Why are we striking? Or to put it another way – what’s wrong with the world?
Of course, most of us know what’s wrong with the world. We know about
the poverty, war, violence and disease. We’re conscious of the
injustice, but not fully conscious of it, because frankly, we have
enough to worry about in our own lives. As such, we’ve come to accept
these injustices as simple facts of life – prepackaged side effects of
the human condition, as natural and intertwined with our existence as
water to a stream, beyond our capacity to effect in any significant way.
This collective sense of powerlessness and default apathy is why we’re
striking.
Our growing sense of isolation and disconnection, whether from
ourselves, from those next door to us, or from those producing our food
and products halfway across the globe, is why we’re striking. Our forced
support of perpetual war waged for and by the 1% - whether explicitly
with speech, or implicitly with inaction and tax dollars - without ever
paying mind to the true causes and motives behind it, is why we’re
striking. Our failure uptil now to connect the dots and realize that the
benefits of a cheap iPod, lovely as it may be, would be far outweighed
by the benefits of a truly just world free of exploitation, is why we’re
striking.
The fact that most of us are too busy being exploited to realize
we’re being exploited – too busy greasing the cogs of our economic
system to notice how the fruits of our labor never fail to float up and
out of our reach - is why we’re striking, as is the fact that most
aren’t able to do anything about this exploitation even when we do
notice it. While some of us are lucky enough to have jobs and careers
that give real meaning to our lives, allowing us to take full advantage
of our talents and fulfill our destiny, most of us have jobs devoid of
meaning and dignity, yet full of the feeling that we are fulfilling
someone else’s destiny. Our recognition that the ruling class’s seat at
the top of the pyramid is prepared and propped up by the working class
is why we’re striking.
Our knowledge that it’s actually the CEO who is
the most dependent among us, and that the ones truly indispensable to
our society are not bankers, lobbyists and politicians, but workers,
teachers and engineers, is why we’re striking.
Indeed, the fact that we have an economic system which functions in
the same manner as a virus is why we’re striking. Just as a virus’s only
reason for existence is to expand, without regard or awareness of the
effect of its expansion on its host body, our economic system pursues
its infinite expansion without regard or awareness of its effect on
human welfare or the environment. Though the earth is finite, it is
sustainable, so we reject, in the words of Michael Nagler, “the inherent
contradiction of an economy based on indefinitely increasing wants –
instead of on human needs that the planet has ample resources to
fulfill.”
We’re striking because we also reject the notion that selfishness
must be the driving force in our world. We believe, contrary to
propaganda, that most people in our world are not selfish, and would
rather work together than constantly compete against each other. We
believe that the only people who really care about things like power,
corporate monopolies and global dominance only make up, say, 1% of the
population, making it seem only logical that we should have an economic
system which reflects the values of the 99% of us who don’t care about
such things. The fact that most of the decisions which have a profound
impact on how we go about our daily lives are made by folks in
Washington or Wall Street, rather than in our communities by the people
actually affected by those decisions, is why we’re striking. The fact
that power rests only with those who lust after it is why we’re
striking.
We’re striking because another notion we don’t buy into is the
presumption that the profit motive can have no outcome other than the
best possible one. We understand that the success of McDonald’s has
nothing to do with having the best burger, and everything to do with
having the most cutthroat business plan. We understand that building
prisons, waging wars, polluting the environment, and paying employees
inadequate wages are actually quite profitable.
Sustainability, economic
justice and true equality? Not so much. We understand that being
ruthless and unscrupulous is an economic advantage, and being truthful
and virtuous is an economic disadvantage. We understand that money is
treated as more natural and inviolable as nature itself, and that too
often our place and perceived value in society is determined solely by
how much of it we make, or how much of it we make for someone else. We
understand that, whether or not you believe in climate change, our
ability to adequately address it or any other pressing issue is greatly
compromised when our shortsighted need for profit skews our vision of
the whole. We’re striking to suggest new motives and new values going
forward.
The fact that you might not have known why we’re striking, and you
didn’t get and maybe still don’t get what Occupy Wall Street is about,
is why we’re striking. And who can blame you? Just like you don’t have
the time or energy to really do anything about the world’s problems, you
probably don’t have the time or energy to do the deep digging required
to get your news from any source other than the corporate outlets
conveniently floating on the surface. It’s understandable that you
wouldn’t see the inherent conflict of interest of a handful of
for-profit corporations with their own interests telling the world’s
story to the majority of people in this country. The fact that it’s so
hard to be truly informed, and that it’s in the 1%’s interest for the
majority of us to be uninformed, is why we’re striking. The fact that
it’s entirely possible you could go about your day today and not hear a
thing about the general strike, is why we’re striking.
To counter the charge that it’s unrealistic, and overly idealistic,
to want to bring about real change in our world, as well as the trusty
“life isn’t fair” rationale always used to justify injustice, is why
we’re striking. We didn’t accept that line of reasoning during the civil
rights movement, and we don’t accept it now. We think it’s far more
unrealistic to think that a small cadre of elites will be able to keep
up their never-ending pursuit of power consolidation and mass
manipulation without waking us up in the process. We think it’s far more
unlikely that in 1000 years, humanity will still be playing this game
of perpetual one-upmanship, instead of picking up the far more efficient
and beneficial manner of interacting with each other in honesty,
cooperation and genuine respect.
Perhaps the biggest reason we’re striking is to simply exercise that
ever-cherished American value of freedom. Just as our business leaders
are free to use every means at their disposal to maximize profit, we are
free to use every means at our disposal to maximize the realization of
whatever objective we feel is worth pursuing. And by the way, even if
you don’t support the Occupy movement, whatever you think the Occupy
movement is about, we respect your view, because another reason we’re
striking has to do with our political system – the way it thrives and
prospers by pitting us against ourselves, encouraging us to demonize
each other while discouraging us from disagreeing civilly.
The fact that this post is completely and utterly inadequate in
expressing why we’re striking, is why we’re striking. But that’s OK,
because like May 1st, this post is just the beginning.
Happy striking!
Mike David is an occupier in San Francisco. He blogs at
www.primitivetimes.com.
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