Tikkun Daily Blog Archive (https://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/category/culture/page/109/)
Posts about culture, the arts, the media, book reviews, movies etc.
The police cleared Zuccotti park last night. They came suddenly and used force, displaying the pathetic nature of police action when it confronts the human spirit. But the movement will continue: it will use humor and deftness, ducking the police as it goes on.
I have led mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations at Occupy Boston. Meditation is, of course, valuable as a refuge from stress. Participating in an occupation, which may involve living outdoors under threat of possible arrest and police brutality, can certainly be stressful (I myself am only a day visitor to the Occupy Boston encampment). But I believe mindfulness can actually address the core problem that the Occupy movement confronts, i.e. the greed of the wealthiest 1 percent. The thesis of my eBook, Occupy the Moment, is that greed is literally an addiction, a distortion of the brain systems that govern habits and rewards.
Sometimes even an atheist needs a community soup kitchen. This winter, I will probably need one, and so will many many of my fellow Americans. This winter, when the thin veil of November leaves has finally come down in Chicago, the sand is banked on the beaches against the lake shore wind and the dark comes early, I will be happy for a bowl of soup and a place to eat it where I feel welcome. Like so many this year, for me the recession is grinding down hard, and the things that held me together are beginning to fray, just a little and at the edges, but still, the possibility of coming unraveled hangs over all endeavors while the nights get colder. Like the people occupying parks the whole country over, I am running out of faith in governments and institutions to provide a little grace and shelter while we all wait out the economic troubles we’ve got to endure.
The videos of police violence that have gone viral on the internet show only half the story. The other half took place at a general assembly later that night, when hundreds of students, community members, and professors voted to call for “a strike and day of action on Tuesday, November 15, in all sectors of higher education.”
The starting point for the conflict was material, the land both groups wanted as living place. But in addition to living place, for both groups the same land had special meaning. For Jews, it was the land they prayed to return to for two thousand years, and also the land on which they believed they could avoid the persecution they have suffered for many centuries, culminating in the Holocaust, the murder of about 6 million Jews in Nazi Europe. For Palestinians it was the land on which they have lived for a long time, on which they suffered repressive rule by various countries – Turkey, England, then Israel– the land that has been their home. The same land is not only needed as living place but is central to the identity of both groups.
The new TLC series “All-American Muslim” hasn’t even aired yet, and it’s already come under fierce and prejudiced criticism.
Ever since the beginning of the Arab Spring, and especially since the early days of the Occupy movement in the US, I have been following the wave of unrest that’s been sweeping the globe with great interest. I have visited the Oakland Occupation and participated in the general strike on Nov. 2nd. I have been writing about my amazement, my humility, and my concerns for some weeks. On the basis of all I have seen, heard, read, and felt, I continue to nurse some hope that this movement may be the beginning of transcending the legacy of separation and creating new social structures attentive to the needs of humans, other life forms, and the planet.
The November 2 General Strike in Oakland was already up and running when I ascended the stairs from BART at 8:30 a.m. The traffic through the intersection was as it is every Wednesday morning. The only difference was that there was a platform set up at the corner with music playing and a few people speaking into the microphone, trying to awaken the people in their tents, and gather a crowd from the people passing by.. A few people were dancing behind the platform and others were standing around – waiting for something to happen, or walking around passing out various newspapers and fliers. But, who are the people on the platform? Somehow they seem to be the ones in charge – the organizers, the ralliers – but really, who is in charge?
A fledgling protest of a few hundred Berkeley students draws more than 2,000 participants – thanks to shocking police brutality.
Among other things, I teach business ethics at the university level. I have also been a consultant to Wall Street firms for some 20 years, and have worked in various capacities on the Street since I graduated from high school, in 1979. I know a few things about what ought to be; I know a few things about what is. I visited the Wall Street protest site in New York City, at Zuccotti Park, on Saturday, October 1. Subsequently, I read Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column on the subject of the protests, known as “Occupy Wall Street” or, alternatively, the “99 Percenters” (the protests have in recent days and weeks spread across the country, taking on other names).