Since the Occupy Movement got underway I have been talking to people. I've been trying to expose people to my point of view. This is new for me. For lots of years I felt pretty hopeless and out of touch with mainstream America. I was raised without the ability to be my authentic self, so I feel weird about persuading others.
But I've come to believe that if we wait for people to wake up on their own there is going to be too much suffering in the meantime. I spent time at my local Occupy sites, and all the people there get it. They are out in the streets because they understand the urgency. But there are lots of my friends who are pretty soft on the particulars of our economy and the concerted effort that got us here.
I'm writing this diary in the hope that if you aren't talking to your friends about politics you might be persuaded to do so. I work pretty hard to share my authentic beliefs without being abrasive.
Here's a video that just came through that is perfect for this kind of work.
The person filming was not part of the protest, but he is cranky that he was stopped by the police for walking on the sidewalk near his home. He is laughing with the craziness of what he is describing. It's 8 minutes of excellent propaganda for (and by) the 99%.
I posted it to facebook along with this opinion:
I hope people are beginning to ask themselves what democracy means to them. Does it mean forcing people into a closed arena, ordering them to disperse when you are blocking their ability to comply and then using weapons on them?
How much are we willing to take from the authorities before we begin to realize that they have gone too far? Either we are a living democracy or we aren't. Kabuki is a dangerous choice because it allows power to be consolidated further.
I have had people come up to me IRL and thank me for giving them food for thought. I'm not where I want to be yet, which is seeing my social media contacts mobilize into action. But I really believe I'm doing important work because perhaps the people reading me will think twice before they swallow the lies the mainstream media are going to increasingly publish comparing OWS protesters to DFH. And if we can create that sort of dissonance the movement will gain momentum.