demands? heh. we got something better.

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

“Occupy Wall Street… et al” doesn’t seem to have a core set of demands, which clearly baffles mainstream media types, like Nick Kristof.

Where the movement falters is in its demands: It doesn’t really have any.

Well, Nick, from where I sit, these folks have something much more powerful than demands. They have a message: we’re changing the game, the rules, and the board upon which it is played. Further, it is saying we’ve had enough of the corrupted political process.

The ordinary Americans showing up across the country speak softly and carry around big ideas promoting dignity, fairness, common sense, and sanity in the dynamics among government, industry, and the rest of the planet.

This whole thing, as I watch it, awakens me.

^{cross posted at Daily Kos}

This movement has even revived my sense of humor. I can’t help but giggle at the established media, corporatists, and politicians as they moan on and try to villify these ordinary Americans. How can you not laugh OUT loud at some of the stupid stuff the man says, like:

What they’re trying to do is take away the jobs of people working in the city, take away the tax base that we have,” Bloomberg said, adding that the protests could impact tourism. “We’re not going to have money to pay our municipal employees or anything else.

^{NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg}

Sounds like desperation talking to me, Mike.

While the devolution of civilization in this last half a century has, at its root, a lack of leadership, it’s renewal is clearly in our hands. We have been awash in irrational actors and alpha males who are “in charge” and utterly incapable of understanding the scale of the global system we’ve created. They do not have the intellectual heft or breath and depth of vision to manage it.

These 1%ers are smart enough, however, to see a possible game change. They want us to act like them, be conventional, and walk around with DEMANDS and ask for REGULATIONS and such. Yet I’m thinking the time for demands is past. It is, instead,  our time to figure out how to repair, heal, and mitigate the mess. So let’s not get esoteric and complicated. Let’s not sound like them. No. Let’s not do it. Let’s continue to play it differently… and define the rules of engagement.

In fact, I kinda think it plays to our advantage to sidestep the demands and just allow the movement to be the centerpiece… with it’s peaceful, organized, and promising mantra of some new kind of politics. Plus I’ve heard somewhere it’s never a good idea to negotiate with criminals.

No. I don’t think the demands are important; however, finally facing the bullies in the school yards is big.

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One other thing I’ve noticed… this is not a movement about Democrats or Democratic politics. This really is people politics, not branded. This is progressives/liberals/indies. And that’s what makes it so awesome.