Occupy Wall Street Anniversary, Looking Back

Occupy is about symbolism, and, the pivotal question of WHO gets to generate those symbols — those iconic images that shape our narratives, shape our political context, and shape our history. During the past 30 years leading up to Occupy, those iconic images were generated by the profiteering class, they were illusions on TV. Moving picture frames on television are (1) expensive to generate, (2) expensive to disseminate, and (3) easy to manipulate. Our profiteering class has enough money to take care of 1 and 2, which leaves them free to (3) build an "Empire of Illusion," as Chris Hedges would say. Occupy changed that. They organized on the web — they live-streamed their actions from cell phones to the homes of millions, they created their own newspapers and media teams. They risked the elements, they risked their bodies, they risked suffering violence from their local governments. They did this — not for profit, as the news empires do. They did it out of love of country, and by that, I mean love of the PEOPLE in this country, not the PROFIT that it enables. Let's not forget, in 2011, the Wall Street crash of 2008 was being blamed on President Obama, poor people, children, police officers, fire fighters, and teachers. So let's make them pay for it. The discussion in Washington was "How much should we damage our economy in order to avoid defaulting on our debt?" In 2012, we know who crashed the markets, and trickle-down economics has the reputation it has earned. Occupy pushed the truth into to the corrupt but powerful frame of One Percent Media. Occupy offered We the People an alternative narrative, and, most of us have chosen the one that is in our best interest (whether we acknowledge our debt to Occupy or not).