Wait a minute – Occupying what?
The one complaint we hear repeatedly especially from ‘experts’ interviewed by the mass media, are that the occupy-movement doesn’t have any demands, or at least any demands that the current system can comprehend. I would normally not Concord with Slavoj Zizek, but he did make a really important point in a speech he gave to the Occupy-movement in New York at the 10Th of October this year. His point where that the occupy-movement could not formulate their grievances about the current system, in a way the same system would understand. As Zizek argues: their grievance is about the system itself, and should not be considered as a desire to just adjust a part of the system.
So I reality the reason that the occupy-movement will not lead to anything is caused by in the occupy-movement we have a group of people that tries to articulate their discontent with a system, in a language that is determent by the same system that they are discontent about. In the end, if the occupy-movement shall succeed and shape history as they so clearly desire they would have to do one of two things:
- Create a new language/system that will encompass their desires and shape the curse of human history to a new horizon.
- Agree to a lesser Utopian goal and identify a comment adjustment to the current system that will satisfy their immediate complaints.
But is the occupy-movement able to either? I would argue that since the occupy-movement as it is right now is a collection of different individuals is only connected by their discontent with the current situation they will no be able neither options. Therefor I believe that the occupy-movement will be remembered as a movement that complained a lot, but nobody really understood them.
