Hanging out on Reddit and scanning online news services, I have been struck by a familiar refrain. Lots and lots of bloggers, media outlets and pundits are offering lots and lots of advice to Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Wall Street should support Election Reform... . Occupy Wall Street should appoint a leader. Occupy Wall Street should support this agenda... . that agenda.... my agenda... . this pundit's agenda... . that celebrity's agenda... . should define its agenda... .
Republicans try to cast the movement as a "Democratic Party" phenomenon. Democrats appear to think the movement is theirs for the taking. Afterall, where else can they go? Does THAT sound familiar to anyone?
President Obama gives vague, unclarified nods in the movement's direction, without taking a position. Does THAT also sound familiar?
Every organization from the ACLU to organized labor to Moveon.org to the Americans for Prosperity (co-opters of the Tea Party movement) either wants a piece of this action or wants to marginalize it.
To date the movement has resisted these attempts. I hope it continues to do so. I believe the movement's power lies in the fact it is unaffiliated with any of the woefully compromised institutions that have brought us to this unlovely place. Why? Because in the meantime it is highlighting the very real problems our society faces and the very real perpetrators of disfunction that landed us here.
The problems we face cover a wide spectrum of global economic, environmental, technological, humanitarian challenges. None of them can be solved by sound bytes or politically correct truisms. Only a hard, slogging, cooperative effort has a hope. Kudos to Occupy Wall Street for avoiding the easy answers to date.
Here's what I think...
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