Chronicle of Failure: Occupy Everywhere

First of all, I can't think of a more appropriate acronym.  I'm referring, of course to Chronicle of Failure or, C.o.F.  I mean, it's so much more poetic than Chronicle about Ultra Gratuitous Hubris or, C.a.U.G.H.

Anyhow, I've been following the news and more than a few blogs concerning this Occupy Everywhere movement (@raincoaster is more than a little gung-ho about the whole thing).  4chan is ripe with it.  Thing is, I can't for the life of me figure out what the constructive point of the movement really is.

Today, for example, marked the second day of the Occupy Toronto protest and, according to the occupyto website (you find the link, I don't want to endorse it) it's scheduled to continue indefinitely.  Apparently about 3000 people joined in the occupation of St. James Park (Toronto) today all of whom were calling for one thing, change.  Change to what?  Well the answers to that question are too varied to list.  Here's the thing ladies and gentlemen: 3000 more diverging opinions in a city of almost 2.6 million people are hardly likely to be heard even if the TV news cameras show up.

And show up they do.  That's exactly what the protestors want, of course, attention for their cause.  What always seems to escape the collective consciousness of post-modern protestors, however, is that they are feeding the very monster they apparently seek to destroy:  Of course the news cameras show up because that's what their consumers want to see.  Who are their consumers?  Well, they're the selfsame people walking the streets in protest of course.  Whose attention do the protestors want to attract?  Their own, of course.  The impotence of the protest medium is due, on the one hand, to over use.  On the other hand, as television coverage documents, protest has become every middle-class whiner's favourite reality show.  The best part is, everyone who plays has a shot of getting on screen.

Middle class protestor reading about himself...maybe he'll find a picture.

Gone are the days when the social disease was so blatantly obvious that all it took to stimulate change was perseverance and a damned lot of people to simply stand up, step out, and sit in to demonstrate their acknowledgement of it.  The fight against capitalism, greed, poverty, and middle-class malaise is not one that is going to be won by simply showing up no matter who or how many of us do so.  First and foremost, these issues need definition.  Don't go out there and preach against greed.  Everyone knows greed is wrong.  That's why no one, no matter how wealthy they might be, will ever step forward and say, "I realize that I'm greedy and will now change my ways."  That will never happen because no one every really sees themselves as being in the wrong no matter ho wrong they may be.

Concrete proposal, and direct action is the only thing that has and ever will result in lasting structural change.  Generalized protests are a waist of...they're just a waist.  Propose specific change, lobby for specific action, be an agent of incremental and practical improvements and until you're equipped to be an architect for positive social change, shut the hell up and search out those who are!