No matter how good your product is, you will still need to make sure to take time to develop it, nurture it, and mould it into something more mature, effective, and well-crafted.
Occupy Wall Street is a product and every product needs to continue to be developed and crafted into a more mature product that more people would want to consume. OWS is not doing it wrong, they just need to do it more right.
1. Stop making it about yourself
The movement is self-centred and egotistical. I don’t care about you. You can afford to leave your home and job (if you have either). The majority of the 99% cannot do that.
Your papers telling us about your plight tug at our heart strings for a while, but the tune gets old. The stories need to be about something bigger than yourself.
Your presence at the encampments should be representative. You should be there for those who cannot. You should be there showing your support for those who can’t. The 99% need you to act for them.
2. Grow up and start planning for the future
The movement needs to move beyond the protest. The protest itself is the wakeup call. People have begun waking up. The coffee is brewed and we have eaten the porridge. What do we do now?
At the moment, all I see is a new plan to protest at another site, or to start another drum circle. Sure, some things have been decided and there are some details for what they want in the future. But there needs to be more.
The movement needs to look to the Tea Party and notice something. The Tea Party convinced politicians to join them. Politicians, like them or not, are part of our society and they make things happen, for better or for worse.
3. Start doing things for yourself
The movement isn’t actually doing anything. They are speaking, protesting, and bringing awareness. However, their repeated message has only been backed up by more protesting and speaking.
The movement isn’t fond of the political and economic systems because they are broken and likely are broken beyond repair. However, replacing it completely with something new isn’t possible either. Baby steps. Baby steps.
4. Shut down the camps
Seriously, shut them down. At the moment they are spawning too many outrageous acts against people and sparking more controversy that does not favour the popularity of the movement.
If it is not helping deliver the message then it is hurting the message. A death in Vancouver, while not the fault of the movement, paints a negative image. The horrors of rape and the vulgarity of hurting innocent people plague the movement.
