a compelling case

you may have heard about a recent #occupywallstreet initiative, involving a hunger strike outside of duarte square (canal + sixth ave). the demands of the strike include being allowed to use the space as the new zucchini park. the plaza is owned by trinity church, which has been fairly supportive of the movement, sheltering protestors at times. a common reaction (it was mine) was that a hunger strike is a bit of a disproportional approach to gaining a new gathering space. additionally, many argue that this protest no longer requires a physical space, and that these efforts are a digression from more important goals.

this morning, i read an editorial piece written by one of a group of clergy members who assembled to hear and evaluate the movement's request to use their plaza:

That morning a dozen occupiers addressed forty or so clergy. We clergy were all somewhat skeptical of the demand for public space. You could hear the ministerial, rabbinical hrumph, hrumph in the room. (Most of us had never occupied Zucotti Park and a downward trend in temperature wasn’t going to improve on that.) But the occupiers edged toward the theological as they articulated a need for communal, inspirational, face-to-face contact in which they could “appear” to one another.

Secondly, they talked about the nearly complete privatization of municipal public space in a way that made a deep and tragic sense. Where can you go if you don’t own something? Does a public even exist if it has no space? The great irony is that they have been called the virtual demonstration, and here they were talking about old-fashioned, in-person, human interaction.

Third, they talked about the increasing surveillance of most space, private or public—the self-surveillance on Facebook, the constant camera, and the ask-no-questions “security” cordons. They reminded me of one of my first posts on this whole matter: we no longer march and the police pen us for “our own good.” What nonsense. A completely nonviolent movement does not need to be penned up for its own good.

And finally, they spoke of a new monasticism, in which people have given up everything to jump to a future they can only imagine. In the most recent newsletter posted by Occupy Theory [as of this posting, the site is down —Eds.], occupiers describe how sad they were about their lives, both present and future, until they found each other. If you were worried about “young people today” before, you will be terrified after you read about the emptiness, the bought-and-soldness, the futility, the lack of any place to be or person to be. (via)

worth a read.