Occupy Your Rep's Office

By Patrick Lozada on 10/04/2011 @ 02:45 PM

Occupy Wall Street is increasingly getting more and more coverage as labor unions and other organizations have begun to get involved with the thousands of youth occupying New York’s financial district. With all the coverage as this movement begins to spread to other cities (I heard Friend Micah Bales on NPR for Occupy DC this morning), people are asking what this loose coalition of people believes in and what they hope to accomplish. No answer has been forthcoming other than a general expression of disgust with broad concepts like corporate greed and unchecked capitalism.

While I share many of the sentiments that the protesters are voicing, I fundamentally disagree with the way that they have decided to go about it. Don’t get me wrong, protest can be a powerful way to make change as the movements of the 1960s showed us. They are a powerful way to give a voice to people who have none in the political system. However, I would argue that the crowds of people on the streets of New York, many of whom belong to an educated privileged class that has the leisure of being able to take a break from their lives to protest, are not the voiceless disenfranchised classes that took to the streets fifty years ago.

I believe the Wall Street protesters are largely petit bourgeoisie in the grooming looking for a way in which to feel good at expressing their anger at a system that is chipping away at their privileges. It feels good to protest, to be angry and to yell and obstruct the people who you believe are doing you wrong. It is much harder to sit down and make change.

Working at FCNL has reminded me that people fundamentally have a voice in this society. By writing to your representative, visiting their office, and putting real work into articulating a message and a plan for change, you really can make a difference—at least more of a difference than a Wall Street drum circle will create. My message to Friends is that you should occupy your representative’s office, not the streets of New York and work towards concrete and efficient (if not as fun) change.