The main objection I hear from people about Occupy Auckland is ‘they aren’t doing it right’.
They aren’t doing what right?
Supposedly, there is a certain way that you do protests and they aren’t abiding by what people are used to seeing so it must be a bad thing.
There is no leader!
There are no demands!
They all have different agendas!
Who will think of the grass!
The global Occupy movements are redefining what it means to protest. The rules of engagement are changing and that’s why authorities are getting so frustrated by it.
Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt touched on this in his Le Web address. Online communities are redefining society and the way that people organise and interact with each other. The way that the government structures society is not necessarily how people want things to look any more. To me, Occupy is a wonderful symptom of global change in civil rights and the power of the individual-fuelled by the Internet.
The fact that it doesn’t follow Protesting For Dummies 101 is what makes it so powerful and why we should all be paying attention and not writing protesters off as a bunch of unemployed deadbeats.
But what do they want?
People asking what they want are actually asking ‘how do we make them go away?’
Because they haven’t specified what they want, Occupy can’t be drawn in to a negotiation they will lose. Sounds a bit backwards but it’s also quite clever. They are actually getting more attention and conversation because the authorities are working off an old rule book.
So what’s the solution?
Leave them alone. Yes monitor them and make sure it’s hygienic and safe and all that but the security levels I’ve seen in Aotea Square are no more than what you see on a boozy Friday night with drunk teenagers. Surely, this is a more worthy cause and most certainly a more significant story in world history.
It has definately made me think about what things are important in life and what type of society I want to live in. One without poverty is pretty high on the list. More power to them.
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