One of the interesting things at Times Square yesterday was witnessing the proliferation of photographers. Everything that happens is now recorded many times from many viewpoints, in movies and in stills. In some small way this is a step toward truth. We have unprecedented broadcast ability among the citizens, and can both subvert the destructive and explore our creative vision. There remains the real question of what future we want to create, and how we would run the planet with much more freedom to do so. The free exchange of ideas is how we get that going. These photos that follow are some of my recollections of 15 October as it happened before my eyes. The vibe was incredible. I mean friendly, open, compassionate. Welcome…
More photos below
Kristal: “.the NYPD gave the protestors a national advertising contract for their cause to shush the controversy over the pepper spray incident……”
You are repeating the same misunderstanding you had the first time you mentioned it. Eric said that by arresting 700 people, NYPD had “given” OWS free advertisement.
It Was A Figure of Speech
He didn’t mean that they were LITERALLY paid off with advertising.
Kristal
are you aware of how the “middle class” came into existence?
Beth, I’m so happy to hear this! Yes, it’s that “authentic community” bit that has been lacking in my experience, too.
As one representative of the Pluto in Scorpio generation, social gatherings in recent memory have felt so freaking isolating for me. Technology only reinforces predefined circles and any attempts to blend outside those boundaries are fleeting.
Throwing a birthday party even requires a full-on PR campaign, launched at least one month in advance, if you want people to show up. I’ve made great friends in New York City, but community? People are often too busy answering whatever ambitious calling brought them here to really create something together.
The energy of these protests truly feels different. Like we’re all re-channeling that ambition directly into community creation. I can’t know where all of this will lead. What I do know is this is the first time in my entire adult life where I’m confident my voice actually matters. I also know I’m not the only one embracing that emergence.
oh wow — you added a bunch more photos! the vertical one of the woman holding her camera above her head has an especially cool effect with the blurred people to the sides.
Kristal, especially when who is enslaved in old patterns and beliefs?
Part of coming out of those “old patterns and beliefs” is speaking in I statements.
Do you have some information about the size of the crowd that I am not privy to, and do you have some knowledge of who exactly was wearing the Guy Fawkes masks (which are a reference to the film V is for Vendetta, not specifically Anonymous).
Amazing how 2000 people (I would say that is generous and in a city of 20 million) was then estimated to be 10,000-20,000 people by another poster…….anyone who has been in a packed nightclub will know……500 people seems like a whole lot more than 500 people.
And there is Anonymous…….masks everywhere….how naive can we be when we blindly trsut a person’s word who will not even show us their face ……. we will leave that at religious conditioning I guess……..
And even though anyone who truly researched the details of the hundredth monkey study knows it is conjecture and for four years a potato washing monkey was on the other island……..is still means if believed, 1/10th of one percent…that is 7 million people and worldwide there is not even half a million…but when in the middle of a crowd, those pics can look impressive…….deceivingly so and used as propaganda as well.
As for no commercialization of this movement? People check your facts and stop blindly following like sheeple………..the NYPD gave the protestors a national advertising contract for their cause to shush the controversy over the pepper spray incident………right about the time JP Morgan donated so much money……….
Causes are amazing…….and easily manipulated……..
The victory last week? No victory at all…….all planned and executed perfectly…..ask for more than you know you will get, let them be outraged and start petitions, clean the park and then believe they have been victorious………brilliant!
The real waking up is obviously a ways away yet……especially when you are enslaved by old patterns and beliefs………
Until we own our power and stop giving it to others (those bad old wallstreeters still have your power if you are fighting them and staying distracted by your fight and false external sense of power) and start using that amazing energy towards creating something better………..humanity will have failed once more to pull themselves out of the mess they have “Collectively” created………..the wake up movement is another sleeping pill………….a good one though 🙂 If it wasn’t, so many would not be falling for it…….xoxoxoxox
“Honestly, I had more fun yesterday than I’ve had in this city in a long time.”
Sally I agree, The times square rally was my third occupy trip in the past few weeks and this has been more fun than I have had in the city in years. I spent the night in zuccotti park Thursday into Friday, and had the time of my life. The general vibe has been friendly with authentic community, something I feel the city seems to be lacking these days. I feel like something keeps stirring inside of me every time I participate and talk with so many different people. I feel like I am walking away learning and evolving, and standing a little taller too.
I was there too. I’ve been out of town. So, this was the first protest I attended.
good vibes all around from where I was marching and standing. I felt a lot of tension with the police when I first arrived in Times sq, but it seemed to dissipate quickly enough–at least near my barricades.
At one point chants of “give the cops a raise” and “you are one of us” broke out to make the blue shirts smile. It worked for the moment and we even got a double thumbs up (on the sly, of course) from one cop. That made my night.
Honestly, I had more fun yesterday than I’ve had in this city in a long time. If you haven’t come out yet, come to the next event. Think of it as a day to make new friends, sing, get some exercise and even play an instrument if you want. All for free! How perfect. Like GraffitiGrammarian said, you have plenty of time to leave before arrests start if the potential makes you nervous.
Nice pics!
And in Madrid….
http://youtu.be/mUJ7s59aLSo
I was there — sorry we did not get to chat, Eric & Beth — and what started as only a few hundred people around 4:30 grew to between 10,000 and 20,000 over the next two hours, all crammed between the police barricades that ran up 7th Ave. It was a potentially dangerous situation with the barricades, in that it was extremely difficult to move around, even along the edges, and if anyone has started to panic people could have been hurt.
What struck me was the juxtaposition of all the deeply-felt handmade signs and people-generated music and chanting with the flashy, manufactured advertisements that make Times Square what it is today. It was powerfully symbolic of the movement.
