Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born

October 2, 2011 at 10:46:58

Occupy Wall Street: Look deeper, a new democracy is waiting to be born

By Chaz Valenza (about the author)

Look deeper. Underneath the veneer of protests and arrests there is a new democracy waiting to be born.

Yesterday the NYPD gave Occupy Wall Street, and the movement it is birthing, a boost by arresting some 700 protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, an apparent contradiction that is a manifestation of the paradigm shift now underway.

Over the past 40 years, since 1970 when mortgage-backed securities were first introduced, Wall Street has transmuted from allocating capital for long-term investment into nano-term android speculators and anti-capitalist systemic fraud orchestrators.

Ketchup, her name, addressed the General Assembly by Valerie B. Taylor 9/25/11 Attribution for Use

Over the past 30 years since, since Ronald Reagan was elected president, regulated capitalism has been dismantled. An aristocracy of kleptomaniacs and a politics of corporatocracy subsumed democracy originally created by and for the people.

The American democratic government has been hijacked by the virtual world called "Wall Street," which is, relative to the entire population, a small number of fast-buck artists raping and pillaging people world-wide.

Occupy Wall Street has by choice engaged with the people, not the system.

The corporate mass media, MSM, has given the people the sound bite, the "inside baseball" political analysis and the spin, all devoid of any discussion of issues or important content.

Occupy Wall Street has toppled the media sound bit and replaced it with the HD big picture of reality calling out the overall issues.

The MSM counters by saying the big issues are too big to debate wanting to pick small insignificant fights.

The government has been sold to the highest bidders on a cash for power basis.

Occupy Wall Street's NYC General Assembly has proved an all inclusive democracy can reach consensus and make long term decisions to the benefit of both the stability of the organization and the security of people who participate.

The police and media keep asking for the occupation movement's leaders, both nationally and locally, as the cause spreads to other cities and towns. They are dumbfounded when they discover there are none, just a leaderless democracy of the people.

The establishment decries the movement's refusal to engage in debates where they have predetermined only two possible positions.

Occupy Wall Street educates the newly arrived in a philosophy of consensus building and creative solutions to problems that consider not just two, but three or more possible creative solutions.

Occupy Wall Street is determined to stay as long as necessary to achieve tangible objectives of recognition, substantial growth and future prospects before ending the current protest action.

The pundits, critics and others in opposition to change, all determined to dismiss Occupy Wall Street as inconsequential, continue to express their frustration that the protest is taking so damn long.

Occupy Wall Street has maintained its core principles of non-violence and freedom.

The authorities, currently embodied by the NYPD leadership, continue to rely on physical actions of threats, brutality and incarceration.

Occupy Wall Street has spoken complex truths that have easily resonated with those who are slowing getting the message through an underground circuit of today's word-of-mouth called social media.

The corporate owned media that reaches the majority of Americans continues to obscure the voice of Occupy Wall Street with "understated" coverage. Politicians like Mayor Bloomberg spin lies, like the movement opposes all those making more than $40,000 a year, that seek to divide and dissipate the potent force of vox populi.

Occupy Wall Street's principles and actions, like joining the American Postal Workers Union on their picket line with no assurance of reciprocation, appear illogical.

All politics and government in America today runs on the fuel of money and dances to the tune of the payoff and the quid pro quo.

Occupy Wall Street dances to the tune of the people and will eventually issue the overall community of America, and indirectly the international community of people, dividends in economic security, stability and liberty.

The current paradigm that the Occupy Wall Street movement will "elect" a new leader and the questions of "what will he or she look like?" "who will it be?" "how will they rule?" and, "how much power will they wield?" will soon be on the lips of the current political establishment.

Those steeped in the concept of true democracy as anticipated by Paulo Freire in his "Pedagogy for the Oppressed," already understand that there will be no political leader replacing the current leadership.

Most politicians, currently and historically, have imagined themselves to be power brokers, electorate manipulators, compromisers, know-it-alls, cults of personality, part of a system of money and power, and on one side or the other eliminating the possibility of all other options.

The citizens of a true democracy, as envisioned by the concept of the General Assembly, have no desire for a Fidel Castro, a Valdimir Putin, a Cesar Chavez, an Angela Merkel, an Abby Hoffman or even a Barack Obama.

Politicians, as such, will be expected to perform their duties including truly listening to their constituents, working as facilitators toward creating solutions, and performing the role of representing the people.

Though this paradigm shift has been lost in the stories of the first days of the occupation for empowerment and change in America, it will soon be recognized by more and more citizens as come to understand the long-term process that is this movement.

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
I support Occupy Wall Street and I want an end to financial tyranny now!

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

Chaz Valenza is writer and small business owner in New Jersey. He earned his MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. His current feature film project is "Single Point Failure" an insider's account of how the Reagan Administration (more...)