If you take note of Canadian economy magazines, the end of the Occupy Wall Street movement... at least in the country north of Wall Street itself... seems quite imminent.
I, personally, have some first hand experience as both a spectator as well as a somewhat passive and external contributor to the movement myself; both through my moral support, and my limited involvement with the crowds at Occupy Vancouver, towards which I have drawn a mixed verdict.
I agree, in almost all regards, to the act of occupying in the first place. It is a blatant disregard for the rigid technicalities which have been developed to what is defined as 'public' or 'private' space, as well as a blatant disregard for the now finely-tuned tastes and preferences of those regimented by the preferred luxuries offered by corporate appeasement of the individuals personal tastes designed, first and foremost, in the name of making a profit.
It is an amorphous movement, which reflects a global sentiment, of people trying to rewind the clock on capitalism and the economy as to make both significantly less influential in our lives, and more minimalistic and subsidiary as so both are simply a means to an end, as opposed to the means and an end.
In this day and age, people seem to be spending their lives seeking little more than economic gain on their end of the stick. They forget that, although the economy is a societal requirement and luxury which certainly has consequence, it should be the tool used to lift the individual, as well as the collective, above the realm of 'simply surviving,' and into the realm of truly being able to experience life to its fullest in any and every manner conceivably imaginable. In this sense, the economy should not be an all-pervasive force which attempts to drag you into its maze, forcing you to want more and more of the unnecessary luxuries it seems to offer you in infinite supply, but, as I stated before, nothing more than a means to an end. The means being your contribution to society through occasional labor, artistic endeavor, or the offerings/ production of goods and services, and the end, which is attempting to be satisfied, being the living of life to its fullest once a minimal contribution is made that allows the individual and/or collective to be able to survive in affordable satisfaction.
Many now rooted in capitalistic mindsets would argue that, to them, 'living life to its fullest' implies a constant striving for greater material and monetary wealth. This mindset would not exist without the diluting of the human psyche to the point that this appears to become an almost instinctive drive.
To me, individually, 'living life to its fullest' implies the freedom of expression (not being limited in what I say anywhere at any time for fear of upsetting hierarchical superiors), the freedom of time (say, working for 2 or 3 days a week and making enough to survive comfortably for said week and do as I see fit, whether that means travelling, spending time with loved ones, indulging in artistic and creative endeavors, or, in a somewhat contradictory decision, deciding to put in extra time at work after my amount required for comfortable survival has been met, in order to save for some large future endeavor, or some high-expense luxury such as a new computer, TV, book collection, sound-system, etc.)
So, it is in this sense that I do indeed agree with the general act of occupying in order to say 'hey, sorry to disturb you, but we're here and we would like to remind you that there is something seriously wrong with the world we're living in.' Looking at this strictly through the filter of the system we are living in, however... Canadians, for the most part, have little to complain about.
During my time at Occupy Vancouver, the only legitimate qualms seemed to be those relating to First Nations people, while the rest were simply terribly-worded symbolic gestures, steeped in a load of fringe conspiracy theories and New Age astrological bullshit, beckoning towards the more humanistic aspects in man which have been repressed as a result of the superficially developed capitalistic 'instinct.'
Remove your filters, and look at the world were living in as it is; superficial, destructive, and in need of massive changes in all aspects of society. You can justify anything using an economic argument, but using such an argument only suppresses the humanistic and environmental realities.
I think it's just about time to save the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment