I've been thinking about the words occupy, occupied, and occupation.
We occupy a space, we occupy other's field of vision, we occupy a place in time or in mind.
A place is occupied, our time is occupied, we get occupied with things.
An occupation is how we spend our time, or how we treat a place.
I find it instructive that we say we are going to occupy a street, or a campus, or city when these are places where we live. Maybe they don't feel like our space anymore, maybe they won't until we make a monumental effort to insist that these are our places, our homes, and our time.
The concern of journalists to find a single demand and slogan, a simple set of words that will allow pundits and analysts and commentators to quickly categorize us and then dismiss us is amusing. I find the worries about finding the right message to be similarly unnecessary. The word occupy says plenty, and our new occupation will say more.
Solidarity everyone.
05 October 2011
making statements
I'm into the occupation. I haven't made it to a local meeting yet, but that will change Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, I am frantic with restless energy, ready to act and do things. I decided to carry around a couple fliers, but then a worker at Wheatsville asked, "What is that all about?"
I stammered and faltered, and finally answered, "You've heard of the Occupy Wall Street? Well, it's that, and it starts here on Thursday." I gave a terrible answer, and it highlighted for me a problem that I need to address. I can't tell anyone what Occupy Wall Street is all about because it's not a slogan or a brand. I know why I am excited by it, I know why I am driven to participate, I know why I keep pushing through my own fears, insecurities, doubts, and others' apathy - the challenge is to articulate it to other people when they are ready to hear it and encourage them to see that they belong with us.
This is the first attempt at that articulation. It's going on fliers with Hallie's statement, and we'll hand them out to anyone who stops by City Hall and wants to know what it's all about; we'll hand them out to anyone who wants to know why we're spending our time occupying. And I'm going back to Wheatsville tomorrow to find that guy and give him a good answer:
I stammered and faltered, and finally answered, "You've heard of the Occupy Wall Street? Well, it's that, and it starts here on Thursday." I gave a terrible answer, and it highlighted for me a problem that I need to address. I can't tell anyone what Occupy Wall Street is all about because it's not a slogan or a brand. I know why I am excited by it, I know why I am driven to participate, I know why I keep pushing through my own fears, insecurities, doubts, and others' apathy - the challenge is to articulate it to other people when they are ready to hear it and encourage them to see that they belong with us.
This is the first attempt at that articulation. It's going on fliers with Hallie's statement, and we'll hand them out to anyone who stops by City Hall and wants to know what it's all about; we'll hand them out to anyone who wants to know why we're spending our time occupying. And I'm going back to Wheatsville tomorrow to find that guy and give him a good answer:
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