The Year The World Woke Up
source: theprovocation.net
This picture went viral as the Occupy Wall Street movement was just starting to gain momentum. For some, it might probably be the single most influential picture of 2011. While the images of worldwide protests show what happens when a wound is not tended, the image of champagne drinkers on Wall Street mocking the protests showed the true image of what the 99% are fighting. It was an ugly moment for the 1%, though it is by no means the only one that we carry of our current division in our world’s social perceptions. These perceptions are happening in every sector of our local and global economies, as well as throughout the world populace as shown in “Privately Bankers Dismiss OWS”, “We are the 53%” and “We are the 1% who stand with the 99%”. It’s impossible to make a clean split for a clear picture because of the inter-connectivity of society.
We all think that we understand how we got our perceptions, because after all, they are ours. But in many cases, we are looking at every situation through our own colored lenses that refuse to see anything outside of its spectrum. The spectrum covers history, personal experiences, education, and prejudices. We are what we learn, and if we aren’t actively learning throughout our lives, then our glasses’ tint will only become darker and obscure the outer reality. In every sector of our lives, whether it is government, business, financial, religious, or social, the individual views are so limited that no one seems to pay attention to the interconnection of them all anymore. Currently, we view wealth as the underlying foundation that lifts us all towards our dreams. But we don’t see that the ground made up of this wealth and its influences is not only uneven, but incredibly unstable and breaking up.
The headline news yells out blips about economic instability and political stagnation, but most of the stories that we read are skewed towards one belief or another. Very few journalists are up to the task to tie together the underlying causes, which have atrophied to virulent virus status. Typically, when we hear of a pandemic flu, our institutions work together to find Patient Zero in order to build the entire incubation cycle so that we can understand the full scale image. Once found, we can isolate the virus and administer a cure. So why didn’t we use the same tactics in our current global crisis? The answers become complex and accusatory because we are not looking at the big picture. Macro and micro are simply not large enough views to take on what is basically a global petri dish in which we all live.
The protests that are happening around the world are the results from this willful stubbornness by those who were charged to study and understand the connected influences that impact our societal systems. As diverse as the influences are, the arguments raised by the Occupy protestors are so diverse that we all have to step outside of our own little niche to see all of the ripple effects that our collective behavior has wrought on the entire globe. Looking at it from a per-country perspective will only bring in restrictions and prejudices that bias our actions and thoughts. So when each country does this, then it becomes impossible to administer the cure to save the body.
Many complain that these various people’s movements being seen around the world (read the latest on Guardian UK and NY Times) have no consensus in their message. Even the media has been frustrated that they can’t get a simple 30-second sound bite that encompasses the actions that they’re seeing. So, they do what we all do and use the superficial skin to describe the movement, which doesn’t take the inner workings into account. It may make it easier to understand actions that seem incomprehensible because they don’t fit into our own little world, but it doesn’t take the entire message into account. Time and time again, we have repeated these actions until something catastrophic had to happen to stop the disease from spreading. The French Revolution and every other people’s revolution throughout our history have shown us that we refuse to see the big picture until it’s too late because it’s beyond our personal scope.
We’re in the midst of a transformation that has everyone on edge. The world as we know it might be about to change, but that’s up to us as a collective. The people are speaking out simply because all of those institutions built for protection are now bent on destruction. We’ve had warnings for a long time, but many of our learned scholars went unheeded by those who make societal policy. Policy is not the cure-all for social growth when it becomes the carrier of the disease.
Soft Drink Summit (photo credit: Robert Stolarik / NY Times)
Some have finally woken up and are heeding the alarm that was being sounded by those who were warning us of impending doom. But in order to move forward, everyone needs to be awake and moving in the same direction. We now have to work together as a whole to do what we should have done: go to the source of the disease and administer the vaccine to ensure that it halts the progress that has made its way through the global body. The disease has mutated so a single injection won’t cure us. We will also need to change the way we live. It won’t be easy, but it has become critical for our future.
Here’s a larger snapshot of where we as a society are currently at (see right):
Well-meaning intent sometimes sheds the light on the tainted views we have:
Sometimes we have to be on the outside looking in to see the real problems:
And sometimes looking from the inside, our views are skewed by the glass:
But sometimes we simply forget that we are humans first when we do our jobs (video made by journalist Michael Tracey):
This is why the wave of voices emanating across the planet might be our first sign of hope that we can make change happen. Hear their words:
Because we can no longer tolerate this world where others’ actions and words affect us all in horrifying ways (video made by director Corey Ogilvie):
October 15 is the day that those listening rose up en mass and turned off the snooze button. But 2011 will be known as the year that we all finally woke up. What we do from here will show whether we actually see the world as it truly is right at this moment, and admit that change has to happen. This is the start of another revolutionary period in the history of mankind – hopefully. The stakes have never been higher than they are at this exact moment.
OWS? You mean OCCCPY.
Whatever everyone's individual beliefs, it is their right. Listening to another point of view is a sign of humanity and adulthood. If you don't agree, simply state it without resorting to labels and insults that stop communication. Nothing can be described accurately with only a few words. Nothing changes until respect is part of every conversation.
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