Sunday, October 23, 2011

My Week at Occupy OC

I have spent the past week at Occupy Wall St in Orange County in Irvine.  Occupy is not a Zeitgeist Movement event, but it is a meeting place of people who are feeling and acknowledging the failings of our current system.  People of many different backgrounds are passionate about alerting the public to the dangers of our economic system and they desperately want it changed. 

There is a good deal of time spent on the operational needs of this "village," as it is called.  I am inspired by the way people are relating inter-personally and organizationally.  People are working cooperatively, not competitively, and that has created a real sense of community.  There is a large food tent, where donations from the public are stored, and people can eat and drink what they need.  The village is growing organically, not by some pre-determined blueprint.  It is open to ideas from other occupations, but has found on some occasions that the logistical characteristics of other locations do not help the flow in Irvine, so they are modified to fit the needs of Irvine's village, for now.  Its structure is emergent.

There is deep-seated commitment to leaderlessness, and self-expression, even while recognizing the risks involved of intentional misrepresentation.  For example, a general theme of Occupy protesters is that endorsing a particular political candidate is not the solution, but there are a couple of people who have shown up with Ron Paul posters.  Thankfully, they have not remained very long.  I would say the majority of protesters understand that politicians are bought by the highest bidder, and they cannot be relied upon to protect people's access to life goods. 

Personally, my experience has been intense, productive, and exhausting.  I've engaged with a lot of people from completely different cultures, ages, educational backgrounds, and personal perspectives.  I let them know that while I share the perspective that our current system is failing and has led to a towering income disparity between the 99% and 1%, I understand this problem to be systemic.  I made a short speech to the group on the first day of occupation to let them know that even if we got rid of the top 1%, the next group would rise to take their place.  I have a sign that reads, "The answer is NOT jobs" next to a picture (circulated on the net) of an Asian girl working at a sewing machine with a Nike logo.  I have another sign with an image taken from the Zeitgeist Media page that shows two men holding bats while shaking hands with the question, "How can we trust each other if this is business?"  A journalist working with the OC Register took a picture of me with that sign and it's on their website: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/occupy-323151-irvine-city.html?pic=2   (picture 16)  My message to him while he was "interviewing" me got a little garbled, but I realize that it didn't fit within the standard soundbyte meme of contemporary journalism.

Perhaps one of the most interesting discussions I had was with a man who grew up in China, but has lived in the US for several years now.  He was telling me that during "Communism," children were encouraged to follow their interests in careers which they enjoyed.  He said the difference in earnings between doctors and janitors was quite small, so money could not be an incentive for any single career path.  In discussing other elements of society, we arrived at a cultural norm, which instructed people to subjugate their interests for that of the collective.  This is a common theme in collectivistic societies.  In America, the norm is the reverse (individualism).  All social interests are expected to be secondary to self-interest.  As I see it, both are out of balance.  The decision to elevate one's interests above the collective or vice versa are matters that cannot be resolved in abstraction.  We do this somewhat naturally in other settings.  For example, if I'm out with a group of friends and they all want to go to a cafe, I will go even though I don't drink coffee.  I won't go everyday, but sometimes, I will go for their sake.  To understand this point, which seems rather simple, but has far-reaching effects, takes education.  I don't mean education in the traditional sense of learning a discrete subject such a math, but of education in the sense of how to relate to others and what the dynamics of group interaction are.  I think religions see themselves as having roles in this sphere of education, but they get so clouded by speculations and rituals that the real work remains undone. 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's fair to say that humans often have narrow perspectives.  There is so much information out there that a single human brain has to filter out a lot simply to function.  People who honestly investigate one topic in depth usually fall into the field of science, and their findings surprise us because they do not frequently confirm common assumptions.  Once this pattern of exploded assumptions is repeated, people begin to realize that their knowledge is always tentative.  With that in place, there is more space to look at oneself and one's reactions to new ideas.  It also can lead to greater compassion, along the lines of, "If I've been wrong so many times, maybe other people are also victims of misunderstanding, and their actions reflect that misunderstanding."  The solution then is about education:  emotional, physical, intellectual, and social.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Ebb of Commercialization

Yesterday evening during a glorious sunset (at a Zeitgeist meeting in Laguna Beach) I saw around 20 skimboarders enjoying the generous waves and physics of hydroplaning.  It was quite a show.  Their facility with landing on the skim boards after gaining momentum from a quick sprint, and sharp u-turns to surf the waves back to shore made me realize that this was an art for these people.  They had likely spent much time in developing their skills.  They cheered each other on and took turns in challenging the ocean.  There was a real feeling of community among them.

