Four versions of the Occupy movement

Went to Occupy San Diego and saw and experienced what everyone has described. Found one man who verbalized a slightly different opinion of the situation, that “it doesn’t always matter if a movement has a specific direction or goal, or if the people who “should” be there are there, or if the movement is being “used” by others (i.e. homeless and mentally ill). What matters is that people are showing up en masse and disrupting the status quo. Rocking the boat so to speak.” The woman next to us disagreed. She said that “without a rudder your boat is going to crash into the rocks!” It turned out that the woman had indeed lost her job two years ago due to cuts at her office, while the man was a long-time activist and was still working at the print shop he had been at for years. The three of us talked about the banking economy as the cause and purpose of the Occupy movement versus it actually being more of a catalyst for all sorts of injustices and inequalities being exposed. As you can imagine, the man thought the important part of Occupy was bringing anyone who is not “making it” into the spotlight, regardless of whether they were directly influenced by the economy or not, while the woman felt that they were there to expose the banking cartels and if anything was to change, the focus had to remain on that and that alone--anything else was diluting the agenda.

I moved farther to the outlying area and started talking to people on the fringe. Several proprietors complained of how their business was down, and they were actually being hurt by the Occupy movement. They said “We are the 99% too, why are they doing this to us?!” I asked them if they ever looked at it as a bigger picture and they unanimously conveyed “ I don’t have the time or money to worry about that, I'm trying to survive just like everyone else it.” I asked if I could play devils advocate with them, and wondered if they did not have their current business, would they be more sympathetic to the protesters. One said he might be part of the movement, but not in the way they are doing it; the other two said basically “I work hard, I make sure I have my business, why don’t they take the time they are spending here and go find a job?!” Which led to more discussion about the realities of the economy etc.

My final interview was with a policeman who was not directly on the movement grounds, but down in the Gaslamp District. I asked if he had been stationed there and he said that he had. He echoed the sentiments of the rest of the officers noted in the blog. I asked him what he thought of revolution in general, and he said it was anti-American and that any time you take over a public place or cause disruption you are basically committing treason against the people of your country. You can only imagine where this conversation went. It was fascinating to hear his reasoning, and he was actually willing to hear mine, which made for quite lively and interesting debate. He seemed to relish the opportunity to get his opinion out.