OCCUPY EVERYTHING!!! (What 99% versus 1% means to an old anarchist, part 1)

Since the first stirrings of the movement to Occupy Wall Street have been forming connections and making plans, I have been following from a peripheral position and supporting some longtime friends and activists in making connections and communicating so that I might do what I could for a direct action event that was going to envelope so many different perspectives and ideals into a common call for there to be a new type of accountability and standard that addressed the financial situation that had been effecting the livelihood of the world in a an immediate and apparent way that had never before been seen.

I watched, conversed in emails, learned more about modern economics and socio-economic trends and as plans became set and dates decided upon, I passed this information on as best as I could within the circles of internet connectivity that I had developed over the years. It was inspiring to see so many people come together in the same way I had been drawn into this event and to witness it begin to galvanize a disparate number of people from conflicting viewpoints and contrasting lifestyles and cultural trends file into this organically democratic template that has been developed every day since the OWS movement took control of Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011.

Now, I have led a life of less than admirable means, outside of mainstream culture and commerce for the most part. The result of that has rendered me somewhat vulnerable at this point to direct action protests like those I have participated in on past occasions that I found myself with like-minded people who wanted to express our indignation and revulsion of societal exclusion and institutional ignorance of our right to exist and flourish as people who did not want to become forced labor of a cultural soul removal machine that I perceived our society to be controlled and manipulated by. I had alienated many progressives and centrists alike by my attitude and behavior. I do not regret my adherence to my own version of personal moral integrity, but I have seen the results of 30 years of this posturing and I have re-examined my stance in order to move myself into a position of more equitable understanding and cooperation with other people whose values and pursuits may differ from my own, but at their core have the stake at holding so-called world leaders accountable for the direction that the world is headed even if it might too late to turn away from serious  consequences just so I could be the anarchist that "told you so" to the suit and tie crowd before we all go up in a horrific fireball or something equally as perverse as a final curtain call for humanity.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has brought me into a crossroads of sorts for my willingness to find a way to keep my integrity and integrate with a movement of people who seek a singular common voice on this vital issue that outwardly effects so many other issues in a great ripple effect that will soon hurtle the world into a place of dire circumstance that has already been part and parcel of impoverished people who have been stigmatized into 2nd and 3rd and 4th class citizen roles in this country and in other democratic countries abroad as well. These dire circumstances are increased under dictatorships and corrupt despots that are usually propped up by the proud democracies of the so-called "civilized world" that we live in here in an offshoot of an European colonial occupation turned "Independent Democratic Society".

As you can tell by my insinuation, I have not been aligned with bipartisan rule of law for some time. This does not mean that I do not feel that rule of law has no place in life, on the contrary, my primary purpose here is to see the principle of rule of law finally implemented in a fair and just way to bring about a standard of integrity to our economic policy in hopes to give real hope for change in what a democracy can be if people really put aside their differences and find a common goal to achieve and a common to find a solution for. That is why the leaderlessness and the anti-co-opting sentiment of this movement has been so crucial, so inspiring and, I personally believe, so empowering to so many. The fact that it has been replicated with such precision in other areas so quickly is the most positive commentary on what people using the internet for constructive communication can do, especially if it is kept free for all to access equally. It has been an uplifting experience to watch it grow, a staunch contrast to the summer of 1988, not too far from Zuccotti Park, where New York City police came in and beat poverty stricken homeless people in Tompkins Square Park with impunity and people uptown hardly batted an eye, let alone the rest of the country, or the world media for that matter. The dynamic thus far in the OWS movement has definitely grabbed a main stage in the public discourse like no other movement in recent memory. Which brings me to the debate that involves criticisms and attacks on the movement...