They did not appear to have any official organization or laws to define their behavior: no signs, no contracts, no "terms of use."  Their conduct was orderly and this order arose simply because of their mutual interest in the sport and respect for each other.  Organization flowed naturally; it was self-evident.  Taking turns in this way may be difficult for a two-year old, but for adolescents and adults, it was obvious.  No one paid them to participate.   See? There is hope for humans!  We don't need laws to regulate every aspect of our behavior.  If we can move beyond (via proper brain development) a terrible-twos mentality, then we can more effectively cooperate, and the situation/circumstances will dictate the means of that cooperation.  One-size-fits-all laws developed in abstraction will be largely unnecessary.

Another point I want to make about this activity relates to understanding its social and individual significance.  Commerce-oriented minds will narrowly assume that this sport has no productive output.  What they really mean is that this activity does not produce a commodity, stock option, or some other money sequence value.  If we look at "productive output" defined more broadly as "useful" we can recognize value in this activity.

1. The sense of community not only fosters social responsibility, but individual well-being since humans are naturally social creatures and need social stimulation to maintain their cognitive brain systems and emotional health.
2. Skimboarding is demanding physically, and as such it provides these people's bodies a wonderful exercise opportunity.
3. Since this activity takes place in a natural setting, it allows people to connect with nature that reminds them of the beauty and bounty that only Earth provides us.  Ecological awareness and responsibility become part of the skimboarders consciousness.
4. Expressing themselves in this way helps to reduce stress and feel personal freedom to enjoy life.

A person deprived of these opportunities because of money or other barriers, for example, will be more socially isolated, less respectful, less creative, more careless about the environment, unhappy at work (and a misanthrope with coworkers), less physically healthy, and if this person has children, a less in-tune parent.  Of course, all those problems are something that can be exploited to profit from, but that's a value orientation from an outdated, irresponsible, and inhumane economic system.


Monday, October 3, 2011

Occupy Sane Street


Last night’s CA teamspeak meeting included a lot of lively dialogue about the Occupy Wall St protests.  Several perspectives were voiced about how The Zeitgeist Movement should or should not be involved.  One theme was that because TZM has no real top-down structure, it simply is up to individual members to decide if they are interested in participating.  There was a note of caution that the Occupy protests could get trapped in an “us vs. them” stance that is counter to the social understandings that form the foundation of TZM.  That kind of reactionary and divisive thinking would likely lead to violence and oppression.

That said, the Occupy Wall St movement does share some convictions with TZM.  For example, in the recently released Declaration, it is recognized that profit has been gained at the price of human life and well being, Earth’s ecosystem has been abused by rapacious business practices, and that humanity must cooperate to create a better alternative to the current economic system.  Occupy Wall St is also an explicitly leaderless organization that does not condone violent behavior.  For a nascent organization, it has already attracted mainstream media attention (even though it took a few weeks!), and is acting as a kind of magnet around which different organizations whose work is to promote life values (as opposed to money/profit values) are coalescing.  TZM’s aim of educating people to reach a critical mass before engaging in any widespread coordinated action to directly confront the prevailing paradigm needs to attract people who recognize the current undermining of life values.  According to some TZM members who have attended Occupy Wall St assemblies, the people there are largely receptive to core concepts expressed in TZM. 

Another thread in the discussion last night was that no one can know how a transition to a resource-based economy will unfold, or if it will happen.  Is the Occupy Wall St movement part of that transition to a more sane society?  Will it just make things worse?  My present feeling is that because these people are acknowledging the attack our economic system is having on life values it represents a step in the right direction.  However, I am reminded of the solemn moments immediately after the collapse of the Twin Towers in which there was a quiet reflection about how and why such tragedy could be intended and executed.  It was as if people paused their normal habits and were forced to reexamine their values and their place in the interconnected web of a global society.  That could have been the beginning of a new, more enlightened perspective.  It turned out not to be and people fell into anxiety, fear, and revenge-filled thoughts that blamed “them,” and gave rise to a stupid one-upsmanship in patriotism, in America.  In other parts of the world, the retaliatory posture of the US marshaled the production of countless expensive weapons (economic growth) that were quickly detonated in and around “terrorist cells” creating demand for more weapons (cyclical consumption).  Many Americans just thought they were “gettin’ the bad guy.”  Bad guy thinking is a sign of a limited perspective, in which the error occurs by reducing social and psychological complexity to a simple conclusion.  This thinking is helpful if someone is wielding a knife and ready to plunge it into your chest because you need to react quickly to neutralize the threat, but to take a social action based on that mentality is foolish and will, most likely, lead to a proliferation of problems.  So, I see this as a critical opportunity for TZM to spur deeper inquiry into the malfunction of society.  When people are hungry, homeless, anxiety-ridden, and frustrated, they want quick answers and quick actions.  Unfortunately, TZM does not have the collective resources to feed and house everyone, but it does have an abundance of materials and passion to educate people about the metastasized cancer that invades our social organism.  With proper diagnosis comes better treatment.  I hope we have the collective patience to arrive at thorough diagnosis.

The last main point I want to mention is that the group showed agreement in that we hope a transition to a new economy will lead to less suffering, not more, and that humanity will come together in time to prevent its self-inflicted extinction.