by Jacob Kearey-Moreland, special to The Packet
The Occupy Wall Street movement is a global grassroots, youth-led crusade toward participatory democracy. Hopefully, through mass non-violent participation, we will be able to revolutionize this outdated power-structure.
The website occupytogether.org, an unofficial hub of global occupations, recently listed 819 cities in which occupations were occurring or being planned. How can this movement have spread so quickly around the world, when most people still know little to nothing about it?
I have witnessed the movement spreading virally through existing social networks and online communities that have been ignored or misrepresented for years by mainstream corporate media. It has formed coalitions of thousands of like-minded groups and individuals. They are finally focusing their collective energy upon the root causes of their common struggles: institutionalized corporate corruption and greed over human co-operation and need.
It has literally and metaphorically tapped into the zeitgeist. Initially inspired by a series of online documentaries viewed by millions of people, the Zeitgeist Movement is one of the largest and well-organized online activist communities. As a global network, it has been instrumental behind the scenes, helping to spread and support the occupations.
The third film, which you can watch for free online, called Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, covers topics such as socialization, health, poverty and violence. It exposes systemic inequality, inefficiencies and corruption within our global monetary-market system. Our global economy is methodically bankrupting everything: people, families, households, banks (ironically) and countries. It is depleting all of our planetary resources, which unlike money, we need for survival.
Not only is our current system of production and exchange horribly inefficient in supporting the needs of humanity and life in general, but this system and paradigm is preventing us from realizing a society that far surpasses anything we can possibly imagine.
The Zeitgeist Movement promotes a non-violent transition to a resource based economy, one in which all of the world's resources are the common heritage of all the world's peoples. Production and exchange of life-supporting goods are managed with sustainability, equality, human health, love and life as the primary motivations.
With today's technology, it is possible to engineer an economy and society so productive and efficient that traditional notions of labour, markets and money would be rendered obsolete; this is the goal, seriously.
This movement is not about blaming individuals for our common problems, expecting others to change their values or lifestyles overnight. It is about being the change ourselves. It is about inspiring and empowering each other through education, resources and community, to make meaningful long-lasting change in our own lives and in the world around us. It is about finally coming together and talking about the real issues we face and how to work together for the betterment of society.
I, as well as millions of people, have been inspired by this movement, and other movements of people and ideas that are converging and gaining vitality every day as occupations grow.
My generation has grown up in online communities, collaborating and sharing with people all over the world in new and innovative ways. As such, we have fundamentally different values and beliefs than other generations and it's starting to show. For the first time on a global scale, communities born in virtual space are permanently occupying physical space; they are creating websites and real sites that anyone can visit and contribute, too.
Jacob Kearey-Moreland is a local resident and student at the University of Toronto studying philosophy and sociology. His founding and co-ordinating of Orillia Community Gardens demonstrates a sustainable alternative to current monetary-market economics. Contact him at jakop79@hotmail.com.
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