Different take on #OccupyWallStreet from Forbes

[justiceischeap]

Why Occupy Wall Street is More than Just a Protest

<snip>

Like Resnikoff, I think that even just organizing and maintaining these protests is worthy of praise. The manifestation of #OccupyWallStreet as more than just a hashtag is a real achievement. From incoherence comes relevancy, however messy or disorganized that process may be.

But I also think that in order for this communal space to become something more, to really achieve movement status, the activists will need to establish more than just a permanent outpost. Somehow these activists need to translate the protests and the communal spaces into actual institutions.

Furthermore, the real import of these protests is not the protests themselves but the deep need for solutions outside of the political duopoly and the realm of government. Unions used to be a real bastion of political activism. Now that unions are on the decline, there are few populist outlets remaining. For regular people to have a voice, they need strength in numbers.

</snip>

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/10/03/why-occupy-wall-street-is-more-than-just-a-protest/

[tk2kewl]

1. I had been considering a counter post about the why it didn't matter that the message was fuzzy

The author of this article has taken care of that. The protest doesn't need to have a succinct message. It needs to be outlet for populist resistance of the status quo. And as we all know the status quo is completely screwed up in a million different ways, but the most pressing at the moment is the simultaneous concentration of wealth, accelerating poverty and dwindling hope for change.

[justiceischeap]

2. Yeah, folks who don't get that this protest is the start of something

are either walking through life with their eyes closed and don't want to see the possibilities or are being contrary just for the sake of being so.

IMO, a movement doesn't necessarily start out as such. They don't come together all organized with goals in place, a movement comes together and hash it all out as they merge into something bigger than what they thought they could be. I think what we're seeing is the start of a movement and hopefully, this movement will be the progressives answer to the teabaggers. Maybe in a few years we'll have some folks running for office under the "Occupy" banner and shaking things up in a good way in national and local politics. Personally, that's what I'd love to see come out of this.

[tk2kewl]

3. I think the oportunity exists for more than progressive answer to the tea party

As a true populist movement I think it is an opportunity to bring the tea party into the fold to address the massively unequal economic opportunities all of our children are facing if we don't have a > 10 million bank account.

Koch's tea party backfire - this is my hope.

[firehorse]

4. The silent majority isn't silent anymore - the dialogue has begun

[PETRUS]

5. K&R nt