Essay Flotsam and Jetsam

So here's some stuff that didn't make the final cut into the essay. Turns out the limit was 2000 words, not 2500, so many of my tangents were too tangential. Alas. I posted them on the Occupy writers group page, since I will probably not write the seven essays.

"Consider that to evolve, as a species and personally, might be the reason we are here right now, working and thinking and searching. If so, consider that the Occupy protests, which are a flare-up of the continual work of all movements toward social and economic justice, are instruments of that evolution. Through shifts in thinking, group process, communication, and tactics, the limited model of protest has been re-imagined into an unstoppable, accessible Movement. "

That was my opener, which was mostly a thesis statement to get me started and didn't work as a good beginning for the final essay. Some of the points I had to abandon are in this section:

"The marketing of the movement has shifted through internet sharing. Posters and signs are displayed in downloadable form for use by anyone. Patches and t-shirts are free, not sold for profit. Although there is no shortage of co-option of the language, such as television shows and advertising using the words “revolution” and “occupy,” the message of the movement is not lost in this, as it strives to become more explicit and direct. Through sharing on social networks, charts and graphs illustrating economic realities and the real effects of political theory are easy to find, to use to convince Aunt Ethel just how the trickle-down economic theory of the Reagan years worked out. Online petitions and initiatives can be started by anyone, and spread virally to everyone. Furthermore, the General Assembly meetings at the sites are livestreamed, with commenters to the side who are responded to by the person running the streaming, who can convey them to the people present in the room. Anyone in reach of the transmissions can watch and hear it for themselves without putting on a pair of pants.

In response, the actions of the authorities have evolved, using the tools of the military to target enforcement and oppression of dissent, arresting leaders pre-emptively, wearing down the protestors with constant harassment, and using the same tools as the protestors to shift public opinion. The media cooperates to carry the party line, with television newscasters repeating the same phrases and viewpoints right down to the local broadcasts, through the use of news gathering through passing on of submitted “public service announcements” or PSA’s. One famous video on YouTube shows dozens of newcasters repeating the same phrase, “Conan O’Brien may be about to push the envelope on late night television,” with the same inflections. This is known as McNews, the commodification of information. Mass media shows itself to be increasingly irrelevant in the face of that generated by individuals on the scene."

I had a lot of what sounded like propaganda in there, even I could hear it. I love it when I inspire myself while writing, and end the final sentence with a euphoria that I wish and hope gets to the reader. Mostly it is probably me thrilling to the sound of my golden words. I wonder if birds do that, love their own songs?

There is also the possibility that I just like the idea of getting attention for my brilliance from all the sapiosexuals out there. Easy pit to fall into. Whatever. I'm human. One of the things I said in my closing is that the movement is human. It's like a living organism to me.

That brings up a whole range of psychological analyses that I am just not going to touch. Keep growing, movement! We will need you to be mature, productive, and dependable, while also playful, imaginative, and juicy. Lots of people are placing this personal ad, looking for their soulmates.