Does the Occupy movment need a message?

Note: This is the latest Miner Queries column from The Red Oak Express

If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’ve seen reports about Occupy Wall Street (OWS). And if you watch mainstream news, you’ve probably heard a lot of talk about how the movement “doesn’t have a message or leaders.” Consequently, the tone is dismissive.

Mainstream corporate media have two reasons for such comments:

1. Corporate media owners and their cohorts on Wall Street want to know leaders, so they can remove them and possibly squelch what they see as a growing threat.
2. Today’s corporate media personalities don’t research and report so much as they present information from other sources, often via news releases. (I know this because I do just that for a living.) Newsrooms across America have been gutted of reporters and, especially broadcast media, pick up and use what comes in via the wires, the newspaper, Internet and fax machine. That’s why you can flip channels and see the same story told in almost the same words on every station at nearly the same time!

So key to OWS’s sustainability is its horizontal organization with no individual leaders. Additionally, without specific messages for press to take down stenographically, it requires actual reporting. That means time and money, which cuts corporate media profit – because news in now a business, not a public service.

As I watch events unfold, I keep thinking of my mother, who loved to say, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease!” Over the years I’ve learned the truth of that idiom. In the workplace, I learned to speak up if I wanted one of the new PCs coming in the next upgrades. Or if I was interested in a plum assignment, I didn’t just expect the boss to read my mind.

Unfortunately, I think voters in America quit squeaking generations ago. After casting a vote, it’s as if we just expect the winners to read our collective mind. We go back to daily life and grumble under our breath when we get nothing.

But even those who’ve spent time advocating for candidates and policies don’t seem to understand OWS. I participate in an e-mail dialogue group, and among this well read liberal group, concerns about OWS’ lack of message and organization exist. As I told them, those of us from older generations miss much of what is happening among our youth. We (parents and grandparents) assume OWS is just a rag-tag group camping on Wall Street.

I have read several articles about new types of efforts, including some technology tools, being created to support OWS. Additionally, I think we underestimate the ability of youth to combat poisonous media messaging. These young adults have been brought up with technology. They know how propaganda is created, and they take media reports with a grain of salt. They don't get their news from the places we do.

These young people give me hope. They will run circles around those who try to stop them. They don't believe in political parties, because they've grown up watching the parties give their parents nothing. I know that's how my 23-year-old son feels.

We're assuming this movement must have specific goals. But, I don't think it amounts to much more than to ask people to PARTICIPATE in our common life, which in America is supposed to be democracy. Actually, that may be the best message of all.