I’m not really sure though if it’s so much about frustration or just reality setting in, which was my point. We had the super majority in 2009-2010 and couldn’t get what we wanted done. I doubt any of us will ever see a majority like that again, so how do we go with the legislative process now, especially when that process is so entirely cluster fucked by big money and lobbyists?

As much as I don’t want to see it, I believe we are getting to a point that in order to instill change the people need to make a powerful statement. Elections sure don’t mean that anymore. Everyone reads what they want into the outcome, so there is no “message of the polls” anymore. Getting members of Congress replaces is also a nightmare, with campaign finance being a major anchor there.

Congress is also totally broken in other ways. There’s dozens of great pieces of legislation that has been submitted, but the powers that be decide to send it off to committee to die.

I think a great example of all of this was seen in the 2010 election with the Tea Party. They were so happy with all the members they got elected to Congress, yet look how pissed they are now. Nothing they wanted has happened. The big kicker there is that they did have the money to put people in Congress, thanks to the corporate sponsored astro-turf they are.

With all that I can totally see the #OWS people feeling that they have no option but to make have our lawmakers turn on the TV and go “OH SHIT! They really are pissed” and then hoping that forces change. It’s also very sad that have got to this point in America.

I should have been more clear. I absolutely believe that the concept of the 99% was more than enough to generate lots of interest at the beginning. My point (from my Chicago perspective) is if OWS wants to maintain that interest from the general public, they will need to be more focused in both the problems they want addressed and the solutions they believe need to take place.

Thanks.

Agreed. Heck, it will be a major test for all of us.

There are, sadly, two choices–let the current Administration stay in office while giving them a strong progressive bulwark in both houses of Congress, or just walking away from the voting booth and letting the GOP take the White House and the Senate, thus setting them up to be able to carry on even worse things than they are currently doing now.

Understood.

It was a podcast show called Little Atoms that he’s spoken to before, to promote his documentary that aired on the BBC last spring. I think he was refrerring to the student protests in London against education fee hikes, and the Arab Spring in general. Here is the link, there’s an earlier interview from 2008 as well. http://www.littleatoms.com/adamcurtis.htm

http://nymag.com/news/politics/occupy-wall-street-2011-12/

I agree that 2012 is going to be a major test for the movement.

I understand. I think this whole Michael Moore, Naomi Wolfe, KO reaction is so recent, it’s hard to see how it will play out. Can you show any other cases-in-point that feed your concerns about OWS becoming an anti-gov movement? I’m genuinely curious.

No problem. All I’m saying is there was an initial message that spread like wildfire. At the very least, something that caught on and spread so quickly had to have some sort of definition in it’s beginning stages. You can debate whether or not they have expanded past their initial message or clarified it, but to make the argument that it wasn’t defined enough in the first place is logic that I can’t wrap my head around.

What I truly believe is happening is a new kind of relationship with our media. We’re moving from passive interaction (tv, radio) to more active interaction (social media, internet). As I alluded to in previous comments, most of the people who are more likely to participate in active consumption are the ones who will know more about OWS. This is where most of their identity lies. This is where their ideas are disseminated. This is the reason why it doesn’t quite fit into a MSM narrative, but it does resonate. And that resonance seems to be enough to make people get up and do something, in a way that hasn’t happened in a very long time. These things take time to connect with a larger populace, but I think it will happen.

I’m interested to see what other people think about co-opting. Until those people are “the faces” of OWS then I don’t think it’s happened.