Post-Occupied

It is with real sadness that I remove the Occupy banner from the upper left corner of this blog. What is left of the Occupy movement seems at once more distributed around the world and more focused on effecting change in America by means not so much designed to obstruct "the system" as to use it effectively in pursuit of things that really need to be done. The Wikipedia post concludes as follows:

The Occupy movement is now more a global collection of groups working toward similar goals under the Occupy name than an effort to occupy physical spaces. These groups include Occupy Sandy which has provided needed relief to the New York Area since Hurricane Sandy hit,^[175] Occupy London's Occupy Economics group that hosted, and was praised by the Bank of England's Executive Director for Financial Stability,^[176] Occupy the SEC which monitors US financial regulatory matters ^[177] and Strike Debt ^[178] which is raising money to retire defaulted debt.^[179] There are numerous non-listed groups and actions.

In the words of a Forbes Magazine blog: "But this is a protest movement of techno-competent, administratively well-informed, thinkers, do-ers and creators who know the system well and have levers in it. The changes that we need to see happen will come about because of them and what they are capable of, not because of what they object to."^[180]

(See the wiki for footnotes.)

We owe our thanks to the Occupy Movement for shaking things up for a while, using mostly nonviolent means that stood in stark contrast to violent responses by many local governments, especially New York City. If I were in one of those city governments, I wouldn't be too self-satisfied at having "put down" the protests: what is left behind may prove of greater long-term importance than what was dispersed by police with rubber bullets, tasers, pepper spray, handcuffs, billy clubs and portable fences. Only time will tell.