Forum Post: Are you serious about it?
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 24, 2011, 10:05 a.m. EST by LaReynard
(4)
from Newark, OH
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Showing up in numbers does draw attention. But now what? The media is concentrating on the more excentric individuals to dicredit you. They show you in a light that makes you look bad, crazy and detracts from the message.
How do you get it to grow? You need to appeal to the sub groups of the 99% you are trying to reach. Find among you those with the deepest stories. The well off who very quickly lost it all. The student with all the right degrees who can not find the job. The family that has to go to extrordanary lengths to barely keep up. And they all need to be well spoken and as "normal" as possible. We know it can happen to anyone. But they dont believe it.
Each town needs it's own spokes persons. And with the campaigning going on, they need to be there to ask questions. Occupy the Campaign trail. Make corruption, greed and a failed two party system the main topic at every event. back them into corners with well thought out questions that force them to choose. if this does not become a nationally televized topic you will lose momentum. It needs mentioned every day on every news show.
In a group as large as this one is getting, there undoubtedly those with certain skill sets that can best be used by the group. Information gatherers, letter writers, artist, legal, and organizers. find them and get volunteers to work differant angles. Gather good information with sources for speakers and question askers. Start a letter writing campaign to washington with copies to news outlets. Artist doing period art depicting the current stuggles. And writting out well thought out and substantial ideas for bills, amendments and laws to help currect to issues. No amount of saying it's wrong will help if you do not offer any ideas in which direction you think it should go.
oy
the normalization of language
Someone here has got to believe in taking this further. An oppertunity to really actively change a nations way of thinking is right here. THEY, right now control how you are seen buy the public. They down play everything you do. If the general populous hears of the stuggle and says ' is that still going on?' then you will lose. They can ruin you in the media to the masses faster than you can word of mouth it to everyone. They have years of mis information already in place in the minds of the people. You are re-educating them. Most will deney what you say unless it's big, obvious, and to everyone as a group.
I am all for this movement. But is has got to turn into something more if it hopes to get to more than a few disgrunteled people. Even if it continues the way it has and more people show up it wont be long before it heads into a direction it was not intended to. Someone , somewhere on one side or the other is going to do something stupid. With the math saying it's going to be on ourside. This will do more to harm than good. Like it or not, you have to play to the people to get them to care. We as a nation are not unified on any subject. Even 9/11 only kept us focused as a nation for about 6-7 mos. More people care about a missing person ( depending on the story) than they do about the economy. More people will follow the Micheal Jackson murder trial for a longer period of time than this movement. I work in retail and will randomly ask people what they think of OWS and over half think it's over. To the rest of the 99% OWS comes across as haphazard and thrown together. It is a great start, but even now from within people are wondering what to do. We have some attention, the spot light is on us. Do we take the mic and inspire people with a message? Or do we blink at the lights and give a barely audible "uhhmmm".
People keep saying "now what".
"Now what" nothing. Keep showing up, That's all there is to it.
The more people that show up and stick...the more people show up.
Sooner or later, you've "used up" every extremist, soapbox nut and attention seeking fruitcake and you're attracting the rest of the folks....the normals.
All this talk of "now what??" is bollocks. A growing mass of angry citizens meeting each day to ferment and foment and discuss and discourse on the evils of society is a major problem for the powers that be. So don't listen to weak sisters from within the movement and concern trolls from without, demanding that we "do something, anything!"
OWS is very young, and it has a long way to grow.
When people ask me what I'm doing there, I say I'm talking to others and getting them to come and stay. If you don't think that a growing crowd on the doorstep of the great financial powers makes them nervous...then you don't know much.
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