From my fat and lazy perspective I don’t have much standing to grouse about the tactics of the Occupy movement. Whether they’ve clearly articulated their goals, or whether I would agree with them all if they did, or whether I find the drumming annoying, at least these people are trying to do something active about the state of the nation. All I do is get depressed.
Still, even if I envy the movement’s pluck, I don’t love the creation of spectacles aimed at media consumption. For decades this has been the Left’s tactic of choice. The realists have believed it’s the most direct way to exert pressure on those who control the levers of power (the media itself, politicians, and perhaps even big business). The unrealists have believed it could supply the spark to mobilize the masses (now quantified as the 99 percent) into that endlessly overdue uprising.
I think there’s actually some validity in both perspectives. Big demonstrations do tip the political zeitgeist a bit toward the left. And publicity can spread some of the contagion of dissent. But playing to the media is a horribly inefficient strategy, creating, with rare exceptions, way more heat than light — and most often just plain disappointing.
If only progressives could take a lesson from their political opposites. The far Right figured out 40 years ago that the most effective political organizing involves focusing on the prosaic mechanics of victory, struggling not to influence power but to seize it — the Tea Party being the most recent example. Sure, their activities generated publicity, but the real point was getting control of key races, not getting exposure in the press. Of course, the right wing’s advantages include generous funding, vast religious networks, the sympathy of the already powerful, and the ability to dispense in good conscience with democratic process. Those are indeed formidable, but that doesn’t mean the only choice left for the Left is to panhandle attention from journalists by way of media stunts.
I’ll acknowledge again that I’m in no moral position to pass judgment, however, and I never was. After all, my cynical reaction last month when I heard protesters chant “the people united will never be defeated” was the same as when I first encountered it at demonstrations when I was 20: wishful thinking.