Photo: Stacy Lanyon
I was drawn by the fact that there was this energy of people
that were collecting that were upset about what was going on in society and
were willing to get together and talk about it. I went over at the end of
September just to see what it was all about. I heard about it on the news
online. I was in the mid-west touring for a work thing. I heard that people
were gathering, so I looked up the original call out and was following it. I
was like, “Okay, this is interesting. It’s been so long since people gathered,
especially in New York ." I decided that when I got back to New
York that I needed to check it out.
I think it’s important because, in the end, any sort of
reform or progress takes a lot of people working really hard together and
taking an active interest. It’s really important because the movement
has managed to allow people to express their own personal and individual needs
and interests, while bringing it together in a way that feeds into these larger
purposes, so there isn’t a sense of this great, horrible self-sacrifice. While
we have a group collective mind, it isn’t a hive mentality. There’s a lot of
promotion of self-care. I think that’s going toward something that’s truly
important where we can get broader, greater progress, while still paying
attention to our individual needs.
With Occupy, one of the best parts about it is that it’s a place where you feel very safe embracing multiple parts of your identity at once and talking about them. That’s why I think that within Occupy, you see people who you wouldn’t normally suppose would talk having really deep conversations about what they believe about society and politics and philosophy and these really important ideas because there is this comfort level of being accepted. You can have certain things about you that are more important to promote, but if you’re open-minded and welcoming, not only are you going to learn more, not only are you going to promote multiple issues, but you’re also going to make the space more safe and open for people who wouldn't normally think that they could identify with you, and this leaves space for them to come and support you in other parts of your communities that they don’t necessarily identify with because you already made them feel welcome. I think that’s really important. I think that’s one thing I've seen that is new and that Occupy has done.
I hope that it will bring about a world that is just more
fluid and horizontal. I think that having choice is the most important thing
that we can try to achieve. We need to feel free to make those choices, whether you want to go to school or not go to school,
whatever kind of job you want to have, if you want to be an artist or a
musician or if you want to be a doctor or have a small business. I think
anything is fine, but you need to have the freedom of that choice, and you also
need to feel like you’re in a place where you can actually do that. There’s a
sense, especially in the states, that you can do anything, but you almost have
to be punished for it. You have to go through this punishing hardness of like,
“Yeah, life is tough. Life is harsh. That’s what it is. Kill or be killed.” I
think that’s not necessarily true. I think that a lot can be accomplished
in a positive and healthy way. If we all have choices and enforce this
idea that we all are in a safe place where we can have choices, then we all
will slowly be able to accomplish more.
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/