The Power of No Demands
Over and over again I hear people putting down the #occupywallstreet movement because of its lack of demands or lack of clarity about demands. Partially I see this as a problem with media coverage, but in a more important sense, I see this as a strength of the movement.
People asking it for clear, and usually “realistic”, demands are asking the movement to compromise itself when it’s barely begun. We don’t need clarity and realism, we need outrage and passion.
The system is broken. The game is rigged. We need sweeping and fundamental changes to how it all works.
And it will take time to figure out what those changes will be and how to do them. There is no point in making safe and small demands and attacking mere branches of injustice, we’re going to have to go for the roots.
The system, as it were, works through demands. To help break that system, a lack of clarity on purpose (in terms that it, the system, understands) works in its favour. The downside of that tends to be when a system breaks it can break like an exploding pocket watch…