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Five things everyone's saying about Occupy Philly that aren't actually true.
The speed with which preconceptions become the conventional wisdom is impressive ...
Five things everyone's saying about Occupy Philly that aren't actually true.
The speed with which preconceptions become conventional wisdom is impressive: Every opinion people seemed to have about Occupy Philly before it actually began seems to have been magically borne out in press accounts and general chatter.
Let's boil it down to a sentence: This whole Occupy Whatever thing is a bunch of unemployed white kids who lack organization, message, plan, and purpose, and who are protesting for the hell of it.
It's a fine opinion. But it's a woefully inadequate representation of what has, in fact, transpired so far.
Presenting the top five myths about Occupy Philly — and why they're wrong.
1. It's all white kids.
There's nothing non-protesting liberals have been enjoying more in the past 24 hours than pointing out how white the Occupy Philly movement is. Only problem: It's not really true. Sure, it's majority white:,but there are plenty of faces of every hue, including among the group's volunteer leadership. The crowd gathered last night was notably more diverse than many a local bar scene.
2. It's disorganized.
Anyone who watched last night's "General Assembly" meeting saw not chaos but a careful, deliberate and organized decision-making process — no easy feat with more than hundred highly opinonated and passionate people. Each group decision was explained, debated, polled in a non-binding vote and then voted upon. It's a slow, grueling process, but to say these folks don't have a process in place isn't true.
The group has formed more than a half-dozen committees, in charge of everything from sanitation issues to group safety to media outreach. They've created a family area for protesters with children; they've established a medical station, food stations and they have a cleanup crew.
3. They have no message.
The media may be obsessed with extracting their pound of sound bite, but the group's refusal to give it does not mean they don't have a message. They have lots of messages, in fact, and have gathered to voice them. The overall message is obvious: They are upset with what they perceive as the U.S. government catering to corporate and wealthy special interests at the cost of regular people.
That's the message, and it's been as available and obvious as possible. The fact is that it simply isn't good enough to satisfy the media or pundits. To say there is no message is inaccurate.
What's more, the group is in the process of formulating, as did the Occupy Wall Street group, a collective statement. They're working on it, together — talking it out, debating, engaging with each other. This event is more than a protest: It's a gathering of minds and an active experiment in group democracy.
4. The lack of a single message reflects a lack of a purpose and plan!
What are their "actionable demands?" What specific reforms to the banking system do they want to see? Why don't they propose a series of step-by-step instructions to reform the entire American political system and purge it overnight of the disproportionate influence of corporate greed?
It's an old debate tactic — ask only the questions you want there not to be easy answers to. By hammering away at the same point, the media effectively (I'm not saying intentionally) portrays the goals of those gathered for Occupy Philly and similar movements as nonexistent, small, or ridiculous.
But, as activist/scholar Naomi Klein put it in an enlightening interview on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show yesterday, what's happening now is about something bigger, and not smaller, than a particular reform or bill in Congress. The activists who've gathered offer myriad ideas (as, for example, do Tea Party activists). These public demonstrations are an end in themselves. The purpose is to draw media and political attention and build a community of like-minded activists. To deny that they've had success in both those goals is absurd.
5. It's small!
The several-hundred-strong group that's gathered for Occupy Philly appears to have been deemed officially "small" by many folks. This conclusion is premature — Occupy Wall Street grew, rather than shrank, as time went on — and also misses the bigger picture. The Occupy Wherever movement has spread to some dozen cities. This thing has been growing, not shrinking, on a national scale. To ignore the bigger picture makes for good zingers but not good news.
Follow Isaiah Thompson on Twitter: @isaiah_thompson
#4 label repeat— Smetzger- Yeah, just noticed that. Duh on my part. Problem fixed but may take a minute to update. Thx— ithompson
- Very interesting.I stopped by on my lunch break to check it out, not able myself to spend a considerable amount of time. I think the non white part is very true, but the place was covered with people who you thought would be there. I think this movement stands a better chance when it's not the "expected" crowd outside city hall, but those people probably couldn't get off work.
PS: I am glad you moved here to write Isaiah. Your work at that paper in miami should have been better appreciated by funny little schmucky editors.— whitney215 - Just for future reference, are the typo point-outs helpful/annoying/both? Is it stuff you'd usually fix anyway and should we therefore refrain from armchair copyediting?— Smetzger
- what are 5 things that are somewhat true?
1. Most people do not care about this
2. most there do not work,unemployed and are able to spend time playing music and sitting around,holding up signs expecing a job.
3. A job is not a right
4. if it is a referendum on US Gov of today and Gov catering to corporate not many would admit they consider Obama and democrats apart of the problem, which is hypocritcal and nonsensical.
5. it will wither away soon unless the anarchists get involved, which we are unlike Europeans in our protests, yet.
Thanks Isaiah I do like reading your writing.— uandwhosearmy - what are 5 things that are different from recent world uprisings?
- In the Middle East the demonstrators get killed!Weapons and bullets are allowed ;-)
- Demonstrators don't have the luxury of asking for goods such as laptops, power cords, clothes, sleeping bags, etc.
- Internet technology tools such as live streaming is NOT an available
- They are NOT given any food or any space to hang out and camp out
- Their families will get targeted by government security forces— digiyaya - Hey Smetzger — No no, please feel free to post corrections, typo-alerts, etc. This may come as a shock, but a lot of us who are blogging are doing so more quickly than we'd prefer. It's easy to miss stuff, and I appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks for reading — Isaiah— ithompson
- Overall this is a good article. I thought it was informative.
This whole movement is wrongly characterizing the media as the bad guy. Yes, they took a week to start covering it, but as far as anyone knew at first it was a gathering of unemployed hipsters on Wall Street. They can't cover every group of protesters that forms. The protesters showed they aren't going anywhere, so now they get press.
Also, this sentence: "Ask only the questions you want there not to be easy answers to." Really? "Ask questions without easy answers." There, I fixed it for you.— username goes here - Globally, the reputation of US workers is that they are less skilled than those in China, India and Mexico. Additionally, far less is required by corporations to provide to workers in other countries. Remember, Engineering is defined differently in China and India so their universities are able to boast higher grad rates. Perhaps those in this group need to tell Washington to adapt a GLOBAL language so America remains within the competitive levels in the modern world. China appears to be producing more engineers in order to keep up with its growing economy, it is doing so with a factory-like approach not an approach many Americans would embrace. So, individuals as well as government need to recognize the role they are playing in today's global market. Blame games produce victims and this nation would have never grown under the entitlement attitudes and blame games being promoted today.— Moving On
- If the message is that corporate greed is killing our country; that the economic debacle that Americans find themselves in ultimately resulted from the systematic dismantling of federal banking regulations, collectively orchestrated by an assortment of self serving senior politicians (reds and blues), Ivy League sell out’s, greed driven corporate mercenaries and a FED chairman who apparently seeks guidance from glue-then they are right!
The problem with this particular protest is that it’s boring. Face it; any protest that includes the likes of the “Socialist Party USA” is an automatic snooze-fest. Unfortunately, this is coming off as the venue du jour on what amounts to “2011 Collectively Disgruntled World Tour”. That’s a pity, given the importance of their message. By the way, have tour favorites “PETA”, “GLYO” and Greenpeace arrived yet?
— mr5hole - You forgot "uninformed". Or perhaps you did not include that in the list because it is by far filled with the most truth.— imarogue
- who...cares...?— Leirro30
- do you actually pucker up when you write puff pieces like this?— tr88
- Do you get Santorum on your lips when you leave comments like this? — ahab
- Occupy a job........— Earl J
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