Patch Blog: My #OccupyLA Adventure Continues

In my previous blog, I wrote about how I checked out the Occupy Los Angeles (#OLA) Movement and tried to figure out what it is about.

This blog post is a continuation down that path.

I have lately been reading Thomas Paine’s famous 1776 pamphlet Common Sense on my iPhone—not just because it’s a free read but because people have been talking about Thomas Paine when I speak to them about this blog.

(For the record, Benjamin Franklin has been more on my mind—like me, he was a writer and a printer. I must admit, though, that I had a hard time going through Walter Isaacson’s dense biography of Franklin—and am baffled how a professional writer such as Isaacson made it to the top echelons of Time magazine, where he was once managing editor.)

Here’s what I learned from Paine:

Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher. …  were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, many would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him out of two evils to choose the least.

That’s in the first couple of pages! I’m struck by the similarities between Common Sense and the Occupy Movement. Both recognize that our species has tendencies toward greed and that government is a necessary evil—necessary to control the greedy tendencies of humans as well as corporations, who are mirrors of each other in many ways (the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations have the same right as people).

The Occupy Movement may be radical—in the root sense of the term, it seeks to go to the core of a problem—but as I stressed in my previous blog, it doesn’t want to kill capitalism. Rather, it asks our government to do its job not by aspiring to become bigger but by looking out for the interests of the majority and protecting the majority at a time when the intentions and power of the few clearly do not favor the majority.

The Occupy Movement is also autonomous—or at least as independent as it’s possible for a spontaneous movement to be. Here, in any case, is the Occupy Wall Street Statement of Autonomy, which I took off their website:

Statement of Autonomy

Passed by the General Assembly at Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is a people’s movement. It is party-less, leaderless, by the people and for the people. It is not a business, a political party, an advertising campaign or a brand. It is not for sale.

We welcome all, who, in good faith, petition for a redress of grievances through non-violence. We provide a forum for peaceful assembly of individuals to engage in participatory as opposed to partisan debate and democracy. We welcome dissent.

Any statement or declaration not released through the General Assembly and made public online at www.nycga.net should be considered independent of Occupy Wall Street.

We wish to clarify that Occupy Wall Street is not and never has been affiliated with any established political party, candidate or organization. Our only affiliation is with the people.

The people who are working together to create this movement are its sole and mutual caretakers. If you have chosen to devote resources to building this movement, especially your time and labor, then it is yours.

Any organization is welcome to support us with the knowledge that doing so will mean questioning your own institutional frameworks of work and hierarchy and integrating our principles into your modes of action.

SPEAK WITH US, NOT FOR US.

Occupy Wall Street values collective resources, dignity, integrity and autonomy above money. We have not made endorsements. All donations are accepted anonymously and are transparently allocated via consensus by the General Assembly or the Operational Spokes Council.

We acknowledge the existence of professional activists who work to make our world a better place. If you are representing, or being compensated by an independent source while participating in our process, please disclose your affiliation at the outset. Those seeking to capitalize on this movement or undermine it by appropriating its message or symbols are not a part of Occupy Wall Street.

We stand in solidarity. We are Occupy Wall Street.”

Money is great, money is good, but money has the power to corrupt. We see it in politics, in how decisions are made—some good, some bad. I think it’s great the Occupy Movement “values collective resources, dignity, integrity and autonomy above money.” It wants to avoid the corrupting influence of money but it doesn’t outlaw those who seek to affect an issue because they are paid to. The Movement simply “acknowledge(s) the existence of professional activists” and asks them to “disclose [their] “affiliation at the outset.”

The Movement does not seek to exclude. Anyone can go down to their General Assembly Meetings at 7:30 p.m. (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays) on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall and speak about anything they like. Try doing that in Congress!

As Paine said, the Government is “incapable of producing what it seems to promise,” and thus the Occupy Movement fills the void for an angry and disillusioned populace.

You may read documents from Occupy Wall Street by clicking here.

Click here to read about Occupy Los Angeles.

If you’d like to contribute money to the next edition of the Occupy L.A. newspaper, click here.