Forum Post: Policy fights are a DISTRACTION. Keep your eye on the ball.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 14, 2011, 1:05 a.m. EST by hairlessOrphan
(522)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The forum is open to the 99%, and the 99% is diverse. We knew we would face wild disagreements over policy - foreign policy, or tax policy, or economic policy. No one should ever have expected otherwise.
But if Occupy was ever really a rallying cry for the 99%, then we should have expected from the start that we would focus our work on the one thing the 99% can get behind, as a whole:
Get money out of politics.
Focus the debate. There is only one thing you need to do: ask if they support divorcing money from governance. Policy can be fought over after that, using a system that more fully represents the People, and not the moneyed interests.
Remind people that we are not here to squabble over our differences. We are here to work for what we have in common.
The strength of Occupy is in its unity in numbers - that such a large number of People have such a worthy fight in common. The only thing that can break that unity is a loss of focus. Believe me; anyone who wants to protect the status quo knows this, so we had better know it, too. Disagree if you want, vent if you must, take it as you give it, but Don't Be Distracted.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/heres-the-law-we-need-our-single-unified-reasonabl/
http://occupywallst.org/forum/we-the-people-in-order-to-a-proposal/
I agree! "Get money out of politics" should be our main goal for now.
Do we know how many people we have at this time who support this movement? Is there someway to chart that progress?
I don't know what the numbers are, but I know this:
1) Every time it's been said, people rally.
2) Every time people rally, it gets said again.
That's the kind of feedback loop I can get behind. Around all the noise, trolling, incitement, I don't know if it's at the point where the declaration can be pushed as "official," but I believe if we stay focused it will happen. So we keep the voice alive.
I hope so :) When people have asked me about what OWS wants I usually say "get the money out of the political process" first. Fixing the media to serve the people is the other big one, I think.
my bad. understood.
we the people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrDLwSgg24
Totally agree for this being the main point: Get the money out of politics.
Yes - the one idea that unites all of us, and if executed, will make it possible to address all of our other problems. Stop the bribery of elected officials! Until that happens, there can be NO legislative solution to anything. Personally, I prefer this route to overthrowing the government. You do that and you have to worry about that nasty military-industrial complex stepping in. It will be easier and safer to go beat up your Congressman.
to add, our diversity and right to individual opinion is what makes us free and not the status quo seeking 1%
having different ideas and solutions is like a school of fish seeing through corrupt corporate politics is the unifying current and changing the tide can be the result