14 ms·

This was one thing I really enjoyed about camping out at Occupy last year. Most of the people being involved at the 'getting shit done' level, wanted to get stu

This was one thing I really enjoyed about camping out at Occupy last year. Most of the people being involved at the 'getting shit done' level, wanted to get stuff done, respected other's opinions, and left their ego in their tent.

deleted 14y ago
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untog 14y ago
Not to be devil's advocate too much, but if that was the case then why was nothing ever done? To the outsider, Occupy (Wall St, at least) was the very opposite of "getting shit done"- it had the world's attention for a number of weeks and appeared to do absolutely nothing with it, before fading away.
- pyrotechnick 14y ago
  To the outsider
  - untog 14y ago
    Which is pretty important, if you want to do that whole "inspire the people to rise up" thing that Occupy Wall St was about.
- SandersAK 14y ago
  I'm totally with you - I was super skeptic of Occupy and was definitely a hater during the wall street protests. With that said, I've been impressed by what they have achieved compared to the likes of FEMA and Red Cross here in NY. Consider me a convert ;)
- shaunxcode 14y ago
  And yet here we are on a thread months later discussing the occupy movement. A movement like this is async and concurrent. Promises declared are not immediately kept (opportunity must arise) - but that does not mean you can treat them as broken.
- mkr-hn 14y ago
  It sounds like you relied on the shallow, useless coverage in the mainstream media. Some of these are gone, but it's the first directory I found: http://directory.occupy.net/ http://directory.occupy.net/
  - untog 14y ago
    Right, I know that a lot of organisations exist. But what have they achieved?
    - pyrotechnick 14y ago
      What part about "occupy" - an occupation - don't you understand? You will forever struggle to pigeon-hole occupy into something that fits inside our tiny monkey brains because there was never an agenda to begin with. It is a celebration of life on this planet. A stance in solidarity with those far less fortunate. An admission of our insignificance in the grand design of the cosmos. A message to the rest of creation: "here we are". If you miss any of this; you miss it.
      - lazerwalker 14y ago
        > What part about "occupy" - an occupation - don't you understand? I'm the sort of person, probably just like untog, whose knowledge of occupy mostly comes from the mainstream media. I've tried to read some of your guys' materials online or watch videos for an alternate viewpoint, but nothing's been particularly helpful or clear. As far as I've been led to understand from the media, OWS is a "political movement" that basically failed to accomplish any meaningful political change because of a lack of coherent agenda. There's clearly more to you guys than that, and I'm sure that portrayal is inaccurate to the point of severe insult. So my challenge to you is to explain it better. Or point me to someone who can. Assume I don't "get" occupy, because I don't. But I want to. Telling me that it's "an admission of our insignificance in the grand design of the cosmos" is a fantastically beautiful sentiment, but that gets me no closer to actually understanding what you're doing, why you're doing it, or why I should care.
- SwellJoe 14y ago
  You've been misinformed, on all fronts, and that's not surprising, given the way it has been portrayed in mainstream media. It's endlessly amusing, but also a little disturbing, to me that Occupy has been declared dead, continually, since almost its first few days of existence over a year ago. And, yet, every time an Occupy thing shows up (which is frequently; Occupy events and actions are happening every single day across the US) the news reports it as an isolated anomaly ("Occupy Wall St. had one last gasp today." and a week later act shocked, or, more likely, simply ignore it, when some new Occupy event or action happens). This is another example of that downplaying of the reality of OWS; "Oh, my goodness! You mean OWS still exists? I had no idea!" While thousands of Occupiers help the poorest neighborhoods get back on their feet...the only reason you hear about it, is because it's too big to ignore, though there's certainly plenty of folks trying to continue to ignore it. Maybe you should be asking why the media you trust is misrepresenting a mainstream movement like this on a continual basis, and for whose benefit? OWS changed the political landscape in pretty dramatic ways, and continues to do so (and to deny that is to deny reality). But, for the folks who expected OWS (and Occupy groups nationwide) to take up the "Tea Party of the Left" mantle, and do politic-y things, like electing candidates to office, it looks like a failure. But, it wasn't and isn't a Tea Party of the left, and baked right into its very being is a set of values and a culture that would make such an outcome very unlikely (and undesired by most of its participants). Occupy folks are very likely involved in every activist community in your city, right now. They may not even be involved in an Occupation anymore, and there may not be a very active local Occupation in your city (though you might be surprised; there's one still quite active here in Austin, and I know SF/Oakland, NYC, Chicago, and many others are still active)...but OWS or a local Occupation is what turned them from an armchair activist into one who goes outside and does things. That's true for a huge swath of people, and I think its impact has been wildly underestimated.
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    Have you considered how much this point of view is 'church like' ? If you boil it down to the basics, of "big idea that we're all important" plus "help by doing, not by talking" you will see a lot of churches organizing their volunteer efforts around those same exact concepts. And the ego check? well they usually ask you to accept that God is in the driver seat, you're just there to be His agent. The message here is "life isn't a spectator sport" and I'm glad to see that message take hold regardless of its origin.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

untog 14y ago

Not to be devil's advocate too much, but if that was the case then why was nothing ever done? To the outsider, Occupy (Wall St, at least) was the very opposite of "getting shit done"- it had the world's attention for a number of weeks and appeared to do absolutely nothing with it, before fading away.

