Forum Post: 98 percent rejection
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 15, 2011, 4:10 p.m. EST by gawdoftruth
(3698)
from Santa Barbara, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
https://www.facebook.com/OccupySB?sk=wall&filter=1
I spent all day long present with you people. i spent 30 dollars on pens and 20 $ on poster board to help you people. But in the long run you didn't listen, you ran your agenda, you rolled over the issues that people brought up, and your just going to go do what you were just going to go do- 98 percent be damned. If you won't listen to me when i give you all day- why would i join you in a protest that only represents your chaos and disorder and not any kind of useful sense of direction on how to make change happen? Why would i join you in anarchism when you can't walk across the bridge to rationality? You aren't meeting me or the 98 percent half way ... and 98 percent is not anarchist and not socialist. 98 percent won't be fooled by faked consensus either.
Me, and about 98 percent of the population- don't have a solid reason to join you in protests you can't manage to properly organize, with communication methods which drive more people away and piss more people off than convince or relay any message... We speak to you and you don't listen- just like you try to speak to power and they don't listen. The difference is we are trying to help you and this will all be an epic fail for nothing unless you wake up and start getting lucid on issues like these. I'm not going to join a pack led mob. Show me an evolutionary process and evolutionary communication tactics and a plan to approach the rest of the 99 percent with meaningful communication. I'm not going to risk being arrested just so that adolescent anarchists can feel like they had a fun day.
Still waiting on a wake up. Still looking at patently adolescent ways of approaching problems, instead of adult ways of approaching problems. Still looking at a giant log jam of issues and problems that protesting does not address. Still looking at one percent of the population which has not the first clue how to get its message organized enough to be heard by even as much as a second percent of the population- calling itself 99 percent- but not representing the rest of us. And certainly not representing meaningful or useful problem solving process, evolutionary work, or any kind of meaningful direction for positive social change.
Still waiting on anybody in OWS to get back to me over the CRITICAL and EMERGENCY state of disorganization and chaos which could only be reaosnably fixed by a wiki and a large array of forums and sub forums.
Still waiting on any kind of real problem solving process, still waiting on any kind of open source problem solving process, still waiting for any actual WORK in the evolutionary sense to begin. It hasn't yet. And in fact protesting is really just a means to an end of avoiding such work.
Still waiting on meaningful self policing tactics. since i said it last night and was shut down, shut up, and silenced, lets go through this again. It is futile, pointless, and meaningless to say "we hereby decide to NOT do X or Y" when a stress situation arises when you haven't figured out what you WILL do. Changing behaviors does not happen because you make a rule. It can only happen if you give a new functional tactic which people can use in place of the old one. Lacking any attention to such tactics, people will continue to call the police on their own call- not yours.
Still waiting for consensus process, instead of pack psychology delphi process due to the inability of so called facilitators to know the difference. IE. educational epic fail 29C-45 B. Don't know what consensus process is- have a vague idea- diddn't bother to look it up- didn't bother to do the homework, and didn't thus manage to have actual consensus process.
People better wake up and listen to posters like this one (gawdoftruth) there are alot of us out there who want to support we are against the corruption in Washington, banking, Wall st., and the Corporate media that will stomp this movement out if you don't get organized and focus. Drop the partisan stuff and the black vs white stuff. And pay attention to posters like (gawdoftruth)
GawdofTruth: wow, I couldn't agree with you more. It is imperative to include the 99 percent into this debate. I'm planning on bringing in some of the Tea Party and see if we can't align some of our demands.
http://teaoccupyunited.com
I would suggest that attempts at consensus are not entirely the point. Part of what makes this process so interesting is that it has awakened in people not exactly a specific problem or issue, but that is was awakened awareness. Like in you. For whatever reason this movement spoke to you on some level.
When you went to speak you mind and engage you didn't quite find what you expected. But what I reject is the notion of rejecting this movement because it doesn't fit some pre-conceived notion. You can't ignore the simple fact that people are paying attention. Is there a consistent message? Not really. Is there a consistent approach? Doubtful. Are the answers or solution or practical methods being developed. Maybe, in very small ways, but nothing that is in any way satisfying.
Part of what is wrong with how we live today is that we are desperate for black and white. For answers. For clarity. Put that aside for a second and recognise the simplicity and power of what has happened. Appreciate it. See it, even if just for a moment. It's just awareness. Just people looking up from their daily lives and asking a few questions. Getting more involved. Seeing some of the things that are wrong in their world. Thinking about what they might do. Maybe doing something, maybe not, but seeing, engaging, being involved. That's the point.
You can't go into a movement like this, where you know it's full of young people, those on the fringes of society, those who feel they've been rejected or who don't quite fit in ... you can't go into something like that and be surprised that it's not predictable or stable or graspable.
I don't want to sound dismissive, but you need to put aside what you thought this was going to be about and take a couple of breaths. No one here is going to merge these ideas together into something solid and powerful. This isn't a political movement, it's just not going to be like that. See it for what it is. Your frustration is going to stay, your problems won't go away. We can't idealise the world into being a better place, we first have to live with it and fully accept the way it is. This movement is energy, enthusiasm, certainly chaotic but still caring and genuine. Perhaps rather than looking for it to provide a way for you to follow, you should look to lead. Perhaps you should look to give your energy to someone else's cause. After all, that is kind of what this is about. Not being greedy or self-centered.