What do the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street have in common? Both involve people.
I was under the impression the Tea Party was a grassroots movement that was co-opted by corporate interests. Turns out the Tea Party is an exercise in American propaganda, as it was called before Edward Bernays, a man who argued manipulation of public opinion was a necessary component of democracy, convinced the US establishment to call it public relations.
The Tea Party has huge corporate sponsors, paid organizers, and a clear list of demands pretty much from its birth. Somehow people find it easy to believe that this is a recipe for honest American grassroots political action serving the interest of the average hard working American before corporations.
Occupy Wall street is a real grassroots movement. And how do you know that Amanda?
Because it was disorganized and chaotic. Repeatedly, I heard the criticism that OWS’ers have no list of demands. Repeatedly, I asked, “Have you ever participated in a direct democracy whose members change daily? Me neither, but something tells me you can't easily cook the voting books."
The Occupiers may have been evicted and to many it looks and feels like a failure. For some strange reason, or specifically, early christian indoctrination, the Parable of the Sower comes to mind and this video is an amazing.
Movements can have tons of momentum but die out immediately, they can be co-opted and splintered and the cause suffers, or if the conditions are right the movement can produce effective change over time.
Now, I’m no scientist but, I’m pretty sure AstroTurf will never go to seed.
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