Q & OWS
November 29th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
As I’m reading the novel Q (see previous post), set during the turbulent Reformation years, I think of the Occupy movement. There are, I suspect, some lessons to be learned from it, such as:
1) The powers-that-be begin to villify and condemn protestors from the start. They stereotype, denigrate, and search for what they can perceive as a principled stand.
2) This principled stand is no more than the self trying to keep a hold on its power.
3) All power corrupts, and the protestors are not the moral superiors of those in power; they only are in a position to seem like it, because they do not yet have their hands on power.
4) Strong individuals are often seen as the catalyst for movements. They are not. Ideas are. Ideas rise and fall on nothing so much as their merits. They carry a will of their own that indifferently devours both supporters and detractors.
5) American society absorbs protest. The US, wherein Miley Cyrus can make a protest song in support of OWS and nobody notices the hypocrisy; wherein we are lulled to sleep by our comforts and even more by our striving work ethic; wherein we are wage slaves but better off than the masses have ever been throughout history, is a sponge.
6) Power seeks to hold on to power; protestors seek to attain power.
7) Real power is not in money, but in numbers.
8) Ideas and numbers will mean everything, if the ideas aren’t forgotten and the numbers don’t forget.
