Aaron Russo's,
America: Freedom to Fas- cism, it's been a recurring theme in a multitude of projects including, "
A Crisis in American Leadership" (see also "
A Case of Willful Neglect").
Likewise, where "
Toward a Sustainable Future" exposed
neoconserva- tism and
neoliberalism as reflecting two opposing sides of a single
global- ization coin, a comparable affiliation with partisan values and ideologies in the contemporary church too, evinces a despotic autocracy. Not coinci- dentally, the 'fascist' motif has also commanded particular attention from various authors including
Naomi Wolf (
End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot) and
Chris Hedges (
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America and
Death of the Liberal Class).
From my own expe- rience, and as the author of a blog en- titled, "
In the Belly of the Beast - Report from a Homeless American", nowhere is this unholy theoc- racy of 'church' and 'state' any more evident than in my own city's manage- ment of its under-employed poor. Nevertheless, but having drafted a
10 Year Plan to End Homelessness three years earlier, in 2009 it received
stimulus funding totaling $766,000 to establish a
Community Housing Resource Center and later, an
addi- tional $708,856 for distribution to local 'service agencies'.
Also, with an estimated "15.9 million" of
HUD funds slated for interjection into the community over a five year period beginning in 2010 (Roanoke,
7), it's not especially surprising that 'Health Care and Social Assistance' workers have constituted the city's single largest group of employees, while Local, Federal, and State government workers together, were the second greatest in number (Roanoke,
8).
Yet in my case, and though highly skilled and well qualified in multiple ca- pacities, because I'm no longer afforded a contributing role within the so- cioeconomic system, I've been a 'guest' for the last three years in a Chris- tian shelter which recently announced plans for
major expansion. Like- wise, although I'm innocent of any criminal offense and will be commemo- rating nineteen years of personal sobriety later this month, living condi- tions relating to hygienic routine, eating, sleeping, and even
religious ob- servance are uniformly imposed in ways resembling corporal incarcer- ation.
