Letters from #OB

Occupy Boston, visit #3.5,  and 4.5

10/11/11

Full Moon, Wish Washy Occupation?

The other more seasoned protester present said, “Yeah at first I thought this whole thing seemed pretty wish washy. You know, no demands, no clear message, that kind of thing…how can they really get anywhere? And then I kind of got it.”  I’m still struggling with the second half of this statement.

It didn’t help that I spent a substantial amount of time, again, speaking to a per who is obsessed with politically correct language to the point of all but stopping forward motion in any meeting. This per is also very concerned about agent provocateurs. Go figure. Still other, more seasoned types did eventually show up for the meeting and forward motion did resume. The agenda for the night would revolve around healing from the arrests of the night before. I looked across the street at the tent city and felt a little scared. There are so many very broken people there and they weren’t broken last night and their injuries didn’t happen during an act of civil disobedience. Can the leaderless leaders change and save the world at the same time? They seem determined to do both. Because of an overwhelming sense of compassion and outrage or boredom? Or both? There is so much meaningless work in the world. But at the camp all the work is meaningful. Are some people there, present because the work they do in their every day lives lacks meaning? And isn’t that the point, or part of the point--of the protest—that the little work there is left to do is just a meaningless way to make a profit for someone else?

My goal for this visit was to go to a meeting of the Strategies, Proposals and Positions (SPP) working group and to disseminate a tool called “Listening Circles.”  Listening Circles are used to assess what a large group feels about particular topics. And I wanted to urge the masses in charge to be a little bit more radical. From what I can see function follows form ie, the “demands” in formation are pretty spongy. But that’s just me. I spoke to a musician who said that he too “got it.”  And again I was reminded that this movement is undoubtedly under the guidance of Pisces and thus responds most to vibrations. Under the excruciatingly slow process of coming to consensus I imagined I felt a sense of ideas rising and falling like a melody that is just sorting itself out. Maybe there was something original there that could be heard at different times and places, rising and falling in volume, a tune picked up and put down until the urge came again. Perhaps there is a creative energy there that will eventually seep into SPP.

I was prematurely lauded for attending the 10 pm SPP meeting because “It’s like ten guys and really needs some female energy.”  My very goal oriented self assessed the situation as slow moving in the extreme. These people are going no where fast and nothing I can do, besides maybe continue to tell musicians that there’s a cool echo off the Federal Reserve will do anything about it. Dry vibes to you.

Snowfall deadline? 10/12/11

Suddenly, everything is different. There’s something very ironic about a very face-to-face personal group that goes with the on line option first, very 21^st century, young, progressive. Btw; my breakdown: 40 percent “College Students*”, 15 percent Misc., 25 Percent, very broken, 15 percent Media. Proposals are being submitted on line. You can see mine, Roadmap to Economic Justice and Horizontal Leadership, here. Look for the typo.

The evenings together yielded some interesting vignettes. The leaderless leader who called me “Ma’am”, not recognizing me from the meeting we’d been in the day before, in which I spoke a lot as usual. Not meeting up with the folks from That Sppp. Or anyone else, but getting a glimmer of recognition from the very hard working fellow at Logistics. I see this guy every time I go and he’s always heaving or hoe’ing and answering three questions at the same time. The problem with trying to speak to leaderless leaders, is that they’re the one’s working. And trying to know what’s going on while they do it (which is not possible) and it in spite of it all it does really feel like it’s coming together.

I wonder about the connection between the virtual world chat room and the on the ground stuff. I’d hazard that the point is “You Must Be Present To Win”. The issue of who’s on line and what the on line persona’s of leadership leaders is, intrigues me. There have been a few smacks of court intrigue. I did see one little flame war that might make me assume that the Anarchists are annoying people but that would be cliché.  For the most part I’d say these folks are as sincerely and absolutely equalitarian as they seem.  I, on the other hand, thought I would lose my mind when someone who might not actually have one blocked consensus. The rain picked up, there was a chance we’d lose quorum. The floor manager’s closed in. I know they didn’t pressure him and then it was over. The non-blockers adjudicated that the block was “not of principle”, forward motion proceeded. The proposal was sneezed upon, the rain picked up, I left.

My recommendation: use the real time Listening Circles Tool while the on-line world goes on-line.

*college students, a rose by any other name.