Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Matt Taibi offers five good points to focus on:

<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/my-advice-to-the-occupy-wall-
street-protesters-20111012>
  

    
Thank you for the report and photos, Jane!
  

    

And thanks for the Taibbi article, David.
  

    

Is there any interest in supplying large posters of Jesus throwing the
money changers out of the temple to the OWS protesters?
  

    
If you want to Occupy the WELL but you're not a member, just send your
comment to inkwell at well.com and we'll post it here.
  

    
Thanks, Jon.

I think one thing people who are not able to camp out can do is to
occupy the media and the web with the deep questions of the economy and
where we are going nationally and globally...  so I like seeing other
community-driven sites I visit bringing information and visibility to
bear.  This blog post from Flickr includes maps created by users
tagging their photos, so that you can click and see occupation photos
from various places, and also wee where they are clustered on the map. 
As they note the image is pulled from a map you can generate that is
dynamic and cumulative, so it will be interesting to watch over time. 
Pass it along.

<http://blog.flickr.net/en/2011/10/19/occupy-movement-on-the-flickr-map/>
  Shortened:  http://tinyurl.com/occu-map
  

    

There have been some funny cartoons and images I've seen. Here are a few:

Occupy Mordor:

<https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-fQTIsmDUY3o/TqBK3OHAnsI/AAAAAAAAArE/jw7yTei
wBR8/h301/mordor.jpg>
http://tinyurl.com/3sjl8u2

A cartoon:

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/10/14/cantorslowpoke_custom.jpg

President Obama's soliciting campaign cash from Wall Street:

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/10/14/wallstreettrojanhorse_custom.jpg

Mr Burns holding up a sign: "I am the 1%. Smithers, release the hounds"

<https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/321691_2059205648495_1495
271761_2038091_3502156_n.jpg>
http://tinyurl.com/42bmfaf

A "Borowitz Report" from Goldman Sachs on how to make money off of OWS:

<https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/304150_10150417532990272_
540655271_10663493_549217310_n.jpg>
http://tinyurl.com/42bmfaf

(Many of thse came from http://www.trueblueliberty a mostly conservative
site of those zotted from Free Republic with a few liberals posting as well
to keep the conversation somewhat honest.)
  

    
Jane, the heap of plastic with the sign in the middle saying "Comfort
Station" at the end says it all, thank you.
  

    
Great links, thanks!

Naomi Wolf: how I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street

Arresting a middle-aged writer in an evening gown for peaceable
conduct is a far cry from when America was a free republic

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/19/naomi-wolf-arre
st-occupy-wall-street?newsfeed=true>
  

    
Wow. 
  

    
David Talbot just went down the street with Priscilla (biz dev) and
Jason (tech) to the OWS encampment in SF. 

Priscilla had noted that we had some relevant books about organizing
and government abuses that were to be donated someplace else with other
general titles, and that the OWS people might have an interest, and
want to have a little movement library on site.  So they packed some up
and went out the door.

David told us that Howard Zinn's collected essays was a particular
favorite when the books were delivered.

The big surprise for me is that our thinly-stretched but talented tech
team also offered to help get a wifi hot spot going for them. 
  

    
Yay!  I like what you said before about occupying the media, too.  I
live far from the action, so this is the only way I can participate.
  

    
Great Naomi Wolf piece.

The woman who took me to OWS wanted to show me the library--they have a
library, a kitchen (no cooking allowed), the "comfort station" (supllies, as
it turns out). But everything was under tarps at that point...

  

    
Local Evolver group in Baltimore, MD created their own currency, used
by many local businesses, and offer great advice for "Break up with
your Bank". Check them out:

http://baltimoregreencurrency.org/
  

    
The obvious parallel is the anti-war movement of the 60's and early
70's.  Having been in the middle of things during the 60's and now
looking from the sidelines today I keep seeing the one through the
lense of the other and vice verse. 

The game changer, of course, is the internet with the ability to
organize smart mobs and communicate almost instantaneously.  Along with
that but more important, I think, is the loss of social control of the
establishment media over definitions and perceptions.

