Review of Become a Change Agent: Drive the positive change you want for yourself and the world! Originally posted on Amazon.com on October 25
- by Occupy Texas
There are some very interesting positions posted here. Unfortunately, some are
posted without reason or explanation. For example, he stated that our founding
fathers believed, rightly, that democracy was undesirable. He offers no
justification or explanation. What is desirable? A Plutocracy? An oligarchy? Who
gets a voice? The rich? The college educated? Who decides who gets a voice, the
ones with the largest guns? One aspect of our lack of direct democracy(The
author errs in saying that direct democracy is undesirable, not in saying that
we lack it.)is the Electoral College, which resulted in a candidate who had
received fewer popular votes than his opponent being pronounced president by the
Supreme Court. Thanks to that lack of direct democracy, the whole world paid and
hundreds of thousands died. The people will make themselves heard, if not
through the democratic process, then some other way.
Which brings me to
the second disagreement I have with the author. He called the Occupy Movement
disorganized and without goals. Like above, the author was partially correct.
The Occupy Movement began as a reaction to what the people saw as grievous
wrongs and the uprisings in the Middle East and Madison Wisconsin. The resulting
anger caused Zucotti Park and the subsequent occupations of 1500 other towns and
cities. As the author said, there was no planning or organization before the
occupation, just a spontaneous expression of anger and passion.We went on that
way for over nine months, but during that time, Occupy Philadelphia was
organizing a national gathering in Philly, scheduled for Independence Day. At
that gathering, the Visioning Statement was drafted. This was a list of our
demands. The top ten demands, which are rank ordered, are (1)clean water, air
and food, (2) free education for all, (3) no war, (4)a sustainable human
society, (5) a culture of direct democracy, (6)free universal healthcare,
(7)local food production, community gardens and permaculture agriculture,
(8)economic equality, (9)localized economies and (10) a world where basic needs
are met.
