Occupy

I’ve been watching with hope, amazement and a measure of curiosity this thing called the Occupy movement. No one, it seems, really knows what is happening. As Dylan sang in, “The Times They Are A Changing,” “ the wheel is still in spin.” I don’t have the magic that might be required to capture the meaning of this timely movement, but I do have the desire, and the audacity, to give this moment words.

Occupy seems to be a new, refreshing phenomenon. The focus upon economic justice, the non-heirarchical way of operating, and the radically democratic impulse, all seems to give hope to those who would speak truth to power. I sense a social movement away from the rut of the past. I also am aware that what I see are just the outside manifestations of a movement, that Occupy has an inside dimension. It is this, the inner aspect of Occupy, which I want to explore.

I have heard, and seen, placards which say, “Occupy the Heart!,” or, “Occupy Your Self!,” and I wonder at these words, these sentiments. What could it be, that joins these ideas with a demand for economic and social justice? What is coming to the fore, in this time of instability, uncertainty and economic hardship? I sense that the 1%, that is suspected of having too much of everything, doesn’t have much heart, or self. What gives? What is really at play?

I can’t claim to know.  I can only ponder. Like everyone else, I add my voice to those calling for a new social compact, a new more humane arrangement, one that makes room for genuine caring. This caring, it seems to me, starts within, and that is why I’m paying so much attention to the inner landscape of the Occupy movement. You see, if I’m going to be associated with picketing, with any kind of movement, then I want it to promote actual change, and I live with the prejudice that real change occurs from the inside out.

What does it mean to occupy your self? What does it take to free your self, enough to be involved in freeing someone else? Speaking as a psychologist, this question is relevant to this moment, if there is going to be any kind of historical change. Speaking as an active observer of culture I’m looking for more depth rather than a quick fix. The refusal to bow to the media, and those others who pressure for a simple message, is reassuring.

 “Occupy Your Self,” that sounds right, but what does it mean?

I don’t know what it means to you, or anyone else, but to me, it means something about being comfortable in your own skin. There are a lot of dimensions to that comfort. There is the refusal to use another (in any capacity). There is the tendency to make others responsible for your well-being. And, on a more positive note, there is a capacity to responsibly place the self vulnerably in the hands of another.

Capitalism isn’t just exploitation of the masses. It is also capitalizing on our own internal resources (including development). I have found that the tendency to be outer-directed, and to use others (capitalize on them), is related to exploitation of the self, to an anti-democratic desire for power.

For me, “Occupy the Self” means placing an encampment within. It means staying put, not being run-off by the authorities, the beneficiaries of a self-imposed system that is corrupt. It is the effort to know fully, to get educated about, the tyranny perpetrated inside. It is having general assemblies and letting minority voices be heard. It means demonstrating, by drawing attention to, the practices that diminish humanity. Occupying the self seems like a prerequisite to true justice. Such a form of occupation seems like a rare, and welcome, form of activism.

The democratic impulse, it seems to me, is an expression of the self. We are only as free as “we the people” can tolerate. That means, like the oxygen mask that appears in a crisis on a plane, it has to be fixed on one’s self, before anyone else can be helped. Re-ordering economic reality means re-aligning our values, it means re-dreaming the American dream. I think this is a deeply personal process that really requires a re-defining of the self. For this to happen it would be helpful if we had a Self-September, or something, that was as news worthy as Black Friday.

Who is consuming everything? It’s too easy, although it’s mostly true, to say it is Americans. Really, it is everyone who participates in the wrong-headed idea that the source of freedom, fulfillment and salvation, is out there somewhere. Occupy means thinking locally, and in this case, so locally as to look and act within your own skin. Occupy, if that is true, represents something fundamentally radical, something so old that it has come around again,  “Know Thyself.” That is all, in the final analysis, that any of us truly does occupy.