I've been reading the news analysis which currently is focusing on
when the OWS movement will break into violence.  Maybe they are channel
surfing on events in Greece and Italy too much.  The only violence I
see here is coming from the police.  Attempts to dirty up OWS fall
flat.  The charges of dirty lazy hippies, antisemitism, etc all are
dismissed easily and go nowhere.

In the 60's there was a war and a draft.  Now our foreign wars are so
compartmentalized as to be almost completely off the radar.  Back then
we also had the "red peril."  Jihadists have been playing the role of
"Other" for ten years now, but can't even come close to the reactions
to the communists in gearing up the country economically and
politically.  We jail all the blacks through the War on Drugs; let
cheap credit hook most families; skew all benefits to the very rich;
and take off the regulatory controls over the financial system.  Again,
things are so compartmentalized if you read the established news media
you could have almost missed the point.  OWS emerged to show everyone
that there is no more "Other."  It is just ourselves.       
  

    
I think the violence in Greece and Italy is also in response to what I
consider rather insane "austerity" plans that basically sell the gov't
to the private sector for pennies on the dollar.
  

    
i was wondering when the dean of american music would show up

http://j.mp/nbyTsI

god bless pete seeger
  

    
Must be happening right now!!!!  So great!
  

    
While perhaps identifying oneself as among the 99% is a starting
point, it must be remembered with all humility that this 99% covers a
wide economic swath. Those at the bottom don't own cameras, have never
had a photo taken of them, have no computers, many cannot read, have no
college debt because they never  finished school, and can't make rent
let alone a mortgage payment. Their numbers are far more than 1%. I am
not sure if they are represented among those who are occupying spaces
of protest. If the statistic is true that one in four children in this
country lives in poverty, those in the bottom of the 99% are pretty
young and they likely aren't out there.
 
If those living in public spaces under tarps cause change for the good
of all and the 1% is included in this "all" because great economic
disparity harms everyone, well and good. Then my question becomes if as
a nation these tarp dwellers are heard then why not the perpetual
homeless? Would Naomi Wolf think of visiting their spaces in an evening
gown as a sign of solidarity that our nation has had a failed housing
policy since the 1940s and a horrific mental health policy since the
1970s?
 
We live in a system even if it is highly compartmentalized and
systemic change will require change of all of us. The conversation
needed to begin so those OWSers have my applause, but the reflection
has to go very deep.
 
I will leave my comment at that because it is late. I have not looked
at all the posted links in this discussion.
  

    
Charles Blow today:

Thursday night I spoke to a young woman in Brooklyn who was having
dinner and planning the next day. Between a morning boot camp workout
at the local Y.M.C.A. and an evening meeting with friends for drinks,
she was planning her first trek to Zuccotti Park to take part in the
Occupy Wall Street protests.

“Why?” I asked. “What specifically are you protesting?” I was curious.
I hoped that she’d respond with some variation of the umbrella
arguments about income inequality, the evils of corporate greed and
corruption or removing corporate money from politics.

She didn’t. “I don’t know. It’s just cool,” she said. She went on to
tell me about how she felt that this was a movement of people with whom
she felt some kinship, banding together and making history, and that
she wanted to be a part of that in the same way that people from
previous generations were part of the civil rights, women’s liberation
and antiwar movements.

She hinted at inequality but never quite got there. Yet she was
passionately convinced that she must get involved. 

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/opinion/blow-occupy-apalooza-strikes-a-chord
.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212>

He finds this enormously gratifying, but I'm not as happy with it.
When going to the park becomes a fashion statement -- which is what I
get from the woman's remarks -- there's a danger that the relegation of
the event to chic will poison the message to those who most need to
hear it. 

What'd be "cool," Charles, would be if she got the message. But I
wonder. 
  

    
But that was also the case with the Vietnam war protests - many people
were there because people were there, it was a place to be seen. That
didn't mean that there was no substance, or that people weren't also
starting to get the message, even though that might not've been their
motivation for being there.

