Occupy and Transform

The protesters in New York are well into their third week of occupying the Wall Street area. It is a movement that has birthed similar protests across the nation as large numbers of people speak out against underemployment, high rates of poverty, joblessness, lack of health care, and corporate greed. You can read the personal stories of some of the protesters; each single voice creating a cacophony directed against our legal, judicial, and financial systems which disproportionately favor and reward the wealthiest 1% of our nation.

It was a disconcerting moment for me as I rode the train to join Occupy Wall Street because many of my fellow passengers were also on their way to Wall Street - to their jobs in the financial industry. As we traveled, I read mainstream media coverage of the movement, where it has been consistently labeled as messy, disorganized, and incoherent. The movement may, in fact, be all those things. But the very process of democracy - true democracy - is messy and disorganized. We can dismiss this grassroots struggle because it doesn't look like what we imagine the democratic process to be: a perfectly articulated 10 point platform in legaleses vetted and notarized by an army of lawyers. Instead, it is a collective of ideas, thoughts, hopes, frustrations, anger, and ideas...and that may be the very essence of how occupation can lead to transformation.

Occupy and transform by asking a different set of questions: my hope is that a true grassroots movement can create new discursive possibilities in public, because as a nation, we are often asking a very limited set of questions. Instead of just asking "how big of a wall should we build to keep out illegal immigrants," we also need to ask "what does it mean when we fail to educate the most vulnerable members of our society." Or maybe, instead of asking "how can we cut additional funding for family planning," we should ask "are we committing heinous human rights violations when we shackle women in labor?"

A movement that is transformative shifts an entire discourse simply by asking questions. For instance: if an individual can steal $100 in clothing and face felony charges, can corporations steal $100 billion and not face criminal liability? Transformation through inquiry is best summarized by Bishop Helder Camara who remarked: "when I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why they are poor, they call me a Communist."

Occupy and transform by teaching, writing, and preaching about the nature of greed, both personal and corporate. I have, unfortunately, watched a false prosperity gospel transform the Christian church. It is a false teaching that draws heavily upon secular assumptions, namely: that wealth is a marker of God's favor; that the wealthy are rich solely because of their hard work and not because of the auspicious circumstances of their birth or inherited privilege; and every man is an island and he can pull himself up by the bootstraps. These false assumptions create a culture of greed, a growing chasm between the "have everything" and the "have nothing." Those who have nothing are cursed or lazy or not worthy; there's no need to discuss pesky details like generational poverty, inequality, lack of access to high quality education, disability, or the like...

We need to distinguish between capitalism and favoritism in this country. For far too long, both personal and corporate greed have benefited from favoritism: favorable tax laws, favorable kick-backs and contracts, favorable breaks and advantages. The welfare system that is so "abused" by those pesky mothers, children, and elderly who need food and affordable housing, cannot begin to compare to the welfare given to corporations. Year after year, we decry the mythic "welfare queen" who drives a Cadillac, wears a fur coat and diamonds, but collects government checks (although no one has managed to actually document this elusive person). But we are strangely silent in the face of corporate malfeasance, when in the face of unprecedented profits and astronomical executive bonuses, the hourly wage earners are considered too expensive to employ and insure. Truth is stranger than satire.

Maybe the Occupy Wall Street movement will be over tomorrow and everyone will pack up and go home. I hope that people of good courage and conviction will continue to ask questions and speak out against greed. Why is a national health insurance policy a "socialist" endeavor instead of a public good? It is ethical for banking institutions, bailed out by the federal government, to favor their wealthier customers by imposing fees only on those who cannot maintain a high balance? It won't be enough to occupy any particular space unless we are committed to transforming it. A first step: look past the messiness and disorganization of any movement, find the set of questions important to you, and work to change the same, tired set of answers.

© Yolanda Pierce