November 17, 2011
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Occupy the Future
I really don’t like people who destroy books. To me, if you feel the need to burn a book it means you’re afraid of ideas which in turn means that you really don’t have the character or intelligence to be trusted with any degree of responsibility.
So when I read in Boing Boing this morning that NYC police and city workers had destroyed the library at Occupy Wall Street, it set me off. I had to do something. Nothing extreme mind you, I am a Canadian…
So I packed up a couple of bags of books and humped them down to St. James’ Park where Occupy Toronto is located.
When I got there both my science fiction writer and social scientist training kicked in. I felt like I was walking into an embryonic utopian community. It was like a bubble city that had settled on the surface of an older, partly fossilized one.
Churches are the traditional sanctuaries of the dispossessed and marginal and it gave me great comfort that St. James’ Cathedral is offering what protection it can for the encampment.
Some media and politico types have been saying that the occupiers are doing harm to the park and that their are sanitation problems on the site. I’m not sure I agree. The tent city didn’t look much worse than what you might find at a Provincial Park campground on the July 1 weekend and while the infrastructure was definitely cheap and cheerful, people where taking care to be as tidy and civic minded as possible.Speaking of which, what really interested me was how institutions and services were emerging. There was a medical centre…they used the bandstand as a public forum…there was a central kitchen…a place to park your bike (the transportation nexus)…a library…a classroom…and even an arts area/culture space…a self-policing force…and a very active internal communications network.
But it is a very rough and ready environment, made more so by the recent rain, growing November grey and approaching snow. It makes me sad that some of my fellow Torontians see the occupiers as dirty, deviant and criminal. The people I spoke to were idealistic, brave and caring. They certainly did not come across as naive or stupid.
As some of you know, I am a Mormon by my upbringing and recently I have become more interested in my heritage. When I was working on the visitors centre for the first Mormon temple in Kirtland, Ohio – Lachlan MacKay who was the director and chief interpreter there said something that I will never forget. Kirtland was the first restorationalist community. It’s members where the unloved, the unwanted, the (mostly) uneducated and unemployed of early 19th century America. As Lachlan so eloquently put it: “These were people that you probably wouldn’t invite into your home.” Let’s consider what grew from that small band of scruffy people. While I personally wish that the mainstream LDS faith had less socially conservative views I will always be grateful that I grew up in a climate that respected knowledge and the right to respect the views and decisions of others.There’s two things I’d like you to think about in parting:
1. Various media commentators and related human sock-puppets keep saying that the occupy movement is pointless, spent and really should just go away. That is just information-war talk. Occupy scares the hell out of certain political factions because it is operating in ways that they just don’t understand and that is truly wonderful. The only way that Occupy will lose is if they give up. Please don’t do that.
2. The incredible speed and apparent effectiveness that Occupy is able to set up its own institutions and services is sending another message. Maybe the 99% just doesn’t need the 1%.
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