A few thoughts regarding #OccupyWallStreet

More than a structured post, here are a few thoughts regarding the #OccupyWallStreet movement, including the arrests in NYC on Saturday 24 September 2011, related effects on the treatment by media, and the articles and blogs I have read lately not only on this specific operation but also on linked previous movements and protests. Indeed, for this episode of the age-old struggle against those who hold the key to liquidity (cash), the origin of the idea to fight bankers and the power of markets can be traced back to the Spanish Manifesto of the Indignados (published at the latest by May 17 2011), and to the recent events in Iceland.

Media, attention and … “martyrs”

It is good that mainstream media start paying attention to what is happening, but, as previously underlined, where were they in May, June, etc. for Spain, Greece, and the various movements that started then, not only Europe but also throughout America?When the #occupywallstreet demonstration started on #sept17, only CNNmoney and Al Jazeera were there and reported. Again, where were they for Europe? Obviously arrests in a symbolic place were needed to see wider coverage. As any student of political mobilization and revolution knows, getting “martyrs” – everything being equal – is a crucial time for movements to develop, getting support, coverage, attention, etc.

Thomas Jefferson against Leftist labels?

It seems that an interesting – still – low key struggle is emerging, at the level of ideas and legitimacy.

Some – the majority? – absolutely want to categorize the operation with what could be qualified of usual categories: anti-capitalist, left, leftist, etc. Yet, shouldn’t we wonder if those categories are not also or rather old, corresponding  to the word of the end of the 19th and 20th century and to the Cold War, and thus most probably outdated? Note that this categorization, very interestingly, is done both inside and outside the movement – the most vocal being maybe Tea Party supporters and established Marxist/leftist elements.

Meanwhile, within the “movement,” other participants either do not pay attention or start looking for legitimating references, e.g. Jefferson on private banks (legitimacy is seen here in the American framework, but Jefferson, as a child of the Enlightenment, could very easily be adopted elsewhere, notably in Europe). The stream of tweets on Jefferson started on September 17 with some favored quotes and also sometimes with mention of  blog posts, e.g. “A Den of Vipers and Thieves” by Scott Johnson, Sept 15, with no direct affiliation between posts and “movement.”

Towards an emerging new normative setting?

My take is that we are seeing here many things unfolding and coalescing: recuperation and hope for a renewal, thinking habit, fear to see part of one’s rhetoric and thus partisans stolen away, plain fear of what is happening, and, first and foremost, something new being created. We are most likely witnessing the first weak signals of the making of a new normative system. Hence, this ideological evolution must be followed. Even if this specific protest recedes, it does not mean it will completely die. It is most likely to come back again, transformed, stronger, better and differently defined, elsewhere. This is exactly what has already happened with the European movements of the Spring and Summer (although hardly documented), which, after the Arab (Winter-)Spring, and in conjunction with the markets’ evolution create the right conditions for transmission and mutation of ideas and their corollary, actions.

Very interestingly, right now, it would seem that all actors (from movements to institutions, including governments and international organizations) are unable to think clearly anything else than “less state” – in American parlance “less government,” although to think in these terms is fraught with complication. If this hypothesis is correct, then it would mean that all, probably unconsciously, abide, on the one hand, by the ultra-liberal ideology according to which less state is needed and that has dominated the world since the end of the Cold War and, on the other, have an ultimate faith in a Democracy that would not need a state (despite all the research done depicting a much more complex picture).

Shall we see with real life and concrete threats, with practical needs for mobilization and organization, with interactions within the “new opposition nexus” and between the latter and political authorities, ideas change, evolve and being re-imagined?

Published by Dr Helene Lavoix (MSc PhD Lond)

Dr Helene Lavoix, PhD Lond (International Relations), is the President/CEO of The Red Team Analysis Society. She is specialised in strategic foresight and warning for international relations, national and international security issues. Her current focus is on the war in Ukraine, international order and the rise of China, the overstepping of planetary boundaries and international relations, the methodology of SF&W, radicalisation as well as new tech and security.

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2 Comments

  1. Hello Helene,

    Interesting discussion presented here. I agree with your analysis of too many people are in the mode of “less state,” and even “Ron Paul” will fix the problems. Little attention to regaining self-responsibility and instilling values and truths into one’s life, a product of a dependent and mis-informed public, world-wide. However, as you mention…. noise is the first step before a new normative state….. the cycle must strengthen, retreat, strengthen more, retreat again, and continue this process until it can break out into the majority.

    I notice you mentioned that that the framework of central banking could be reviewed everywhere, and I agree wholeheartedly. My purpose of the article was to target American banking, as the US Dollar is the Reserve Currency of the world (though quickly fading…), which ties together much of the other western world currencies. That and I am from America, and most are not even willing to look at our own problems, no less the problems of the worldwide financial/currency/economic system. This is the source of the free man’s oppression, for this is the subconscious god of the western world. Doesn’t the G7 meeting to play currency intervention with one another spell conspiracy by real definition? Amazing the power of words, and how they have been used to protect the ongoing power-structure of the world.

    Don’t look for the media in the mainstream fashion. When ideas pop up in the media on the mainstream level, they are usually being carefully framed to portray a certain image. The real media is the alternative sources, opinions, and discussions. The real movement will come out of enough people who are willing to finally stand up. It will not happen with a group of mis-informed people protesting a segment of the corruption, it will be a small, tireless minority, that will not take no for an answer.

    May you live in interesting times.

    Looks like we get the jackpot if this were regarded as the possibilities than lie on the horizon.

    Scott J

  2. Hello Scott,

    Thanks for your comment! I am not sure I see conspiracy behind the G7 – or G8 or Gn – but I am quite allergic to conspiracy theory, and furthermore this is a well documented cognitive bias. I would tend to see rather lack of foresight, search for quick fix solutions with incapacity to think anything else than winning the next elections and being solely interested in politician politics to the point that ruling and governing are seen as secondary…. but somehow this is more scaring to envision than a real conspiracy :)

    I am really certain that we shall all live very interesting times!

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