My bigger concern is that Occupy, as a headless organization, will
form factions and become fragmented. I hear rumors that's already
happening. Another concern is that, like the Tea Party, it'll be
coopted and astroturfed by established organizations that are about
money and power. I don't think that's happening, but it's a risk.
Here's a piece about Moveon's attempt to co-opt OWS after initially
dismissing it:
http://www.truth-out.org/moveonorg-and-friends-attempt-co-opt-occupy-wall-stre
et-movement/1318259708

Doug Rushkoff and Venessa Miemis organized a gathering called Contact
Summit, held October 20, focused on solutions and projects about using
the Internet more effectively, as Doug says, " to promote better ways
of living, doing commerce, educating, making art, doing spirituality." 
One popular project proposed at the event was a framework for an
online General Assembly. They were wanting to take on the difficult
task of building consensus online. It's difficult to measure whether
you have attention, let alone consensus. 

When we decided to start this topic, I thought we might experiment
with the concept of an online General Assembly in this context. The New
York OWS General Assembly is "where all the committees come and
discuss their thoughts and needs. It is open to all who want to attend,
and anyone can speak. And while there is no named leader, some of the
members do routinely moderate the general assembly meetings. [Various
volunteers] update the minutes from every meeting, along with other
need-to-know information for organizers. Agreement on issues is reached
using the consensus decision-making process."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street#New_York_City_General_Assembly
)
We don't really have committees and I'm not sure what we would vote
on, though. Maybe it would make more sense to discuss how an online
version of the General Assembly would work. (I've been thinking about
this problem of scaling headless decision-making and figuring out how
to do it online for a long time - it's a daunting problem).
  

    
The danger of OWS being taken over as an astroturf organization is
considerably lessened by the limited supply of plutocrats who are
willing to fund organizations which exist to attack plutocrats. ;-)

Those few plutocrats who sympathize with the goals of OWS (e.g. Soros)
seem unlikely to harbor ambitions to become puppet masters.

OTOH, the organizational issues you talk about are daunting.
  

    
What has changed, is that the conversations we've been having in private, 
feeling alone, and wondering why the fuck people didn't wake up and look 
around, is now public.  The press, which has looked away for the past 30 
years, is now being force to ask us our opinions.  And I think it may 
actually be a positive that they're having to dig for it.
  

    
Yeah, that's a huge (and positive) change.  Growing economic injustice
and inequality has been something discussed only in fringe media for
the last 30 years.  Now it's on the radar screen - probably for a long
time to come.
  

    
I was very pleased to happen upon Occupy Clematis Street in downtown
West Palm Beach, FL today.  Only about 100 people or so, but vocal and
in a very visible place.  They were chanting, "We Are the 99
PErcent....and so are YOU!"  Holding signs and crossing the street
multiple times to stop traffic and make people look!  I caught some of
it on video, and I'll post the link as soon as Facebook is done
uploading.

I think trying to come up with some agreed upon ideas amongst us is a
good place to start.  Not that anyone with any power would listen to a
bunch of WELL-perns pontificating, but I prefer being a solution-finder
to being a complainer and spectator.

So here goes:

1.  There are human rights and there are business obligations and
opportunities.  Let's not confuse the two entities as being the same or
having equal rights, obligations or opportunities. 

2.  Failure is acceptable and inevitable and should NOT be avoided for
anyone or any business entity.  We learn from failures.  We improve
upon ideas due to failures.  ALL business entities MUST be allowed,
even encouraged, to fail when failure is the only place to go.  The
difficulties endured due to the failure will only make future endeavors
more successful.

3.  Labor is a huge resource and commodity.  We must begin to treat
our labor force as the driving forces behind any successful endeavor
and any successful individual.  Laborers must insist upon being
compensated not only for the value of the job done, but also for the
value of contributing to the financial success of business
owners/executives.  No one becomes mega-rich in a vacuum.  

4. Everything costs something.  This idea should extend to the
privilege and opportunity to make a boatload of money.  Go right ahead
and make fortune upon fortune.  But to earn that money in America, you
have to pay taxes - that's the price of wealth.  

Okay, that's my beginning.  Anyone else?