Walking On Water

Image of Mark Tansey, Myth of Depth, image from Adbusters Tactical Briefing #19

For months, tactical briefings from Adbusters have poured into my inbox. The advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine and foundation at the centre of the Occupy Wall Street movement has one aim: to address global social and economic inequalities and the undue influence of corporations. No small feat. 

Since September 17th they have staged an ongoing series of demonstrations, sparking a worldwide sit-in. New York is simply the epicentre of a world-wide movement. Here in Toronto, my adopted city, tents and voices have been raised in the same spirit. 

I am not a poster child for radical action. With a newborn at home, my life has not afforded me an opportunity to set up, or even visit, the St. James Park camp. So, why am I an Occupy insider?

Because I believe in jamming culture. Asking the hard questions: like, why does a corporation have the rights of a human individual? 

Because I believe in throwing a wrench in things, when those things are clearly not working. 

Poverty is systemic. The global economy is being held together with a twist tie. And we've all sat watching, idly by.  

Adbusters and the Occupy Wall Street have called us on our inaction. And it is making us uncomfortable.

Discomfort is something a Christian should be used to. It, along with unspeakable joy, are the marks of a Jesus follower. Christ is always calling us outwards. To embrace the poor. To submit to legitimate authorities and overturn the tables in the temple. 

The Occupy movement is important, not because it's reshaping the institutions that it must, but because they have seized the global conversation. They've put the 99% on the table. They've got us guessing at their next move. Could the 1% really step up to the plate and start shelling out to meet the needs of the world? Could this shift -- straight out of Acts -- really take place on a global scale?

Likely not. But it's what we're called to believe in, to live for. 

Hope. Love. Faith to believe we could all live as Acts 4 describes:

"Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need."

Should the tents come down? The movement itself is asking this very question.

From ADBUSTERS TACTICAL BRIEFING #18 - 

"Hey you creatives, artists, environmentalists, workers, moms, dads, students, malcontents, do-gooders and aspiring martyrs in the snow:

The last four months have been hard fought, inspiring and delightfully revolutionary. We brought tents, hunkered down, held our assemblies, and lobbed a meme-bomb that continues to explode the world's imagination. Many of us have never felt so alive. We have fertilized the future with our revolutionary spirit … and a thousand flowers will surely bloom in the coming Spring.

But as winter approaches an ominous mood could set in … hope thwarted is in danger of turning sour, patience exhausted becoming anger, militant nonviolence losing its allure. It isn't just the mainstream media that says things could get ugly. What shall we do to keep the magic alive?

Here are a couple of emerging ideas:

STRATEGY #1: We summon our strength, grit our teeth and hang in there through winter … heroically we sleep in the snow … we impress the world with our determination and guts … and when the cops come, we put our bodies on the line and resist them nonviolently with everything we've got.

STRATEGY #2: We declare "victory" and throw a party … a festival … a potlatch … a jubilee … a grand gesture to celebrate, commemorate, rejoice in how far we've come, the comrades we've made, the glorious days ahead. Imagine, on a Saturday yet to be announced, perhaps our movement's three month anniversary on December 17, in every #OCCUPY in the world, we reclaim the streets for a weekend of triumphant hilarity and joyous revelry.

We dance like we've never danced before and invite the world to join us.

Then we clean up, scale back and most of us go indoors while the die-hards hold the camps. We use the winter to brainstorm, network, build momentum so that we may emerge rejuvenated with fresh tactics, philosophies, and a myriad projects ready to rumble next Spring.

Whatever we do, let's keep our revolutionary spirit alive … let's never stop living without dead time."

 

I, for one, hope this worldwide flash mob will take their doc martens, their backpacks, their passion and their PhDs into the boardrooms, along the corridors, and around the tables that will shift this world one heart and one penny at a time.

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Christina Crook is a freelance writer in the Toronto area.