Occupy: A DIY Revolution

[pinboy3niner]

Source: Thick Socks and Picket Signs (blog)

January 1, 2012
By lockesocks


People are funny.

There’s a sort of person one gets used to meeting when one is with Occupy; the armchair activist, the sideseat protestor, or, as I like to call them, people who Occupy Twitter. They come in many flavors. There’s the rabid progressive liberal who finds it personally offensive to discover conservatives at Occupy. There’s the conservative God, Guns and Gays issue-politics Republican who is convinced every “Occutard” loves Obama and joined the Occupation at the President’s behest. There’s those who voice support but also add that they wish we would protest <insert pet cause here>, and there are always those who second-guess every little thing we do; from allowing Denver’s homeless population to join our ranks freely and the burning of our own structures to the presence of cigarette smoke within fifty feet of a General Assembly – in a public park.

...


All of these people share something in common. It is that they have an internal vision of how the revolution should be run, and that they choose not to take their own advice. It is always “what you people should be doing”, and never “what I should be doing”.

...


Let’s be real here. Occupy is nothing more than a handful of ordinary Americans who have reached their limit, their “Eureka!” moment. When given the choice between the fiction of wealth or liberty, they chose liberty. You chose to stay in the comfort of your living room.

If ye prefer the tranquility of servitude to the animated contest of freedom, you have our blessings. If, however, you prefer the pretense of activism via Twitter and the internet to actually taking a stand, sit down before you hurt yourself. You are the most ineffective advocate on earth. Most people think you’re not only lazy, but a nutcase. And you are most certainly on the watch lists.

This is a DIY revolution. If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

Lead, follow, or get the fuck out of our way.

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http://thicksocksandpicketsigns.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/a-diy-revolution/

[nashville_brook]

1. very familiar stuff -- frequent Occupy Orlando chat

here's the thing, tho -- we actually need people on Twitter, FB, doing eblasts, maintaining the calendar, updating the website, editing video, blogging, linking, writing press releases, and getting people connected.

i'm a PR facilitator and one of the things i try to do is get people to help on these projects. it's crushing to a working mother, who works nights on getting our message out via electronic channels, to hear that she's not part of us. that she's somehow less worthy. i recruited her...told her i NEEDED her. and we do need her. but she constantly has to endure the online vs on-the-ground Occu-Purity test. this is self-destruction and it needs to stop. it's killed dozens of good volunteers in our media team.

i work 60 hours weeks and have spent every bit of vacation and off-work time on Occupy activities since October. i can't camp overnight. i can't be on-the-ground during work hours. i HAVE to attend to my life: laundry, groceries, dinner, rest. So, i do what i can. i do GA. i do working group meetings. i do facilitator meetings. i do outreach. i am Occupy and fuck anyone who says otherwise.