Forum Post: You Can't Evict An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 15, 2011, 7:25 a.m. EST by jbrowdy
(3)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Posted on November 15, 2011
My title comes from the Occupy Wall Street website, posted on a gray, gloomy morning after the police eviction of protesters in Liberty Park.
Occupations are going on in cities and towns in all 50 states now. What the mayors and police chiefs of these locales need to understand is that the more they try to contain and stamp out this protest movement, the faster it will spread.
Beatings, gassings, intimidation, arrests, evictions…history has shown time and again that the human spirit refuses to be quenched by such brutality, especially when we face the firing squad together.
Occupy is a “leaderless movement”; it’s multigenerational and cuts across many social differences that have previously been used by the status quo to divide us.
United by a fierce and ardent hope that refuses to be extinguished, the Occupy protests all across America call on each of us to stand up in support of a new American dream.
In this new vision, our government representatives will put the well-being of the majority ahead of any narrowly defined special interests.
This means that the health of our citizens will come before the profits of industries like agriculture and energy. It means that the health of our global environment will be more important than corporate competition for resource extraction.
It means that the social safety net will be expanded and strengthened, not allowed to fray or be deliberately shredded.
It means that American public education will once again rise like a beacon throughout the world, giving all children, regardless of their social background, the knowledge, tools and creativity to move boldly and joyfully into the 21st century.
It means that our democracy will once again be broadly participatory. We are done with politicians who are slaves to their corporate owners.
And no, we will not accept higher taxes on the working families who can least afford to bear the brunt of holding our creaky and corrupt system together.
We want a new system, with a radical reorganization of priorities. Let our foreign policy be run by diplomats, not by bombers and drones. Let an age of international cooperation in the service of urgent global needs begin.
Working together across borders, we can solve the world’s problems and move forward into a new era of sustainable, widespread prosperity.
Truly the Occupy protesters have it right. You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.
Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez teaches comparative literature, human rights, and media studies with an activist bent at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, MA and blogs at Transition Times (http://bethechange2012.wordpress.com/).
Excellent post. I am so happy that so many have begun taking our country back. The idea has been in the hearts of many, for too many years. Thank you, #OWS for voicing it for so many of us. This is what being human looks like!
Some advice: Don't attend Jennifer's classes using borrowed money. You'll never be able to pay it back working at Starbucks when you graduate. If you do, don't bitch at bankers, bitch at yourself. Just another little bit of obvious that seems lost on OWSers.
You cannot evict an idea whose time has come
You're not being evicted. You are calling it an eviction so as to rile up your amorphous blob of a movement to go out and raise hell. This is your only tactic to which you cling.
You just want to occupy, piss and moan about the injustice in the financial system without offering a single plausible idea on how to fix it. If you think you're going to garner more support by this, you are mistaken.
You are the "1%". I am part of the other 98% that is not, and will not be, part of your movement anytime soon. You are losing the battle.
There is and has been a plausible idea: End corporate corruption.
My friend its time to let go of the old ways and embrace the new. We are here as human beings to create, live and love. You have lost yourself in a dream of limitation. Obedience is not creation, and thus can never produce salvation.
I'm doing just fine in my world thank you. The system works for me, as it does the majority of the working class.
Then that is the system you shall have.
If you think that OWS is losing the battle you are sadly mistaken. I can understand a very skeptical approach to OWS because that's how I was at first and you probably still have a lot to lose if you were to have a voice and speak out about what you've probably been bitching about for years. I felt the same way.
But you should not chastise these people for using DEMOCRACY. Has it been so long since the civil rights movement, the movement for the women's right to vote, that we have forgotten what strength in numbers and collaboration of creative minds from different backgrounds can achieve? I haven't lost my house to forclosure. I was lucky enough to get a job that pays just enough to keep my bills current and pay for my college education loan, but that does not mean that I will call the soldiers, business men, students, homeless, bums, mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, entrepreneurs, blacks, whites, latinos, native Americans, etc who are boldly using their voice and effectively using democracy to make a change in this country that millions desperately called for when Barrack Obama took the stage nearly four years ago. Do not disrespect those who have the balls enough to have a voice when you yourself, would just like to stay with the status quo. Tell me that in the last 10 years you have not bitched to a friend or relative once about something wrong with this country. I won't believe you.
