Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Occupy (and) the church

The recent emergence of the Occupy movement is a fascinating social and political phenomenon. The existence and persistence of this fledgling movement is an ongoing protest against the excesses and contradictions of contemporary hypercapitalism (particularly as it is embodied and enabled by the global financial system as underwritten by national governments after 2008). Yet the form is important since this is not simply an angry rally or creative media stunt; it is an experiment in a temporary alternative society run by direct democracy, a second society existing amidst a broader one and to which it appeals with both invitation ("This is what democracy looks like. Join us!") and critique. It is an anarchist meme drawing in a wide range of sympathisers and has rapidly spread via imitation and facilitated by the net beyond the national context that gave it birth (unlike, say, the Tea Party to which it is often compared). Much has and will continue to be written and said about it, and this is precisely what ought to happen, since such new forms call out for interpretation and the movement is if nothing else an opening, a chance for a fresh start to old conversations. What it may become remains to be seen.

The most frequent complaint regarding the movement is that it does not have a coherent message. There are three things to say about this. First, the willful inability of much of the mainstream media to report what Occupy camps are actually saying is depressingly predictable. Second, in a genuinely grassroots movement that has arisen from a primarily negative stimulus, a positive alternative may take time to emerge and the camps testify at once to the urgency of the need for such alternatives (through participants' willingness to camp out even amidst a northern winter) and to the patience required to seek them (as seen in the characteristic interminable general assemblies). Third, it remains an open question whether this movement is itself already in embryo the alternative it puts forward (that is, an anarchist non-hierarchical alternative model of a society based on trust and mutual care rather than our one mediated primarily by market exchange) or if its primary function is to highlight the public wounds inflicted by plutocracy in order to provoke reform and/or revolution (as Tahrir Square was, and appears to again be becoming).

An alternative community within the world that stands as both critique and invitation to the surrounding culture and structures, claiming to be a foretaste of a possible future while holding open that very future as essentially unknown in the face of forces that seek to maintain the ongoing catastrophe of the status quo: the similarities between the Occupy movement and the church are striking. Indeed, this whole post was really intended as a brief intro and recommendation to this very insightful piece by Luke Bretherton, theologian (and former student of O'Donovan).
H/T Andy Stiles.

7 comments:

Matheson said...

How did you find that piece by Bretherton?! Very nice.

byron smith said...

Ah, good point, I forgot to acknowledge Andy Stiles for pointing it out (or rather pointing out this page of Christian responses to Occupy).

byron smith said...

Naomi Wolf: The Shocking Truth about the crackdown on Occupy. An argument about the federal coordination of suppression, drawing links between the emerging central message of Occupy (which she claims are (1) money out of politics (2) bank regulation and (3) personal gain for politicians being able to legislate on Delaware-registered companies in which they have a financial interest).

Speaking of what Occupy's message(s) is/are:

Guardian: Occupy London's policy vision.

byron smith said...

And speaking of violent repression, here are ten shocking incidents caught on camera.

byron smith said...

Al Jazeera: An effective critique of the Wolf piece and why it got the wrong end of the stick. H/T Christopher.

byron smith said...

Guardian: Wolf's reply.

byron smith said...

Kim Fabricius offers an Occupy hymn.