According to Thomas Hobbes, author of The Leviathan, people without an absolute ruler live in a state of brutal ruthlessness. Without the presence of an awe-inspiring police force, human beings will loot and pillage, indulging their most wicked fantasies because finally they can. Freed from the constraints of the political super ego, the lawless will immediately grow fangs and start to prey on the weak next door. In order to live in civilized society, says this Hobbesian myth, we need state violence to keep us in line.
That logic seemed to be getting the upper hand during the early days of Occupy Wall Street. The police used pepper spray and reporters used words like “drunken mob” to describe the protestors. Those of us watching from afar worried that the protestors’ legitimate complaints about financial corruption in the United States would be pushed to the side. Their demands that government work for the 99% would be lost when the first Starbucks had its window smashed. But rather than respond to the pepper spray with violence, the protestors chose a different option. Rather than turn Zuccotti Park into a battleground, they turned it into a city.
The rules are pretty simple: “Stay sober; respect people and property; keep the park clean.” Issued by the Community Affairs Committee, these rules remind people that discipline is an inside job. “We’re here to present ourselves as those who could be accountable and seen as people who can make this world better,” said Eve Silber, a jazz artist and music teacher, talking to a New York Times reporter.
In this new city, everyone has work to do. Students from Marlboro College who went down last week were quickly assimilated. Melinda worked the cell-phone charging station. Dan was asked to pay attention to Group 1’s progress as it walked down Wall Street. His friends, Drew and Austin, both students of political theory, knew they needed words that would increase the emerging political organism’s sense of itself. “Where’s the money? Where’s the food? Welcome to the multitude,” yelled Austin. The crowd yelled back his words verbatim. “Occupy Wall Street. Occupy everywhere,” yelled Drew. The crowd responded. “Occupy anytime. Occupy anywhere,” he called out again. The wave of chanting went down the length of Wall Street. It’s not everyday a young person is given such meaningful work.
In this new city, decisions are made by consensus, a laborious process that requires proposals to be stated in the simplest terms. “We need sleeping bags,” was the proposal floated last week. Using a technique known as the People’s Mic, “the speaker’s request is repeated by the crowd around them. “We need $2000 to buy sleeping bags,” was eventually approved, winning out over a competing proposal to buy fabric and cotton batting and make sleeping bags. As with the chanting in the street, the crowd voices what is put in front of it, considering the merit of the proposal as it enunciates its terms.
All this chanting of slogans and human amplification of democracy is building an extremely organized and surprisingly sober political community; organized and sober enough eventually to go on walkabout. A general assembly was called in Washington Square Park on Saturday afternoon and part of the crowd moved up Broadway, staying on the sidewalks and convincing the NYPD that the protestors, not the cops, would determine their route. “We, obviously, would like advance notice of what they are going to do,” said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly on Friday when he heard of their intention of using Washington Square Park. When asked at a City Council Meeting on Thursday night how long he thought the protests might last, he responded, “If people are going to be here for an extended period of time, we’re going to accommodate them as long as they do it peacefully and in accordance with the laws and regulations.”
Operating in accordance with laws and regulations has been a sticking point for other protest movements. The young and privileged often make a show of their youth and privilege, flaunting their ability to break laws and antagonize the police. While the new city in Zuccotti Park was organizing itself into different groups with meaningful work, a group of mostly young and mostly white women in Brooklyn was holding the annual “Slutwalk.” Many of them were shirtless. Many were holding signs, such as “This is what a feminist looks like.” They yelled at the police for telling women to change their attire when they should be stopping rapists. The organizers say they are bringing attention to “rape culture,” but it looked more like they were provoking the police to be more violent, to use more awe-inspiring force against accused rapists.
Sexual violence is an issue in Zuccotti Park as well. Sexual predators are no doubt tempted by all those sleeping bags under the streetlights. But rather than call in the police, there is a group working on rape prevention and another group using restorative justice to address real and potential harm. As long as its members are respectful of themselves and others, they won’t need to bring in law enforcement.
At its heart, Occupy Wall Street is about restoring self-discipline to the business of politics. Be sober; respect people and property; keep the park clean – these are the basic tenants of a society where morality, not pepper spray, governs one’s actions. The rules are simple, simple enough for one thousand people to chant them in unison. Whether or not the people in Wall Street or in Washington hear them doesn’t really matter. If they can hear themselves, they will have succeeded. Like patience and virtue, moral occupation is its own reward.
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