I watched him carry his enormous burden to the top, and when he carefully placed it at the peak — it slipped from his grasp. And I watched his eyes fall — as if it was pulverizing everything.
I thought he’d broken at the bottom, yet he just gazed up, and measured a path. And shouldering his burden he began again to ascend. Hallelujah Man.
People are not lazy – by design or birthright — the majority just works longer for less. Some people’s time and lives are just more valuable.
The most valuable people aren’t even people, they’re Corporations. Because they’re not human, we must carry them to the top – yet again.
Another related tactic of civil disobedience is the Sit-in, which Wikipedia says Mohandas Gandhi may have borrowed from the Indian principle of Dharma where a person fasted outside the home of someone who owed them a debt.
While the Occupy movement has generally chosen to demonstrate in public spaces, the Sit-in tactic has often been employed in semi-public spaces (segregated restaurants in the past, but banks might be ideal today). Individuals across the country might consider employing other tactics in conjunction and support of the ongoing Occupy efforts.
2008 – General Motors Corporation and Chrysler LLC– though not technically a bailout, a bridge loan was given to the auto manufacturers by the U.S. government, this is referred to by most as a bailout
2009 – Bank of America to help it absorb known losses that were much greater than revealed to shareholders incurred by its buyout of Merrill Lynch
2009 – CIT Group $3 billion by its bondholders in a failed attempt to avoid a bankruptcy. This bailout only delayed the bankruptcy.
As in the game of Go, it is easier to surround an opponent, thus gaining their territory, if they only choose to occupy finite corners of the board. In fact, this is the only manner in which the 1% may appear to surround and hold the liberties of the 99% . . .
Sieges are often won by the force that lasts, as they’re logistically difficult to maintain. Within the history of civil resistance encampments often have been broken, such as at Ludlow or the tent camps of the Bonus Army, but their impact has resonated beyond their isolated corners.
The occupancies that are occurring today are unprecedented, yet benefit from a strategy that served the Freedom Riders, in that coast to coast, or worldwide, all our hopes are not ultimately invested in the success or failure of one specific action or location. The aim is for a tipping point.
Occupy Flash Mobs
An innovative new tactic in civil resistance is the Smart Mob (Flash Mob), wherein a smaller group of activists is covertly dispatched to stage a coordinated creative action at a specific public or semi-public location within a comparatively brief window of time. The advantages of this tactic, used in support of the ongoing Occupy actions, would be that would allow the temporary occupancy of a larger territory of the social and physical landscape, better facilitating a GO strategy of expanded influence (corner, side, and then the center of the board).
If each action of these individual Smart Mobs, creative Flash Protests was YouTubed, then their viral value would be more important than their brief physical existence. And the more artfully they’re done and entertaining, the more they might virally pierce the media blockade, and spread awareness of specific issues.