Defining the Undefinable

I'll begin by saying, as a blogger, I've found it challenging to describe what I consider undescribable.  Nationwide movements are sprouting so quickly and the focuses within Zuccotti Park, leap omnipotently on a whim.  At the General Assembly meetings, there is an overarching agenda of containment and cohesion.  Tonight, the GA was held at 7pm and the human microphone (people repeating what the speaker says, in unison and in waves, known as "generations") was being drowned-out by a nearby drum-circle.  It was directly suggested by a demonstrator that we ask the drum circle to wrap it up and a someone was dispatched to speak with them.  They returned, speaking--via the human microphone--from the periphery of a crowd of about 800 people, and said that the drummers were playing a sacred Native American song and needed another ten minutes.  The General Assembly speaker proposed we continue our meeting, adding an extra generation of the human microphone, to ensure all demonstrators could hear proposals and announcements over the drumming.  It worked. 

Occupy Wall Street is still not 100% clear on goals or a means by which to attain them.  This apparent weakness to some, is in fact the very nature of this democratic demonstration and affords OWS the ability to jump from the digital world, into physical form in a square in Boston...or Cincinnati...or Atlanta.  The glue feels strongest during General Assembly meetings, where tough love will result in someone who speaks out of turn being drowned out via the human microphone.  It works remarkably well.

The fact is, my generation does not know how to demonstrate.  We read it during our high school global studies class and we joked about our parents attending Woodstock at the dining room table, but these were mere fairy tales.  Shackled and submerged by computers, video games and MTV, we spent much of our youths in a virtual isolation.  Sure we played little league and maybe even varsity ball.  We joined frats and had keg parties when we got to college.  We never knew what it meant to mobilize as a single unit until right now...

Screens tell us our grades, our bank balance and what to do at work.  Clearly, we are still relying on them as one was recently installed in Zuccotti Park, in an effort to improve communications and assist hearing impaired demonstrators.  But these screens we grew up on are tied to monolithic institutions, relegated to their own private islands where the sole commodity is profits.  Our generation was effectively buying-in to the corporate agenda; it's no wonder our skills shrank and our jobs were outsourced. 

As millions of students pump our economy with billions of dollars of student loans, with little prospect of finding a job to repay their debt, Occupy Wall Street appears the closest thing to an answer.  Right now, for the future of America, the buck stops at Occupy Wall Street.  Whether this movement can coalesce to create substantive change remains to be seen.  As I said, we are new to this.  Furthermore, the media is new to covering something like OWS.  Gen-Xers at the helm of media insitutions are not nimble enough to contemplate these uprisings--they grew up during a time of relative peace and prosperity and frankly do not have the experience, nor the skills to process the spectacle that has bloomed in Zuccotti Park. 

Grassroots activism in Zuccotti Park has a heavy emphasis on infrastructure.  Kitchen (which is currently outsourced and paid for by donations), Media, Volunteering, Finance and of course the Library.  The audacity of our generation to form our own democratic "society" is bolstered by the very spectacle of the location.  While banks or big business may not be the end-all villain, Occupy Wall Street is clearly an affront to their very being.

Tearing the fabric of history

The idea to grow a movement from an occupied Manhattan park is proof that many millenials wish to hit the proverbial reset button on their emotional, intellectual, professional and political lives.  As of Monday night, they have been given carte blanche to do so by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  The only caveat to this deal appears to be a new construction project, on the corner of Broadway and Liberty, where jackhammers may be jostling the nerves of demonstrators all night.  It is unlikely that this will drive protesters out.  However, with news breaking that the OWS movement in Boston is being raided, construction should be the last thing on our minds.