A successful movement doesn't have to "sell its ideas", just own them.

[Bonobo]

Someone here posted something the other day that got me thinking because it is an idea, a mistaken one I think, that many on DU have about "movements". So I am going to post my reply and I would like to see what the rest of you think.


"For a movement to be relevant, it has to capture the hearts and minds of the society."

No, no, no.

A movement that IS strong is strong because IT ITSELF is a reflection, a manifestation of the hearts and minds of society.

That is where you went wrong. Perhaps you are so used to things being packaged and sold that you have mistaken the tail for the body. But you are turned around and terribly confused.

Movements that are relevant occur spontaneously and naturally out of the environment that creates them. In that sense, they have no choice in the matter. They are created and defined by the environment into which they were born. Like a liquid, they will conform to the shape of their surroundings.

So OWS, Anonymous and others are not TRYING to sell you something. That is not what they are.

What they ARE is a reflection, a manifestation, a creature that has been created, birthed, designed by the forces of greed and inequity.

You don't need to worry about them. If it isn't THIS OWS group that succeeds or grows, it will be another one, made inevitable by the 1%.

[cthulu2016]

1. I would substitute a different optics analogy

Not a mirror, a lens.

The underlying zeitgeist must be there and the movement focuses attention on what exists, in more difuse form, in society.

A lens can only focus light. The light that is focused must come from society.

[Bonobo]

4. Yeah, that is also really true.

But still, the idea of "selling" an idea or "winning hearts and minds" is a fundamental misunderstanding.

The conditions must be right for a movement to take off and a movement will only take off if the conditions are right.

No amount of trickery, drama or salesmanship can work as a replacement.

The movement is itself an extension of the conditions.

History has always seen revolutions occur in every country and empire. It would be madness to think that anything could prevent it in america as well.

Is it time yet? Only time will tell, but it has NOTHING to do with winning or failing based on "tactics" such as whether or not to burn a flag.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. I might add, there was one

Movement in the us that reflected middle class conservative values in the early 20th century. That be the progressive movement.

It was a conservative, middle class movement trying to impose middle cases, mostly white Protestant values. I expect some heads to have whiplash. But history is what it is.

The rest have come from the lower classes.

[EFerrari]

3. There are folks who couldn't think out of the box

if you took it off their heads, crushed it and recycled it for them.

That's okay. To each according to his ability.

[tech3149]

5. For those listeners of Thom Hartmann this is not news

On a flight to Africa Dick Gregory said "you don't have to sell anything as good, if it's good they'll steal it"
One of the most destructive things in our world comes through things like advertising, public relations, perception management, etc. It's all just one form or another of propaganda.

Thanks to the OP for hitting a great subject!

As an afterthought, we should all be out there on the streets trying to wake people to the idea that most of what they see and hear on commercial media is just using them as a tool.