Re: terms like "occupy" and "adversarial"...I love this quotation from JFK:<br><br>“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy<br><br>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. <br>
<br>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. <a href="http://www.mediamatic.net/page/5693/en">http://www.mediamatic.net/page/5693/en</a> 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. <br>
<br>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. <br><br>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. <br>
<br><a href="http://ponerology.com">ponerology.com</a><br><br>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! <br>
<br>Bbbbbb<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 11:35 PM, Raffi Aftandelian <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:raffi_1970@yahoo.com">raffi_1970@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>dear open space and genuine contact friends (aka spaceniki and, perhaps, "wheelies")-</span></div>
<div><br></div><div>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.<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>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!!!<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>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. <br>
</div><div><br></div><div>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?</div><div><br></div><div>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.<br></div><div><br>
</div><div>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<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>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).<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>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!<br>
</div><div><br></div><div><br><span></span></div><div><span>much warmth from the pacific coast,</span></div><div><span>raffi<br></span></div><div> <br>p.s. to catch some of the flavor of our local "Occupation," see <br>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/occupysd/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/occupysd/</a><br><a href="http://www.livestream.com/occupysd" target="_blank">http://www.livestream.com/occupysd</a><br><br>p.p.s. I look forward to circulating
widely this piece by zen teacher and peacemaker, Bernie Glassman<br><a href="http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/10/we-are-the-100/" target="_blank">http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/10/we-are-the-100/</a><br><br>p.p.p.s. to borrow a turn of phrase from a fellow spacenik who lives DownUnder-- "What can happen?"<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Seek first to understand, then be understood. Stephen Covey<br><br>Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. Martin Luther King, Jr. <br><br><font style="color:rgb(46, 102, 197);font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt" color="#2e66c5" face="Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif" size="2"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 255)"></span></font><br>
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