In fact, my favorite sign said, “The Movement Is the Message,” paraphrasing Marshall McLuhan, who I suspect would have approved.
I and a few other protestors chatted with two female cops, who were sincerely trying to understand what we were doing and hoped to accomplish. These cops saw chaos (where is your leader, they kept asking) and as champions of order, it unnerved them.
But there is a deep, subtle order that persists and generates beneath the surface of our apparent chaos and that is what I tried to get them to see. Even many of the protestors are still struggling to understand that this movement is bigger than any one person or party or agenda and that to limit the arc of energy to a list of demands at this point would be to deflate the whole thing. This is a transcendent arc; because we are in the middle of a shift, and we don’t yet have the concepts to capture, in practical terms, what needs to happen. If we try we will fall back into the grip of the established powers.
I had this silly blue and red plastic trumpet that I’d bought at the dollar store and a whistle (both made in China) and a Panasonic digital camera and an iPhone (hooked to Internet, Twitter, Facebook, SMS) as my tools (similar to many folks) and it occurred to me, this is the system saving itself. The system generated these instruments and put them in our hands and even as their creation and dissemination are symptomatic of problems (waste, consumerism, corporate greed), we the people use these tools to generate and surf the cutting edge. I mean we don’t sever ourselves from what has come before; we evolve, we transmute. This is important because it means that in this movement, no one and no thing gets left behind.
gorgeous shots, dear! times square is naturally photogenic at night, isn’t it?
portland was not able to have an #occupy event i monument square due to a breast cancer walk & event. i’ll have to check on what’s going on next here.
what we *did* have was an annual underground (literally and figuratively) fest of installation art, performance art, food and general outdoor goodness in an abandoned battery on one of the islands in the bay. i like to think our artsy-love vibe was working in tandem with all the #occupy events, adding a positive and creative flavor to the air.
You said a mouthful, be.
Power to the people.
Chiron represents the #occupy movement in that it raises awareness. In the U.S. Sibly birth chart Chiron at 20 Aries 08 is opposed by Juno at 20 Libra 28. Juno represents, in this case, the unequal partner and she is squared, along with Chiron, by Mercury (media) at 24 Cancer 12 rx. Yet the two opposers in this chart are supported by the Sibly Mars (assertion) at 21 Gemini 23 with a sextile to Chiron and a trine to Juno. It’s a movement whose time has come in this country, as it coincides with the Martin Luther King Jr. observations. The U.S. Sibly chart’s progressed Mars at 18+ Libra retrograde is opposite the progressed Chiron at 17+ Aries. The progressed Moon approaches the progressed Mars while at the same time it squares progressed retrograde Jupiter in Cancer. We are almost there.
The U.S. Solar Return (Sibly) chart and the Fall Equinox chart (9/23/11) had this in common; they both had a yod that consisted of a sextile between Pluto and Chiron which created a Finger of God, or Yod aspect, with Mercury (in the U.S. progressed chart) in Leo and (in the Equinox chart) Mars conjunct Moon in Leo. In the case of the U.S. the release point was Mercury and in the case of the global community it is Mars and Moon. In the sign of Leo, what better way to release the push of energy from Pluto and Chiron than with a big fat show called a demonstration?
MLK Jr. once said that demonstrations are to raise consciousness, and that, along with releasing pent-up energy, seems to be it’s sole purpose. It galvanizes people to take a stand. With Chiron in the sign of Pisces there are no boundries and all is equal and all is dissolving, and with Pluto in Capricorn, out-lived functioning of institutions morphs into a propellant that has blasted the Leo energy forward. In the U.S. it was started by Mercury and now that it has gone global, the energy of Mars (anger) and Moon (feeling) have carried the Leo fire around the world.
Today, Sunday, October 16, 2011, transiting Saturn is conjunct the U.S. Sibly chart’s very dissatisfied Juno and opposes the U.S. Chiron. Saturn can contain and it can also solidify. With the full-throttle emphasis on Libran balance and harmony (transiting Saturn & Sun & Juno), the support of similarly dis-enchanted and dis-enfranchised people around the world seem determined to unite for the purpose of making conscious the inequality they suffer. Never underestimate the power of a woman.
be
Great shots! I was there too, for an hour or so. When I saw NYPD block off 42nd St I knew it was going to ugly. They NEVER block 42nd, since it is a major bus route.
As you probably know Eric, the protesters tried to later take Washington Square Park, and they did not succeed. They were pushed out of the park at midnight by NYPD on horses. Cops started the operation as soon as the midnight curfew kicked in.
I did not go to WSP but rather watched the whole thing at home on Twitter and Livestream. It was very suspenseful, watching to see if the protesters would or could resist.
In truth, they did not have enough bodies, and they were tired and hungry after a very long day of demonstrations, and it was midnight.
But I fear they will never take a city park, because of the curfew laws.
Many people I speak to seem to think it will be a simple matter for protesters to take any city park, but I do not see how this could happen. Not unless they get 20,000 people to turn out for it, and even then it would be extremely ugly, because the cops would not hold back as they have at Zuccotti, which is privately owned, and not covered by any curfew laws.
We are going to need more help if this movement is going to grow! People have got to come to events to show support. If you do not want to get arrested then leave before the arrests start. There is always time to leave and you can see the cops making preparations beforehand, so you do not have to get arrested…
But the cops will change their strategy if they see 20,000 people instead of 2,000. They don’t ever want to lose publicly, so they won’t try something that is going to be too difficult.
Anyhow, here is a great video of Chris Hedges explaining what the protest is all about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAhHPIuTQ5k&feature=youtu.be