Israel occupies Palestine. The Israeli state and army are occupiers. Israel is managing an occupation. It is an occupation, as in a career, to maintain that domination. The US occupies parts of Iraq, Afghanistan and every nation in which a US base has been constructed and used. The US military is used to enforce occupations. States occupy their territory, seizing and distributing the commons for the benefit of their ruling class. The ruling class occupies this captive commons and economy, first with violence, later with custom, law, entertainment and education. We have less of a class war, and more of a class occupation.
The folks in New York and their sister city movements are, in contrast, Occupants. They are attempting to re-inhabit a commons. They occupy space, to reclaim it. To re-create it. They are the first truly visible manifestation, in the last decade, of a resistance to the ruling class occupation of the lives and livelihoods of North America's inhabitants. This resistance will likely be co-opted. And that's okay. Those who have inhabited real space will remember. They have been altered.
That change will occupy their memories, and the ways in which they develop new means of resistance. It's a new program, and it will spread.
The second wave will emerge from that dispersion. And it will have the heritage of those memories, and the associated immunities.
It will occupy attention.
Crow's Eye: Maintaining a commitment to Pointless Acrimony™ and Hate Filled Invective™! Also available in corvid mischief and traditional sly dog's mistrust.
8 comments:
,and i seem to occupy others ..comments.. here and there ..with my flutter by.. odd way of questioning and just flutter .. ./ i like the back grounding you have here now .. it looks like snow ..specked with ash ..and trees dealing with the seasoning .. ,what was the ruins from what you had here before ?
Look at this magnificent sign:
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lsoibhZrJ71qh9iuvo1_400.jpg
in general I'm against a politics that makes coalitions smaller, but when those coalitions are not real coalitions but just a bunch of opportunists trying to co-opt the movement for Wall Street, it's necessary to do precisely this.
Anne,
However you wish to write or type, it all works for me.
Slim,
The trap exists: get the protesters engaged in an effort to define themselves, in order to stave off being co-opted in the press and in the public eye, and suddenly you're engaged in an endless fight to defend your defense.
pen jack,.. you didn't answer the question .. of what the ruins that were at the top of your pg before were from ?
,flut'
They are attempting to re-inhabit a commons. They occupy space, to reclaim it. To re-create it. They are the first truly visible manifestation, in the last decade, of a resistance to the ruling class occupation of the lives and livelihoods of North America's inhabitants.
It's reminiscent of one of the great moments in English history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers
The Diggers and their kindred movements were not, in establishment terms, a success. And yet, four and a half centuries later, they appear as relevant as ever.
Correction: three and a half centuries.
antonello,
Courtesy Hakim Bey, I pursued a satisfying affair with the Diggers, Rebeccas, Ranters, Leveler, Munster Anabaptists, Sufi anarchists and Assassins.
Was Alamut at the top of the page, for the better part of the last year.
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