"There's something happening here; what it is ain't exactly clear."
The Occupy movement has touched a deep chord in America, particularly among young people who sense that the doors of opportunity are closed to them and that capitalism has finally vanquished democracy. But that is only the most visible face of what is happening here, in Europe, in the Middle East, in Iran, in China and Burma and many other places.
Pundits and politicians all have very clear ideas about what is happening and they are all probably right; and all probably wrong, at least, in the sense that the blind men meeting the elephant are all right and all wrong. None of us can see the whole picture and we would be foolish to imagine that we can.
An understanding of the history of popular movements can give us some clues, but much of what is happening is unprecedented and, therefore, unpredictable. In particular, this movement has no defined leaders, no governing structure or ideology. Instead, it seems to be self-organizing, more like living organisms than machines. It belongs to no one and to everyone. It may be the world's first open-source social movement.
Many of us have a lot of certainty about where it is heading, but we are all almost certainly wrong. It may be Yeats' rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem or it may by Sophocles' moment when "hope and history rhyme". The unavoidable fact is that none of us really can know. We are in a time of such flux as we have never known in our history. All bets are off.
The science of complexity tells us that it is when systems are in such disequilibrium that new levels of organization that were not apparent or even possible before can emerge. It also tells us that at such times initial inputs can have disproportional impacts on the outcome. What this means to me is that our actions and our choices right now, both individually and collectively are vitally important. It also means that our collective dialogue is critical, since we probably have greater vision and more wisdom together than any of us does individually.
To continue the conversation that Occupy Sebastopol has initiated about economic injustice and the future or our country and community, the Leadership Institute For Ecology and the Economy and WaccoBB.net are hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, December 8 at the United Methodist Church from 7:00 to 9:00 PM.
I hope you will join us to share your own perspective on what is happening here.
Larry Robinson served 12 years on the Sebastopol City Council, including several terms as Mayor and a lover of poetry.