A couple of thoughts for the day on the Occupy Wall Street protests: first, I love this picture. At first, I thought it was a bit of a joke. At first, I even considered the
We Are Everywhere
possibility that it was meant as satire. But, no, that looks like a very sincere hippie type person with his dogs, in a very remote setting. Sarah Palin has given Alaska a bit of a bad name, but I was a big fan of Northern Exposure, and I’m sure there are plenty of mellow, nature loving, live and let live Alaskans up there. The other thing about this picture was it made me think about the meaning of the word “occupy” and, by extension, the meaning of the movement. More on that in a few paragraphs.
I watched a couple of old episodes of Deep Space Nine this morning. Normally, the time travel episodes irritate me. Too many cheap laughs at easy cultural references. I am a serious Star Trek fan, and I like my Star Trek serious. Anyway, this was a two-parter and I hadn’t seen it before and it really caught my attention.
Captain Cisco, Dr. Bashir and Jadzia Dax accidentally get beamed down to San Francisco in 2024. It was a bit of a nightmare world. Cisco and Bashir immediately got picked up by the police for not having ID, and incarcerated in a “sanctuary” which was basically a concentration camp for unemployed people. Cisco looked at a clock on the wall and realized the significance of the date – two days before the famous-in-the-future Bell Riots, which would spark the revolution which would lead to their modern utopia.
The thing that struck me was the amazing parallels with the OWS movement. Sure, there was quite a bit more drama and violence, but the main issues were unemployment, lack of housing, and wealth disparity gone wild. The people in the sanctuary used the internet to get their message out, and the authorities tried to block the message. Also, some of the cops were decent working guys but there was one who strongly resembled NYPD officer Tony Bologna.
All in all, pretty prescient for 1995.
Now, back to the photo.
That man truly is occupying his space. Through the miracle of the internet, he is reminding us all that everybody occupies the space they actually occupy. A few years back R.E.M. had a song “Stand in the Place Where You Live,” which pretty much expressed the same thought.
The rich fuckers may have all the money, but we still all live on this planet and we are not going to go away. Sooner or later, they’re going to have to deal with us. That’s what “occupy” means to me.
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