Forum Post: Beyond Symbolism: Occupy the Market.
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 12, 2011, 2:39 a.m. EST by JBS
(0)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Forget politics. Forget talk. Occupy the market.
People are waiting to see if Occupy can go beyond symbolism. Occupy-approved products could be the actionable answer.
Several years ago I co-authored a proposal for an NGO to expand its societal relevance by going brand. The original proposal encompassed a strategy to create an open working group for NGOs with compatible objectives. The group would initiate a label aimed at uniting humanistic products into a cool, subversive lifestyle. Adbusters' Blackspot does something similar, but Occupy has real potential to go mainstream and move the market.
Bank Transfer Day was an example in the wild. 600.000 closures and credit unions scrambling to offer tailored packages, but it is just a blip of what could be.
Research a market, like banking. Identify good companies. Identify bad companies. Create a YouTube video and endorse moving from the bad list to the good. Be elegant. Don't shout, don't pontificate, explain.
With Adbusters and celebrity support for OWS, talent to shape an Occupy label and message shouldn't be a problem. The biggest test will be to control an OWS label to prevent saturation and maintain quality standards.
bumpkick
You don't need to occupy the market because the U.S. plutocracy is about the financial market, not goods, not production. Found your own Credit Unions.
BUMP Good post, bump and repost this.
Heh, I was just about post something along those lines (slight variation) when I saw your post!
surely with all the collected knowledge and experience at OWS, at wall street and around the world, there must be people who can work out ways to take down Wallstreet, the banks, all that - legally, cleanly, using their own methods against them? using their world of stocks and trading, high-risk ventures and markets, to hit back at them?
This is a great idea. While physically occupying spaces has been symbolically powerful enough to garner the attentions of the international media, this effort could really harness that focus to produce a direct effect. Whereas Adbusters is most likely to be seen and read by people who have an active interest in that area, creating researched lists of OWS-endorsed companies will reach a greater audience, so that Bank Transfer Day won't be just an isolated incident. This idea of making demands with our dollars makes the most sense out of what I've heard so far and I'd be more than willing to help out in any way if you want to develop this further.
Related: block Fox News and other Murdoch websites in firefox - vote with your browser too:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/murdoch-block/
That's an interesting idea. Creative and unique. I would suggest reposting this tomorrow when a lot more people can see it.
[Removed]
OWS is filled with screwballs. Propaganda is the weapon that controls the minds of Americans.
read more - http://overthecoals.blogspot.com/
Every person controlled by propaganda, denies being controlled. It is up to each individual in the privacy of his own mind to consider his/her own behavior. If you are unwilling to examine self destructive behavior that is impacting your own ability to get a job, to allow the privileged to transfer your wealth to them by unfair taxation, to poison your air/water/food (remember the BP oil spill), and to bribe the entire congress for laws benefiting them at your expense, then you are a traitor.
Each one of these individuals defensively denies having a weak mind that can be manipulated. It is that defense that backfires. If people understood that their own self destructive behavior which forces them to vote for either of the 2 bribed candidate with the most money. The amount of money raised indicates which candidate has been bribed. When the bag men spread the cash to both Democratic and Republican candidates in the race, its because they don't know for sure who will win the election.
It is stupid and ignorant to vote for any candidate receiving bribes. The reason no American will call the bribes by name is the obvious fact that proves each of the 98% voting for the bribed candidate is in the deep propaganda trance they deny. They are too arrogant to consider they might be bribed. They would rather be thrown into the street with no job prospects than to deal with the trance that drives them to vote against themselves.
Curiosity that examines the irrational behavior is necessary to snap the trance. But the arrogance prevents the curiosity with denial. It is the same as a dog chasing his own tale going round and round.
There can be no end in sight until dealing directly with the propaganda trance begins on a national scale. The alternative will be electing the same crooks taking bribes. Its up to each individual to recognize self destructive behavior.
Steve you have admitted that you are a convicted felon who spent 9 years in prison for extortion. Why are you looking for your next prey here?