stephanie brail

I would love for there to be an intelligent, non-partisan, truly peaceful, positive movement to deal with the corruption and crony capitalism poisoning our country.

Sadly, I’ve determined Occupy Wall Street is not it.

I was intrigued at first, but a nagging feeling about the movement grew until it became a full-blown bad feeling. The bottom line: Occupy Wall Street scares me. I think it’s dangerous.

Let me tell you why.

Now, I could get into all the research I’ve done about it, or how some in the “tin foil hat” crowd feel that Occupy Wall Street is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a manufactured mob designed to help bring in a global socialist state. But that may be a bit too “out there” for you, so I’ll stick to the more practical and spiritual aspects.

Let me preface my next comments by explaining that I spent many years on the left, and some of it dabbling in the far left. I’ve been to protests, and I joined a radical feminist group in my early 20s called the “Women’s Action Coalition” or “WAC.” WAC was, like Occupy Wall Street, designed around a non-hierarchical, leaderless “democracy,” where everyone had the same vote and voice. To my young idealist eyes, this seemed like an amazing thing, something extremely empowering and positive.

It sucked. Right off the bat, the group seemed split between the lesbians and the straight feminists. Perhaps I am acknowledging some bias here as being one of the straight feminists who felt there was a distinct, and palpable, hostility coming towards us from the lesbian side of the group. See, historically, in “radical” feminism, some women actually chose to become lesbians for political reasons. Being straight was considered consorting with “the enemy.” No, I’m not making this up. I learned this in my Women’s Studies course in college.

The politics, in-fighting, back-biting, and drama that dominated that “leaderless” group eventually led to its demise. (It’s since been resurrected, apparently, but it really hasn’t had much major impact in the past 20 years).

What I learned by being involved in radical politics is that radical politics is designed around having enemies. The enemy could be any number of things: men, “pigs” (the police), the “establishment,” Republicans, “oppressive” white culture, Wall Street.

Unfortunately, not much has changed or evolved in the far left in the past 40 years. If anything, it’s gotten away from the positive vibes of the Summer of Love and has become even more angry and more ugly. That has been one thing I’ve noticed about the Occupy Wall Street protests – I don’t see much about love. It seems to be more about revenge.

“But Occupy Wall Street isn’t far left!” you may say. “It’s a group of people from all walks of life!”

That may be when it comes to the people showing up for the big protests. But the organization seems to be designed by or at least heavily inspired by far left thinking and radicalism.

This is why, for example, the protesters are camping out and “occupying” our cities versus taking the more mainstream route of organizing within the system. If you go to the Occupy Wall Street website, you’ll see an angry fist (used by far-left socialists) as their logo, and the following mission statement on the right:

Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.

This #ows movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don’t need Wall Street and we don’t need politicians to build a better society.

And then in big letters underneath: “The Only Solution is World Revolution”

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a group that wants to overthrow our government to me, and replace our current system with “general assemblies.” And having done something similar to the “general assembly” back in WAC, I can think of no worse, infuriating, dysfunctional way to organize society. It sounds soooo great at first. But in reality, it only works if everyone is on the same page and agrees with each other. It can become a very oppressive form of group-think. Achieving “consensus” is about making everyone agree, not about honoring differences.

Could you say with a straight face that if a bunch of hardcore Tea Partiers marched into Occupy Wall Street, that they would even be allowed to be heard? Even liberal Geraldo Rivera was chased out of Zucotti Park as people chanted against Fox News. (Never mind that MSNBC is also run by a corporate conglomerate, Fox is “the enemy”!)

Already, the Occupy Wall Street enemy list has expanded beyond “Wall Street” to include the police and now even the entire city of Oakland. Will the enemy list stop there, or will it continue to expand? Sadly, there have already been a number of anti-Semitic protesters caught on video proclaiming that the Jewish bankers need to be run out of the country. (Not that the mainstream media is noticing.) See what a slippery slope making enemies can be?

The Need for Spiritual Revolution Instead of a Political One

Since my more radical days, I’ve grown up and matured, and I no longer see people who disagree with me politically as this mortal enemy I must stop at all costs. I’ve delved deep into my spirituality, and done a lot of personal work on myself. I’m not perfect, I still get angry and attached to things, and I can be very opinionated and passionate in expressing my views. But I don’t hate people who look at the world differently than I do. I try to understand them.

I take more responsibility for myself and my life. I am less inclined to get angry at the system or feel “aggrieved” if things aren’t going my way. I don’t blame others for my life. I believe that most people are simply doing their best. That includes the people of Wall Street. Those who aren’t doing their best, are broken people who need healing.

Do I like Wall Street? No. Do I criticize it? Yes. Do I want to see it go down in flames? No. The people of Wall Street are not my enemy. I want reform, not revolution. Revolution is violent, and messy, and often leads to totalitarianism.

Becoming a more mature spiritual person means taking more responsibility for yourself and not being a victim of the world around you. A deeply spiritual person who was connected to their higher power would not purposefully disobey police orders, then try to escalate and antagonize these same police, and finally cry victim to police brutality when the police respond forefully, without owning their own participation in the debacle. Spiritual people understand they are co-creators and that a good deal of the world around them is a reflection of what’s inside.

Once, when I was in college, I argued with a bouncer who kicked me out of my favorite club. He was being a total jerk, but I was also participating by yelling at him about it. It was therefore not entirely “his fault.” I co-created that altercation. I was just as responsible as he was.

Unfortunately, the entire zeitgeist of the Occupy Wall Street movement seems to be one of resentment. It’s based on grievance of what “others” have done, and it doesn’t seem to care what it disrupts or destroys in its efforts to “right the wrong.” It’s based on a collective victimhood that seems to only be able to empower itself through a mob. If you’ve watched any of the YouTube videos of the “general assemblies,” with the twinkly hands and the “human microphone,” there’s a strange cult-like aspect to it all.

Yes, if you join a group like that, you’ll feel empowered and heady and like you “finally belong” somewhere. Great stuff, especially if you are barely out of your teen years. But then, after you find out that you all don’t agree on everything, that life isn’t always so thrilling and easy, the real work of getting along begins. The Occupy movement is already seeing some fractures, with New York volunteer cooks going on strike because – get this – they are sick of feeding the “professional homeless” and freeloaders showing up to the camp. Ironic.

Take a gander of this video of Occupy Wall Street disrupting a Department of Education meeting. It’s so cringe-inducing that even people on the Occupy website have been critical of the action. This isn’t “democracy,” this is invading a meeting and shouting down people before you even listen to them. At least the Tea Party “mobs” were actually asking questions of the politicians they confronted (if hostile about it).

For these reasons, and more, I don’t see how Occupy Wall Street can last too long without imploding. Unfortunately, what can implode may also explode, which is why I feel Occupy Wall Street is dangerous.

Riots, civil unrest, and more personal injury or even death may result, if the protesters continue to make choices based on anger, adrenaline, and a sense of grievance, rather than calming down and working peacefully and strategically.

To me, the very notion of “occupying” something is militaristic, and designed to antagonize. Taking over a parcel of public land for the purposes of organizing a revolution doesn’t seem to be a strategy for peaceful compromise. This whole thing is set up from the beginning to end in grief. And there’s nothing more dangerous to a civil society than a bunch of youthful, angry, hopped-up fanatical idealists who think they’ve been “wronged” and don’t care if they take the system down with them.

I have to agree with one woman who commented on an Occupy news story with the simple one-liner:

Occupation is violence.