When I was in college and deeply into my Quaker path, I went to several preemptive protests of the two abiding wars that my country are still involved in. I had a sign I would take to the protests which read "Another Quaker for Peace." I remember one march in which a man who was loud and vocal in his disagreement with our protest came up the line in the opposite direction from our march. He stopped at me, read my sign, and said, "Well, I'll say one thing about you Quakers. At least you're consistent."
I became disillusioned with protest movements when what were the largest global anti-war protests in history made absolutely no difference whatsoever. Instead I focused my attention towards beauty, peace, and truth in hopes of being one vote towards a world inclined more in that direction.
This morning, before my walk, I read a bit about the Occupy Boston protest which is already sounding like this generation's Chicago 1968 Democratic Convention. Chico's manifestation bore little resemblance to those news stories, and let me say right off the bat that nothing I say is intended to mock anyone by any means. I am simply speaking from my own point of view.
I walked by the plaza and there were people sitting beneath tents. There were signs, but no one was holding them and the slogans were, I thought, a bit uninspired. Phrases like "The banks took our bailout money. We want it back." As someone apt to take photographs, I was disappointed. I didn't see anything that made me want to photograph it.
Now, I have to emphasize that it was 1:00 pm on a Tuesday. This was not exactly the peak time. However, there were only 13 people. It looked like this.
The caution tape was not a result of any concern on the part of the police or the city over the protests, but rather because the Parks department is redoing the sod around the trees.
I sat by the fountain about 25 feet away from the tents and a man stood up and began yelling. He held pieces of paper. At first I thought he was angry at the protestors until I caught little pieces of what he was saying over the gentle gurglings of the fountain. "And corporations (gurgle gurgle) EVERY SINGLE DAY (gurgle gurgle) But the Consititution (gurgle.)" Actually, I don't know why I'm trying to describe the sensation of sitting there. I filmed a piece of it.
Eventually I moved closer. As soon as the man started listing off dates of laws changing in America, I lost interest and left. He looked like this:
What I feel about this current protest movement is complex. I've read some good points being made. I felt in almost complete agreement with this assessment from The Motley Fool, especially the three points which seem entirely reasonable and workable to me.
This may be my inherent misthanthropy or anti-social streak speaking or possibly the vestigial remains of my regrettable Calvinistic period, but I do feel that history will back me up in asserting that the major stumbling block to any Utopian movement is human beings. I was recently revisiting studies in the works of Karl Marx and found, once again, that aside from throwing the baby of religion out with the bathwater, I am inclined to agree with him. However, there is that awful grim spectre of all previous applications of his ideals in roughly 1/2 of human civilization in the previous century. It did not go well. One could make a very strong argument that those movements were not pure Marxist in spite of their claims. Be that as it may, the practical applications of Marxism have been fairly ugly. I think there may be those present in the movement in question who would point out equal atrocities as a result of unfettered Capitalism. In short, I feel that checks and balances, opposing sides having equal power, are some of the best forms of regulating a society. I am a fervent believer in democracy (in all of its clunkiness) because of the compromise and slow decisions such a system demands.
Laurie and I were discussing this and she said, "We have a complex government with a simple populus." However, a simple populus, historically speaking, tends more toward the fascist/dictator models.
One of the major problems of this sort of nascent movement is its undetermined direction. On the opposite corner from the tents, completely diagonal and out of the sight line of the camp, was a lone man with a sign which read "End the Fed", and when I approached him from behind in order to cross the street, I could read something on the other side about Ron Paul. Something enthusiastic I gathered. But I felt fairly confident that the frustrations voiced on the opposite side of the park were of a more progressive nature, frustrated at the lack of restrictions on the market, indeed, the lack of government regulation to prevent the current economic collapse. While I can sympathize with that mindset in a lot of ways, I feel like there is a real danger of a movement like this becoming The Tea Party, just with the opposite point of view.
So, I'm left wondering what's really going on. I suppose the fount from which this baker's dozen has flowed chose their place of gathering because of what they assume Wall Street represents. There seems to me to be some panic and desperation in that choice. I recall my late friend New York Rob telling me once that he wished there was a building somewhere that was "The Establishment Building." It is probably worth stressing that this was before the buildings fell.
I can get right into the part of my brain that is still 20 year old Paul. 20 year old Paul would have been hopelessly devoted to a movement like this. He would probably accuse 34 year old Paul of compromise (with the connotation that that is a bad thing.) I can hear him say, "First they came for the Jews..." and things like that. Faced with 20 year old Paul, I feel a niggling need to defend myself.
I do feel as though human beings need to be governed and most likely governed heavily. I think that a complex system is probably a very good thing and that opposing forces are healthy. I think that protests are healthy as well. I think that people ought to hold one another accountable, which probably puts me more toward the Left end of the spectrum, probably closer to the people in the 13 person side of the park than the Objectivist corner. But I also feel that tides can be turned in more quiet, monastic, contemplative, and wise ways. You can take the Quaker out of the Meeting house, but you can't take the Meeting house out of the Quaker.
When Allen Ginsberg would go to protests, he would find a little corner and read poetry, sing songs, but mainly lead meditations. And there would be Abbie Hoffman on the stage yelling about offing pigs while over in the corner there would be Ginsberg chanting "Om." Sometimes the police would come and club them and they would keep saying "Om." He felt that one should be the kind of change one wants to see in the world. In spite of our different chosen traditions, I feel very much the same.
I feel as if I should be more of a contemplative. I am so often immersed in the cares of this world and so often lose focus on what is truly important. I feel like if I were to focus my attention on the "real work" that a great deal of my other problems (gluttony, stress, despair over the state of humankind, inactivity) would melt away. Almost as if I were to seek first the kingdom of God, all of these things would be added unto me. I just said that to Laurie and she said, "You know that passage comes from the part where Christ teaches to be anxious for nothing, right?"
I feel as if I am surrounded with a lot of very anxious people and their anxiety is seeping into my own. I think the lesson I take from today is to be the man I ought to be. A man standing around yelling in a park, regardless of whether or not I agree with what he is yelling, is still a man standing in a park yelling. Eight billion people living within their means, providing for one another each to their needs to each to their abilities (which I believe Marx stole outright from Acts of the Apostles), treating one another as equals, understanding and admitting to the extent of our own shortcomings, loving one another as they love themselves... see what I mean?
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