We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

What’s Next for the Occupy Movement?

Click here to access article by Brian Tokar from Institute for Social Ecology. 

As messy as it is, the Occupy movement is being seen by more and more people as offering real significance because it relates to concrete problems in their lives. This writer does not reveal as much about "what's next"as he does about the evidence that the movement is here to stay. I agree. Hence, we must all join in supporting it in any way we can to insure its success. We can both save ourselves and the planet which we all share. There is no other task that is as urgent.
Now, for the first time in decades, the terms of the conversation are shifting. People are fed up, and no longer too timid nor too defeated to speak out loudly against the status quo, and for a different kind of society. We have learned that we can challenge financial elites, defend labor rights, call to overturn capitalism, and our numbers continue to grow. In cities large and small, we experience the exhilaration of direct democracy, of reclaiming public spaces, and of reinventing our future. And we know that we are not going to disappear when elites respond with too many police, or even with small victories.