So a lot of people are proclaiming the death of the Occupy movement.

[Jackpine Radical]

They seem to be a pretty vocal lot. Wow, there's a bunch of them who seem to have been dipping pretty deeply into the M$M Kool-aid.

It has always amazed me how ready they are to write off Occupy. On the one hand, they screech about the failures of central planning (which in fact they're right about--while not noticing that WalMart is a classic example of Central Planning, corporate-style that stays in power only by recourse to bullying tactics, just like the old Soviet Government), while on the other they don't get how leaderless organizations are learning to function without bureaucracy.

OWS is a Grand Experiment, and has already done more than we can yet comprehend to change the direction of public discourse. The refocusing of attention off the deficit onto inequality and injustice was remarkable. Like with Mark Twain, the reports of the death of OWS "are greatly exaggerated." Crowdsourcing, widespread access to one-to-many communication networks, etc. are the wave of the future, the outgrowth of the social media. Watching today's world, in which all these forces are yet in their infancy, I can't help but think I'm actually watching the birth of Tielhard de Chardin's "noösphere," a new level of organization with emergent properties, concerning which we as yet have no inkling.

Asking who's in charge of OWS is a lot like asking who's in charge of the Internet. Or asking which neuron is in charge of your brain. Anyone who thinks these are sensible questions clearly has no grasp of the new reality.

We are, as has always been the case in our species history, in a race between the best and worst elements of our natures. Only this time the stakes are incredibly greater, and the time frame more pressing upon us, than ever before. Personally, I'm betting on the New Reality, and I think it's crucibles like the Arab & Wisconsin Springs, the Occupy movement, and the Michigan actions that are shaping the templates for things to come.

[Drale]

1. The same people think that the tea party is going to have a second coming

so yeah now how credible do those people look?

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. "OWS is dead" = "We're afraid of real, actual positive Change".

Let them believe whatever they wish. OWS is busy doing things. Any interested might check the Topics/Activism/OccupyUnderground forum for threads such as "Epic Video of @OccupySandy hub making 5-10,000 hot meals a day, training over 20,000 volunteers:".

[randome]

4. The embedded reporter in various Occupy groups thinks it's dead, too.

Was she afraid? It doesn't sound like it.

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/12/a-eulogy-for-occupy/all/

Because the GA had no way to reject force, over time it fell to force. Proposals won by intimidation; bullies carried the day. What began as a way to let people reform and remake themselves had no mechanism for dealing with them when they didn’t. It had no way to deal with parasites and predators. It became a diseased process, pushing out the weak and quiet it had meant to enfranchise until it finally collapsed when nothing was left but predators trying to rip out each other’s throats.

[smokey nj]

5. The camps are gone, but the movement lives on. Ask people in Brooklyn, on Staten Island and the

Rockaways, and parts of the Jersey shore if Occupy is dead.

[randome]

7. You'd have to be blind to not acknowledge the movement goes on.

But did it reach so little of its potential that it can still be considered dead even though parts of it live on?

That's what the reporter is saying. All I'm saying is that people who point out the obvious are not automatically 'afraid' of anything.

We were told the GA was the solution to all our problems. Look at the block quote above. Do you disagree with it?

[smokey nj]

8. You and the reporter are wrong. Occupy is alive and well.

[randome]

9. Okay, then.

[woo me with science]

3. Not really a lot.

It seems to be the same, predictable few, over and over.

[mmonk]

6. We'll see as more cuts come through and more injustice continues.

If it does, another form will rise.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. I believe the unprecedented amount of strikes in the last month

(Walmart, the biggest employer), NYC fast food, the LA and Long Beach, California port strikes, the Union marches upon the Michigan capitol, the Chicago teacher's union a couple of months ago...strikes are not new, but their sheer number plus the Occupy-like slogans show that the message has hit home, as the rich hit back in their increasing lust for power and domination.

I believe we are witnessing a Trend. A most singularly beautiful Trend.

[mmonk]

13. Yes. A trend that must not die.

[woo me with science]

17. +1

[Rex]

11. Not a lot, just a few with an agenda

to keep the status quo for some reason or another. Funny that.

[smokey nj]

12. One of whom is stinking up this thread.

[applegrove]

14. It was Occupy that defined the the

Last edited Wed Dec 12, 2012, 08:00 PM - Edit history (3)

99% in people's hearts. And people really liked belonging to such a great big group after years of the GOP slicing and dicing Americans up and playing people off against each other. The 99% meme was deeply ingrained inside the majority of Americans when Romney's 47% comments became public: the complete opposite of what Occupy's 99% meant to the country. Why Romney was rejected so. Why Occupy will live on. The idea of people working together for a better future was found in Obama's 'we're all in this together' adage. Occupy was a very important part of Obama's 2012 win. IMHO

[Taverner]

15. Occupy Worked, and it has changed

Consider Occupy Sandy.

OWS might be dead as a protest, but the occupy movement is still running, just different now.

[Jackpine Radical]

16. Exactly. It is evolving.

If the GA stopped working, then people would figure out ways to change the process.

I keep coming back to The Starfish and the Spider.