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Hi y’all. Been editing MyFDL again today. I hope you’ve enjoyed my selections. I really enjoyed chatting with you in yesterday’s watercooler thread, so please jump in here too.
Tonight in Austin I’m hosting the first Occupy Austin Conscious Relationships Discussion. One thing I’ve noticed in both my time as an activist and in my explorations of various countercultures is that once you start to question one thing — like corporate control over money — it becomes easier to question other things (such as corporate media’s influence over our life choices). Since the topic keeps coming up when Occupy gathers after meetings or actions in our favorite watering holes, I decided to turn it into a formal discussion group.
The current Newsweek cover story is controversial for many reasons, but in part because it ignores the element of choice. Women who engage in non-normative sexual relationships have made a choice to seek out the specific kind of intimate fulfillment they crave, regardless of society’s perceptions of it — a radical, feminist choice in many cases, whatever it might look like to mainstream media.
Choosing to take active control of our lives, or our politics, is scary because it always results in changes. The almost six months I’ve been part of Occupy Austin have changed my life more than almost anything I’ve experienced. It’s been exhilirating, exhausting, and transforming.
Leonard Cohen is included here because, well, he’s Leonard Cohen. Let’s chat about choices you’ve made, politics, social media (my pet topic), or whatever is on your mind.
7 Comments
Boy, what a nice way to wind down an occupied crazed faze – around the water cooler, and with Leonard Cohen. By crazed faze I mean those times in Occupy, which by now seems like a wave pattern, of intense participation in some task or furtherance of Occupy or of your new occupied self. Immersion, I guess. Then you realize no one has done the dishes or taken out the garbage, though the dog’s gotten thrown out the door a few times.
Just finished such a state; an everything starting to click, stuff coming at you from many directions trek to M1GS. Got done tonight with a big task, and taking a deep breath before the final buildup.
Nothing to contribute at the moment, but enjoyed reading. The awakening that is Occupy has indeed changed lives and opened our mouths.
Are you expecting a big Mayday crowd?
Twelve
The five colors blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavors dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.
Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this. – Tao Te Ching
Even when we do no make a choice, we are choosing. For we have chosen no to choose. There for the choice is made for us.
Hey Jackie. You’re absolutely right about the waves. Occupy Austin’s last major wave was in March when we did an incredibly heavy week of teach ins, direct action and marches around South By SouthWest in all its forms. Hard work done by all our core members. In some ways I feel like I’ve been riding that crazy wave since I started & only just getting my head above water again.
Now we’re starting to build again toward May Day. We’re building a coalition of allied organizations including unions & other activists which is growing on a daily basis. At the same time, we’re not getting the word out outside the community as well as I’d like yet. But also, we’re seeing non-Occupy spontaneous action pop up all over; a group of MoveOn related protesters successfully shut down a bank for a few hours on Tax Day and faced threats of arrest, and 19 were arrested at the Occupy UT action today.
In other wordsm I would not even begin to predict our numbers, which could be huge or could not, but we have a full day planned going from a Bank Action anti-foreclosure rally at 9am all the way through to an evening march & rally & possible late night tent action. It’s going to be exciting, and I think we’ll make some waves no matter how our numbers look in the end.
Absolutely right. By choosing to live in a way that makes us miserable, or choosing to keep our mouths shut, we are still choosing.
“The world is a dangerous place,not because of those who do evil , but because of those who look on and do nothing” Albert Einstein Occupy New Haven occupys the lower green for a GA after the camp was torn down ! And I make a promise to do something!!
You can’t evict an idea whose time has come, richard! Keep it up, we’re building the framework for a better world. Let me know how Occupy Austin’s occupiers can support New Haven post-eviction.
Kit, I like your style. MyFDL needs you. I hope you stick around.