Yes, I like how OWS seeks a

EmmaZahn — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:49:13 +0000

Yes, I like how OWS seeks a very high-level of consensus.

Also, their unwillingness to initially define themselves probably elevated and extended media coverage. That not only piqued curiosity but made it difficult for the media and other powers that be to demiss them with a familiar label. Unfortunately, the problem with that is if it takes too long to self-identify, other people may end up defining OWS.

Sanchez says: Spend a few

artappraiser — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:37:15 +0000

In reply to What Democracy Looks Like

Sanchez says:

Spend a few weeks in a self-selected community, and perhaps it becomes possible to believe that 99% of us really are all on the same page—or at least, would be if we weren’t brainwashed by the 1%. This has long been a major strain in conservative thinking: Everyone would see that our views are just simple common sense—obviously correct!—if not for a liberal media cabal systematically lying to people all day. Dark as this sounds, it’s utopian in one sense: It implies we’d all agree but for the malign influence of this or that small but powerful group.

I feel strongly that I have often seen this same argument in many self-selected "communities" of the liberal blogosphere (except that of course they blame "the conservative media" instead of "the liberal media.") Actually, one of the things I find intriguing about OWS is a stubborn insistence on the part of a lot of the die-hards to get actual real consensus first before defining what they think "the 99%" agrees upon. Yes, reality is that they do have the problem of most average working--or otherwise busy--joes and jills not being able to attend and vote at "general assembly." But at least they're trying, rather than opining in a bubble in the blogosphere, where few disagree, that the majority of "the American people" would go along with one's own ideology if not for the stranglehold of the propaganda those others supposedly have over them.

dagblog - Comments for "What Democracy Looks Like"

Yes, I like how OWS seeks a

Sanchez says: Spend a few