I didn’t want to be a f——-g pop star. I wanted to be a protest singer.
- Sinead O’Connor
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
- Elie Wiesel
I’m not always a big fan of discussing politics, though on occasion I do manage to learn something from someone who thinks differently. Too often if just feels like so much mental masturbation- a lot of energy expended for very little reward. I may write about politics a lot, because it gives me an opportunity to put my ideas and opinions out there with feeling as if there’s the potential for conflict. Talking about? Eh, not so much….
Erin came home from a business trip on Saturday night, and for reasons I’m still not clear on, we ended up talking about politics when we got home. I was tired, and not really up to the challenge, but Erin did say something that really stuck with me. We were discussing Occupy Wall Street when she asked a very simple questions: “What now?”
Don’t get me wrong; I’m 100% behind Occupy Wall Street, but even I find myself wondering what comes next. Protest and civil disobedience certainly has its place, but at some point it has to morph into something more concrete or it runs the risk of becoming something akin to self-parody. In order to effet real change, somewhere along the line protest needs to become an organized campaign in order to have any hope of being effective. Leaderless movements are all well and good, but unless you’re looking for matryrdom, a movement with no one to articulate its demands is destined to become an exercise in futility.
Occupy Wall Street has done a wonderful job of focusing the nation’s attention on the issue of income inequality and corruption in public life. Great. Well done. Now what are you going to do in order that that you might turn that attention into concrete results?
Fortunately, there’s precedent to fall back on. The war in Vietnam came to an end in large part due to nationwide anti-war protests. Large protests and displays of non-violent civil disobedience can make a difference; the question, of course, is how to turn those protests into concrete policy objectives. Once you’ve accomplished that, how do you turn those objectives into results?
Occupy Wall Street has done a wonderful job of igniting a movement that’s resonating from coast to coast. That’s great. Now what??
