Here's the thing: people are like cats.
I suspect that's why people hate them so much. People that tend not
to like cats say it's because they're dog people (I always imagine
McGruff The Crime Dog and some Planet of the Apes scenario.) Some
people think cats are just too sneaky. Some think cats are to
feminine and flighty – including some newly minted feminists who
haven't read or thought about what feminism actually is. But As
critters go, human beings are incredibly predictable in at least one
way: we tend to like things that mirror the attitudes and attributes
we'd rather have, instead of those we actually have. And because
there is no yin without a yang, no Starsky without a Hutch, no Cagney
without a Lacy, it is also true that if we like the people and places
and things that represent what we aspire to, then we hate the people
and places and things that remind of who (and what) we really are.
Which is why most people don't like cats. They're too much like we are.
Now, don't get me wrong. We should
always aspire to be more, to be better. Of course, we're short of
heroic icons in these modern times. Two of my heroes, Utah
Phillips and J.L.
“Red” Rountree – are both dead and have been for some time.
I was introduced to the stories and songs of Utah Phillips in my
early 20's, and it was through him that I began to learn about the
long memory he sang and talked about – the memory of workers,
organizers, unions, anarchists, pacifists, agents of change... and
those those who believed in and harnessed the positive power of
chaos... such as Albert Parsons, Big Bill Heywood, Joe Hill, and
Ammon Hennacy. I chose as my heroes those who embody those ideals I
believe are important and that I hope to better exemplify and live by
in my own life. Red Rountree was maybe the last of the philosophical
bank robbers. He didn't hurt people, and believed in having fun. He
also had a deep grudge against banks.
But it's difficult to get around that
fact that most people are like cats. Cats are moody, territorial, and
dislike having their routine interrupted. I have two cats, and if
their daily ritual is maligned in anyway, they simply don't know what
to do. And people are the same way. We like our rituals, our
patterns, our hegemonic convergence that defines each and every day
of our lives. We like it so much that even if we become unhappy, we
live with it.
And if we're forced to face the idea
that something has to change, we look for a way to change as little
as possible, lest we upset our all so sacred routine.
Which is, of course, the problem people
have with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. At it's core, it
represents the idea that something has be done to change the
inequities that most of us life under. This means not just adding new
rules. It may mean throwing the old rules out and starting from
scratch. Because the problem
isn't just that the rules aren't fair. The problem is that in America, the
Golden Rule – “He who has the Gold makes the Rules” is the only
rule that matters. It is upon that rule that Capitalism is built, and
it is for that very reason that Capitalism is a wholesale failure as
a social, political, and economic model. We have lived under it so
long that people have forgotten that Democracy – the idea that all
people are equal and deserve and equal voice – has been consumed by
Plutarchy and Capitalism.
Keep in mind, not all #occupywallst
folks are anti-capitalists. But they do recognize that something's
fucked up. And they're willing to do something about it. It's not a
revolution, that's true. But maybe... just maybe... it is a kind of
evolution.