Where does Occupy go from here?

After spending another peaceful evening at Occupy Oakland, this time with my family, I couldn't help but think about where this is all going.  I know many people are asking how this relatively unformed movement can take the next step to becoming a slightly more organized and focused version of itself.  And I think the weather is about to force a change of strategy anyway.  Some hearty souls may indeed brave the long cold winter occupying public land, and more power to them.  But my sincere hope is that the occupy movement can hibernate in the winter, spending those months planning a real strategy for the spring.  So that when the weather once again turns warm and welcoming and the masses we need to take to the streets are once again willing to do that, we are ready.  And I hope that the work we are doing now, in these public squares, before it gets too cold, is sewing seeds in the fall that will bloom in the spring.

And this movement has already proved its usefulness in at least one major way.  A few shorts weeks ago the conversation in Washington D.C. and on most media outlets was focused on deficit reduction and how much of our countries safety net had to be cut to accomplish that.  And now, thanks to Occupy Wall St and all the Occupy sites, that conversation has flipped 180 degrees.  Now the narrative is focused on the economic imbalances of our current system and how to address the deficit through righting these inequalities.  It is essentially the same conversation but with an entirely different focus and we have no one but the Occupy movement to thank for that.

At the same time it is a fair critique to say that this movement would be a more effective change agent in the long run if it can find a more finely tuned focus.  My hope is that focus is at least partly about how to rebuild the regulatory infrastructure that was dismantled in the 1980's and had for many decades effectively kept the majority of the greedy and destructive impulses of the capitalistic system in check.

As a Unitarian Universalist minister, it is my role to remind people that they may love capitalism, but capitalism does not love you back.  Capitalism can serve us as a people well.  It clearly helps motivate and stimulate innovation to have an economic system that rewards the people who create that innovation and value.  But just as it is important to innovate, and to put a man on the moon, it is even more important to feed and take care of every man, woman and child on planet earth.  And although we have the resources to accomplish that, we do not have the same motivation because our economic model is disinterested in that outcome.

I am not proposing that we abandon capitalism.  But I am saying that since we have an economic model that is inherently disinterested in something as essential as our well-being, then we must enforce these morals through legislation and/or regulation.

I will end this post with a short video I shot last night at the General Assembly at Occupy Oakland, hope to see you all at a GA soon!