I bitch all the time --- about the government, not the capitalist system as so much of OWS does.
You see, what you fail to realize is that most people can work within the system. Government is broken. The capitalist system works just fine. OWS is NOT the "99%".
The capitalist system is not working just fine because it's not being used. When failing companies get bailed out by tax dollars, that's not capitalism. When people in fancy suits can make up numbers that essentially turn into profits for the 1% that is not capitalism WORKING that is capitalism FAILING. And OWS might not really be the 99% yet, but wait until everyone of the 99% realizes exactly how they are connected to the movement. Like I said, you're probably feeling this way because you still "have" a lot to lose, maybe a job, home etc. But as many people who are already taking a stand know, you really don't have anything to lose, or at least not anything that can be taken regardless of whether you have been faithful to your end of the deal or not.
The fact that companies got bailed out is not a failure of capitalism. It is a failure of a corrupt political system. The culture of lobbying in Washington is the root of corruption and yes, I would agree, the capitalist who pay those lobbyist are cheating the system. But that goes on mainly in only the very largest of companies - e.g. GE makes billions in profits and pays NO taxes. The majority of companies, by the numbers, are small to medium sized companies that are not politically connected. Maybe I'm just biased because I have worked for very small firms my entire career.
As have I and I haven't seen the tax dodging and corporate corruption first hand. But I do know that it exists and even though there aren't as many large enterprises as small, those large enterprises are what's causing a large part of the problem. A government full of "Yes" men doesn't help anything either though, you're right about that.
So let's see here. OWS is not losing the battle because you say it ins't and then give a lecture about civil rights and some feelgoodism? And apparently Americans made a change by electing Obama, although I have no idea what change that is. I mean, we are in MORE war than ever, in MORE debt than ever, bailed out scum, and are only digging our hole deeper. It's this type of thing that's killing the movement. Whenever someone makes an argument, you guys just say "no that's not right" and then a bunch of hot air. It's so annoying. I ask for goals, I get none. Instead I get, "you're wrong about things, but instead of giving facts or specifics, we have democracy/solidarity/freedom/hope/etc/etc/etc".
There are actual goals and ideas being posted all over this forum in several different threads. Take the time to read them. Better yet, go down to an OWS rally and listen to the people that are talking.
I have read plenty. I started a thread with tons of replies. I even got private messages from supporters. Hardly ANYONE can give me anything more than grievances with no real direction. I won't be attending any OWS rally. I have a tough engineering curriculum to finish and a new job I'm starting next year with the 2nd largest privately owned company in the world. I believe in the America that was proud of itself and had a population that was tough and hard working. I feel like my generation is a bunch of babies that blame everyone else for their problems. That's my view and I'm not specifying anyone in that remark.
I was raised the same way, to work hard and be smart about how you do things. Yes there are a lot of people who hold the so called "entitlement" view in OWS but there are also a lot of people that feel the same way that you and I do about life in America (as far as hard working and not being a generation of whiners) and they're speaking out about the dirty, underhanded things that go on behind closed corporate doors that make working hard and giving it your all worth nothing.
Obama hasn't changed shit. What I meant was that this is what people were hoping for when they said "Change" like an actual ACTION for it, not just talking about it. It took many years for us to get into this kind of shape, if the government and all of our so ingenius elected officials can't come up with a way to fix it over night, why are you talking about people in OWS as if they are supposed to have the magic answer. At least they are having real discussions with real Americans about how to fix the problem.
Owning property is a civil right. They are saying to you "get off my property and take the stench with you".
Can you imagine the smell. I hope the NYPD were issued bio-hazard suits. I'm gagging just thinking about it.
This comment shows how little you actually know about OWS. I'm not an expert on it either. it's not your fault, you are probably getting bad information from the media. Watch some youtube videos about it. N9productions has 2 great ones. It may change how you feel a bit.
I watch and read the media for news. I watch YouTube to see teens start themselves on fire.
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Occupy people's minds with new thinking, critical thinking. We need to teach kids to think for themselves or they will grow up as sheep, following whatever shepherd is the most charming. Even by 8 or 9 kids need to start knowing they can and should question authority,