[OSList] occupy Open Space?!

[Brett Barndt]

Re: terms like "occupy" and "adversarial"...I love this quotation from JFK:

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution
inevitable.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

This is unfortunately what happened in 1848 in Europe, too. There could have
been a great democracy there 100 yrs earlier than 1945 and without all the
mess and loss of life.  The choice was up to the people then in power, as it
is up to those in power now. But, instead they chose the Reactionary route
to preserve the concentrated wealth and war economy prerogatives.

There certainly has been a class warfare going on in USA the last 30 years.
All the mechanics of disinformation, culture war, manipulation, even
"reflexive control" come right out of the Information Warfare scholarship
symposia in Europe in the 1990s. http://www.mediamatic.net/page/5693/en The
same techniques evidently used by NATO to destabilize "adversarial"
countries, turned against American citizens for 20+ years by private
corporation shareholders, boards of directors, and their hired programming
executives.

S&P and other pundits euphemistically refer to these divide-and-rule tactics
as the "political problems" in the US behind our debt downgrade and
intractable divisions. It is clear the origins of these divisions can be
traced to money interests who sponsored them using these techniques well
researched by scholars. Some such as Ralph Reed have even gone public about
them.

This amazing emergent scholarly work also reveals much about the cause of
these problems in society, and also how the decent  masses need to wise up
about real cause and effect in order to prevent themselves being used again.


ponerology.com

The general assemblies are showing people how to see behind these screens
and also to unify despite the efforts of our privately-owned commercial
media to keep people self-absorbed and divided on many artificial fronts.
Very exciting indeed!

Bbbbbb



On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 11:35 PM, Raffi Aftandelian <raffi_1970 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> dear open space and genuine contact friends (aka spaceniki and, perhaps,
> "wheelies")-
>
> Tonight marked the spirited kick-off for Occupy San Diego, one of the many
> local initiatives around the world taking place in solidarity with Occupy
> Wall Street. Speaking as a process artist (OST facilitator and Genuine
> Contact Program certified trainer) and a charmingly flawed co-human with a
> heart who is planning on camping out (occupy?!) on site for  while, I wanted
> to share some thoughts and observations and also extend an invitation.
>
> First off, taking part in all of this- tonight's march or attending the
> General Assembly (I was at last night's assembly- 130 people were there!)-
> really stretches me. I can't align with any of the adversarial language and
> expression here. So, as we marched today I was just silent, holding my
> multi-colored sign which read, "What does a wise, compassionate and glocal
> response to massive economic injustice look like?"  Heck, even calling it
> "Occupy" make me shudder!!!
>
> It is physically just very challenging to be in the presence of all of that
> energy. That said, from the the *moment* I heard of Occupy Wall Street, I
> had an *immediate* intuitive hit that this is something different, that this
> is something that I have to support. And at the very least this initiative
> could be supported by bearing witness-- and the simplest way I could do that
> is just camp there, just sleep there. That's it.
>
> Perhaps the act of sleeping in a public space can be a way of claiming
> *and* opening space, a way of dreaming the New Story into being?
>
> Also, I'm amazed to see how many different people locally have heard of the
> local Occupy San Diego initiative and how many different people I know
> showed up tonight! It's almost as if somewhere deep down there was a part of
> us that knew this is something we need to support.
>
> One of the things that encouraged me while attending General Assembly last
> night was the readiness and willingness of people from disparate points of
> view to hear each other out. What I'm seeing is messy, imperfect, and I know
> and imagine that ball has been dropped. But overall, it's a rather
> encouraging picture. It's also encouraging to see meditation part of the
> picture, too. A 20+ minute flash mob still silent sitting meditation took
> place after the march tonight
>
> And indeed it has a lot of open space feeling to it. The general assembly
> and committees had been meeting at Children's Park (high play and high
> learning anyone??) here downtown. The park is made up of large circular
> patches of grass bordered with concrete. Each committee met in a different
> patch - marked with the name of the committee. And you just went to the
> committee you wanted. And from what i could see, if you wanted to create a
> new committee, you could do that, too! (apparently, there is a process
> committee here, too).
>
> I'm curious if there are other process artists out there on or off these
> lists who are also supporting Occupy... where you are. I'd love to enter
> into conversation (skype call anyone??) on or offlist to explore the ways we
> as process artists can support this initiative. Drop me a line!
>
>
> much warmth from the pacific coast,
> raffi
>
> p.s. to catch some of the flavor of our local "Occupation," see
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/occupysd/
> http://www.livestream.com/occupysd
>
> p.p.s. I look forward to circulating widely this piece by zen teacher and
> peacemaker, Bernie Glassman
> http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/10/we-are-the-100/
>
> p.p.p.s. to borrow a turn of phrase from a fellow spacenik who lives
> DownUnder-- "What can happen?"
>
> powered by ubuntu 10.4
>
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-- 
Seek first to understand, then be understood. Stephen Covey

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. Martin
Luther King, Jr.
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