In the last couple of weeks the Occupy Wallstreet movement has gained much more press and the campaign has been joined by several protestors from many cities in the USA and around the world. Tumblrs such as “We are the 99%” had been created and have many inspiring protests. I believe in their concerns and that they are tired of current situation of the system we’re living in, which has lead to an economic downturn of huge proportions. In fact, probably all the economic growth that brought that wellfare in the first place has been made out by a “fake value” economy that has brought by this consequences upon us. And my concerns start to raise right there. It seems to me that people protesting at the Occupy Wallstreet movilizations are fighting to maintain the status quo, or to go back to the state of affairs that caused the status quo, and that is a very dangerous thing to do for all of humanity.
The emergence of the Information Age has changed how social systems are organized. We can talk about the world systems theory, or about the network society as proposed by Castells. Actions done at Wallstreet can affect all the world’s economies, labor markets, standards of living, and any other system in general. According to Castells (and to any educated analysis of the news of the last couple of decades) the powerful, first-world, developed states have been making decisions that affect the whole world considering only on the consequences for their nations and not of the consequences for other actors in the system. Nobody thinks about what would happen to Latin America is the USA raises traiffs to create “American Jobs” or if they subsidize farmers from the midland states. All of those actions will have consequences for people outside of the US and while the economy will be better for a couple of years, the position of the US in the world will generate a huge chaos and more insecurity. The fact that these decisions impact other countries generates animosity of those nation-states against the developed world, which are probably the cause of many world tentions around the world. The probelm that surfaces from these points is that the actions asked for by the Occupy Wallstreet movement will probably have a positive short-term effect in the United States, but will (without the shadow of a doubt) bring terrible consequences if other actors in the networked society are not taken into consideration in the decision making process. To achieve this, people will need to start thinking globally. The idea of a global village regains validity once again, and not because globalisation has produced a unified culture or system, but because all the systems have become interrelated due to globalisation.
As I read the demands of the 99% I can’t help, but to feel concerned about what people are asking for. I see a myriad of posts and all ask for higher paying jobs so people can pay back their credits, the return of the wellfare state and the creation of labor regulations. All of these demands may seem to have a direct causality with the economic well-being of the population, but in reality are the causes of the current downturn of the system. What needs to be done is a totally different thing. I remember arguing about this with Liz Pullen on twitter and she made a very good point which i will paraphrase as I can’t seem to find the tweet. Liz said that people making the revolutions rarely know what they want, they just protest to show a discomfort. Nevertheless, the problem is that authorities will listen to the claims of the people and will probably aim to give them what they are asking for, changing direction towards the new crisis and the further destruction of the economic system as whe know it. This will be natural evolution, but the problem is that this natural evolution will bring pain, suffering and death to many people before the system is corrected, if it ever is. We can do better and we need to do better.
I propose that the revolution needs to be one that upgrades our social systems and not one of returning to the good times of the past. One of evolving our current systems of values and socialisation towards the future. We need to start hacking our systems and valuing other things beyond money and our individuality. Many theorists, such as Ulrich Beck, argue that individualism is the sole cause of the current crises we’re living in. I think that the lack of concioussness of the people we affect with our decisions is one the main causes of the huge damage the system has made towards the lower end of the class system.
A new set of values needs to be set, the re-emergence of social capital as the key value of society should be a key component of the revolution. This will lead to the relegation of economic power to a second place and will end with the corruption lead by high paying corporations. A revolution of going back to the old systems will only make the “one percent” more powerful and will maintain the status quo for a couple of years, befeore we face the next world crisis.
We have the choice to change or to repeat the cycle. What will it be?
