Photo: Stacy Lanyon
Occupy Wall Street felt like the thing that I had been waiting for since I was fourteen-years-old. I grew up interested in Emma Goldman and interested in philosophy and sort of considered myself an anarchist even though I didn’t know how to do anything about it at the time. I even moved to New York with some romantic ideas about anarchist culture and punk culture, and idolized The Living Theatre. I've been living in New York for forever, and just slowly over time (when you don't find lots of other people thinking that way) you start to think, “I’m a grown up now, and that’s never going to happen.” I remember walking onto my first general assembly, the Tuesday after the Occupation started. I just road my bike down to the park to see what was going on. Listening to the call and response process of the assembly and listening to what was being said I could feel my heart flutter, and my eyes fill with tears. I think what was being said right when I walked into the park was, “Get to know your neighbors and support each other and help each other out.” I was just so uplifted to see community coming together in a city like New York where I had almost given up on the concept of community (except for my yoga community at Jivamukti, which is very important to me). We live in a city where the average person doesn't know their neighbors or the other people that live in their building or the other people that live on their block, much less do they ask for help or interact with their neighbors on a community level. That really struck me. I just remember standing there and taking it in and being like, “This is finally it. This is what I've been wanting my whole life.”
I think everybody felt disheartened and powerless and hopeless. It was a really vital moment. Whatever "it" is, Occupy Wall Street captured the zeitgeist of the moment. It captured what everyone was feeling. Everyone was despairing because of the financial crisis, because of the environmental crisis, the income equality and all of these issues. I feel like there was so much despair going on, and people had no outlet. The moment Occupy happened, I feel like it just captured what everybody had wanted to say and are now supported in saying it. Current culture tells us that our actions don't matter, and that the most we can do to change things is vote once in awhile. Occupy sparked people's imagination that action is potentially meaningful and powerful. I hope people continue to feel empowered and inspired, in whatever form that takes.
It’s important because it’s making the invisible visible. Where power structures and inequality and the influence of money in politics and the destruction of the environment, which is all related, where that was previously just sort of going unchecked, this is bringing it into the public conversation. Even shortly before Occupy Wall Street happened, I was doing a little bit of organizing around Citizens United and stuff like that. You couldn’t even just talk to people about those issues. People didn’t have a baseline for talking about those issues. Now, I hear people walking down the street talking about it. I think it really brought it into daily conversation. I think it was also important because I think it empowered a tremendous number of people to take action in their lives to overcome obstacles that are meaningful to their communities and to their lives.
Because the main focus of our culture has been individual acquisition, material acquisition and professional acquisition and social acquisition, it’s a radically individualistic society. We’ve lost out connection to each other and to nature. I think that this movement in particular has presented the idea that what’s important is our connection with each other and our connection to our communities and our connection to our public spaces, which don’t seem to exist anymore as public spaces. The extension of that is not just the commons as public parks but the commons as water and soil. We are supposed to share the resources of this planet with each other instead of just certain companies taking everything and using it to oppress other communities.
There’s an ancient Sanskrit mantra that I’ve dedicated my life to, and that mantra is, “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu.” In english it means, “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts words and actions of my life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all.” That pretty much sums it up. Everything that I do, teach, share, express, think is dedicated toward a world where all beings including animals can be happy and free. (including the animals.)
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/
I think everybody felt disheartened and powerless and hopeless. It was a really vital moment. Whatever "it" is, Occupy Wall Street captured the zeitgeist of the moment. It captured what everyone was feeling. Everyone was despairing because of the financial crisis, because of the environmental crisis, the income equality and all of these issues. I feel like there was so much despair going on, and people had no outlet. The moment Occupy happened, I feel like it just captured what everybody had wanted to say and are now supported in saying it. Current culture tells us that our actions don't matter, and that the most we can do to change things is vote once in awhile. Occupy sparked people's imagination that action is potentially meaningful and powerful. I hope people continue to feel empowered and inspired, in whatever form that takes.
It’s important because it’s making the invisible visible. Where power structures and inequality and the influence of money in politics and the destruction of the environment, which is all related, where that was previously just sort of going unchecked, this is bringing it into the public conversation. Even shortly before Occupy Wall Street happened, I was doing a little bit of organizing around Citizens United and stuff like that. You couldn’t even just talk to people about those issues. People didn’t have a baseline for talking about those issues. Now, I hear people walking down the street talking about it. I think it really brought it into daily conversation. I think it was also important because I think it empowered a tremendous number of people to take action in their lives to overcome obstacles that are meaningful to their communities and to their lives.
Because the main focus of our culture has been individual acquisition, material acquisition and professional acquisition and social acquisition, it’s a radically individualistic society. We’ve lost out connection to each other and to nature. I think that this movement in particular has presented the idea that what’s important is our connection with each other and our connection to our communities and our connection to our public spaces, which don’t seem to exist anymore as public spaces. The extension of that is not just the commons as public parks but the commons as water and soil. We are supposed to share the resources of this planet with each other instead of just certain companies taking everything and using it to oppress other communities.
There’s an ancient Sanskrit mantra that I’ve dedicated my life to, and that mantra is, “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu.” In english it means, “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts words and actions of my life contribute in some way to that happiness and freedom for all.” That pretty much sums it up. Everything that I do, teach, share, express, think is dedicated toward a world where all beings including animals can be happy and free. (including the animals.)
Interview by Stacy Lanyon
http://buildingcompassionthroughaction.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/stacylanyon
https://instagram.com/stacylanyon/
https://twitter.com/StacyLanyon
http://stacylanyon.com/