Amazing that the Occupy protest in Bristol is STILL going on.
There is one HUGE problem with Occupy, and it is the reason that the whole thing is falling apart. They have stupidly aligned themselves with the left. The left has a TINY amount of support in the UK, about 1%. So the Occupy movement is doomed from the start for this reason.
And why has Occupy aligned itself with the left? I suspect it is because of the total lack of imagination of the people behind this. They really do believe that this is some sort of crisis of capitalism when the opposite is of course true. The bail out of banks and car companies, insurance and finance set ups was 100% SOCIALIST, in a peculair attempt tp preserve jobs and ailing businesses. Capitalism would never allow this. For capitalism to progress, and if nothing else it is a fantastically progressive economic system, companies that are failing HAVE to close, so that new, leaner businesses can take their place. This is in reality the SECOND CRISIS OF SOCIALISM (the first was the collapse of the Soviet Union of course).
So what Occupy are proposing is more of the same thing that has caused the situation in the first place! This makes them probably the most reactionary and pointless 'protesters' ever seen.
In reality of course there is already a quiet evolution going on as we are faced with zero or falling growth and the end of cheap oil. The true evolutionaries are all involved at different levels in this process. Whether it's restoring closed railways, pushing permaculture, starting cooperatives, building and installing alternative energy set ups, relearning old craft skills or starting community initiatives.
I suspect you've seen the danger here. Believe it or not once, back in the eighties, the Green Party was a genuinely radical party, yet today it is just a watered down version of New Labour, with a tiny patina of green awareness. Result - all the radicals and progressives left. Some of us kept going with proper projects (such as the New S&D), others probably left politics altogether. I have heard that some in Transition are trying to set up a dialogue with Occupy - this would be a disaster if it happened. Occupy's agenda has nothing to do with the future, it is firmly set in old politics (socialism/communism) and assumes that there will always be a strong nanny state providing jobs from cradle to grave (so 1950s!). Occupy is the last fling of the old fogeys, the Empire Loyalists, New Labour, One Nation Tories, the BNP, every half thought out, of it's time, lack of vision 'movement' that was in reality just an agenda thing for a tiny minority interest group.
If Transition, or any other progressive movement, gets tainted by association with Occupy - which will be a laughing stock everywhere within months - it will be finished, which isn't fair.
To conclude, Occupy is simply a last gasp of the old world, a nostalgic hankering back for the big welfare state of the post war time of plenty, a fan club for the Baby Boomers, cornucopians who will refuse to get their hands dirty - in short the chaff that will not survive Peak Oil.
Harsh I know, but can anyone actually prove otherwise?
2 comments:
It's worrying that the Transition Movement would align itself with the Occupy Movement in a public manner and also collectively. Where I live the same person actively involved in Transition Town had also set up an umbrella Green Group and then invited the local chapter of the Zeitgeist Movement an insidious cult to actively recruit new members.
Few people including myself spoke up against this saying that the Venus Project was unethical, ungreen, illiberal and unworkeable. Unfortunately many green groups attract overly politically correct people who don't want to alienate any group but they soon showed their true authoritarian colours with us,
I suspect there's a certain type that is attracted to various groups that also believes every bit of propaganda they read, every conspiracy theory going and will jump on every bandwagon if it superficially seems 'radical'. Not sure what they're looking for - probably friendship or acceptance. Where it all goes wrong is when everyone who is genuinely looking for a radical future is tarred with the same brush. I've also run up gainst the vile Venus Project which is the biggest joke ever. It seems to attract athiests looking for a god replacement! It's a mad world out there ...
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