pyrotechnick 14y ago
To the outsider
- untog 14y ago
  Which is pretty important, if you want to do that whole "inspire the people to rise up" thing that Occupy Wall St was about.
SandersAK 14y ago
I'm totally with you - I was super skeptic of Occupy and was definitely a hater during the wall street protests. With that said, I've been impressed by what they have achieved compared to the likes of FEMA and Red Cross here in NY. Consider me a convert ;)
shaunxcode 14y ago
And yet here we are on a thread months later discussing the occupy movement. A movement like this is async and concurrent. Promises declared are not immediately kept (opportunity must arise) - but that does not mean you can treat them as broken.
mkr-hn 14y ago
It sounds like you relied on the shallow, useless coverage in the mainstream media. Some of these are gone, but it's the first directory I found: http://directory.occupy.net/ http://directory.occupy.net/
- untog 14y ago
  Right, I know that a lot of organisations exist. But what have they achieved?
  - pyrotechnick 14y ago
    What part about "occupy" - an occupation - don't you understand? You will forever struggle to pigeon-hole occupy into something that fits inside our tiny monkey brains because there was never an agenda to begin with. It is a celebration of life on this planet. A stance in solidarity with those far less fortunate. An admission of our insignificance in the grand design of the cosmos. A message to the rest of creation: "here we are". If you miss any of this; you miss it.
    - lazerwalker 14y ago
      > What part about "occupy" - an occupation - don't you understand? I'm the sort of person, probably just like untog, whose knowledge of occupy mostly comes from the mainstream media. I've tried to read some of your guys' materials online or watch videos for an alternate viewpoint, but nothing's been particularly helpful or clear. As far as I've been led to understand from the media, OWS is a "political movement" that basically failed to accomplish any meaningful political change because of a lack of coherent agenda. There's clearly more to you guys than that, and I'm sure that portrayal is inaccurate to the point of severe insult. So my challenge to you is to explain it better. Or point me to someone who can. Assume I don't "get" occupy, because I don't. But I want to. Telling me that it's "an admission of our insignificance in the grand design of the cosmos" is a fantastically beautiful sentiment, but that gets me no closer to actually understanding what you're doing, why you're doing it, or why I should care.
SwellJoe 14y ago
You've been misinformed, on all fronts, and that's not surprising, given the way it has been portrayed in mainstream media. It's endlessly amusing, but also a little disturbing, to me that Occupy has been declared dead, continually, since almost its first few days of existence over a year ago. And, yet, every time an Occupy thing shows up (which is frequently; Occupy events and actions are happening every single day across the US) the news reports it as an isolated anomaly ("Occupy Wall St. had one last gasp today." and a week later act shocked, or, more likely, simply ignore it, when some new Occupy event or action happens). This is another example of that downplaying of the reality of OWS; "Oh, my goodness! You mean OWS still exists? I had no idea!" While thousands of Occupiers help the poorest neighborhoods get back on their feet...the only reason you hear about it, is because it's too big to ignore, though there's certainly plenty of folks trying to continue to ignore it. Maybe you should be asking why the media you trust is misrepresenting a mainstream movement like this on a continual basis, and for whose benefit? OWS changed the political landscape in pretty dramatic ways, and continues to do so (and to deny that is to deny reality). But, for the folks who expected OWS (and Occupy groups nationwide) to take up the "Tea Party of the Left" mantle, and do politic-y things, like electing candidates to office, it looks like a failure. But, it wasn't and isn't a Tea Party of the left, and baked right into its very being is a set of values and a culture that would make such an outcome very unlikely (and undesired by most of its participants). Occupy folks are very likely involved in every activist community in your city, right now. They may not even be involved in an Occupation anymore, and there may not be a very active local Occupation in your city (though you might be surprised; there's one still quite active here in Austin, and I know SF/Oakland, NYC, Chicago, and many others are still active)...but OWS or a local Occupation is what turned them from an armchair activist into one who goes outside and does things. That's true for a huge swath of people, and I think its impact has been wildly underestimated.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Have you considered how much this point of view is 'church like' ? If you boil it down to the basics, of "big idea that we're all important" plus "help by doing, not by talking" you will see a lot of churches organizing their volunteer efforts around those same exact concepts. And the ego check? well they usually ask you to accept that God is in the driver seat, you're just there to be His agent. The message here is "life isn't a spectator sport" and I'm glad to see that message take hold regardless of its origin.