Forum Post: How to Unite People

I am so proud of what you are doing in OWS. And I think you should be consistent in refusing to list your demands or policies.

Why? because, as you know, any list of demands or policies would be immediately used to polarize the American public, using false rhetoric from the pundits on both side.

So then, how do you make some kind of progress(whatever that means) while actually managing to speak for and unite the 99%?

You guys really feel and know that you are the 99% but many of the people you are trying to represent are not seeing how you represent them. You have united a huge portion of people. But there are holdouts who are clinging either to some rhetoric that they have heard from right or left, and who say things like "I pay taxes!" or "I work hard! Why dont you get a job!" You see it and rage, not against them, but at the whole damned game that gets them into a position to NOT see how they are in the exact place that you are.

The way to help people to be able to hear your message? You need to continue the stance of neutrality, while stating your message in a way that your "opponent"(who is not really an opponent being part of the 99%) can hear. You need to reach out to understand what their real concern is, and to get into the emotion or feeling that is coming from it. You can not do that with angry, inflamed rhetoric. Nor can you do it by hunkering under some pet idea or frustration.

So in order to speak to everyone, you have to identify the one big thing that liberals and conservatives are trying to agree on: we need to return power to the voter, and the little guy.

That means we might end up having to compromise(we meaning voters, not the OWS movement) at some point in the future.

When you hear conservatives say "lower taxes" or "reduce regulation" they are really saying that for themselves they would like to have more power or control over their own destiny and do not want the government calling the shots in their lives. The same for liberals, who say things like "buy local" or "dont shop at walmart". What they are saying is that they do not want corporations controlling their whole lives.

So the trick is going to be convincing people that we understand their primary concern: that neither the corporations nor the government should have control of our country, our government, nor our personal lives. WE the PEOPLE should have control of our lives.

As far as saying "Give us jobs", well watch out with that. If someone "gives" you a job, you are at their mercy, which is the problem. And unfortunately, the right does not hear this as a plea for honest employment. Their ears hear you saying that you feel entitled to have a job given to you, and are not necessarily wanting to earn the job.

Obviously this is not true. You know it, I know it. But you will need to show this hardworking fellow American (potentially a conservative) that you are not out to somehow get some kind of handout. You do not want to take any more of their hardearned money through taxes. Remember, the primary emotion from both liberals and conservatives is fear. So what is the fear right now? Well, since real wages and benefits have been drastically reduced in the last thirty years, this person is trying to survive on a shoestring and is afraid of someone stealing what little they have to survive on.

And, to be fair, they are right about one thing. You, liberal and conservative, all, are going to have to quit relying on government OR big business for our jobs. That is going to mean continuing to "buy local". That is going to mean creating our own small businesses, perhaps even illegally or under the table, since that appears to be the only way we can compete with big business now, who have set the rules all in their favor. Which may mean that liberals will need to take a queue from teapartiers who say that they want less regulation and taxes. The teapartiers are right about that particular aspect. Less regulation and interference(at least for small business) will increase the little guy's capacity to act as an agent of his own destiny.

So remember, you are all on the right track. We cannot trust those on high to do for us, we must take back our own destinies. And we cannot talk the language of the dominant political conversation, which is merely the language of fear, pride and exclusion. We need to see what the "other" side's fears and needs are, and show how what we are doing addresses those needs.