- Is "Occupy Portland" a real social movement or just a group of law-breaking youth with nowhere else to go?
Your online commentary is due by ___________.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Occupy Portland: A Social Movement?
In our unit on Social Movements, we discussed the characteristics of social movements--groups of individuals and organizations that unify around a common purpose or goal. We considered the purpose, methods, context, actors and important causal factors of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. After reading about the Occupy Portland movement (link to OregonLive.com here), please respond in one paragraph to the following question:
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Hi Mr. Verbon! This is a test...
ReplyDeleteEven though we live in a democratic society, sometimes it's hard to make your voice heard. Sometimes I think you need to go beyond the law to get your point across, as long as you're not hurting anyone. So in that way, I think it is a real social movement. However, I know some of the people in the Occupy Portland movement were homeless and just doing drugs and stuff. In that way, it was no longer a social movement. I think it's cool, but my parents said it's just a bunch of lazy, good-for-nothin' hippies, so I'm not really sure what to think!
ReplyDelete-- Student Julia
Here's my problem. Occupy Portland feels so stagnant. I somehow feel that it might be more of a social movement or make a statement if they focused their efforts on a few marches, rallies, or demonstrations. Right now I worry that the people sleeping downtown are evading other problems. Like Julia said, there's been a lot of drug use, sanitary issues, and run ins with the police (who really are in the 99%). Seems like it's causing people to fight each other more than it is really coming up with any solutions to the problem. I'm glad people can come together to make themselves heard but I'm afraid that this movement has lost its momentum.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I've felt from the beginning that the message was unclear and that a protest is an ineffective way to generate change. The problem I see with the occupy portland movement is that they're trying really hard to get along with the police, even going out of their way to accommodate them. The reality is that an effective protest must, by necessity, have an adversarial and symbiotic relationship. Without confrontation the message can't go anywhere because no one will pay attention. As hard as it is for the anti police state protestors to accept, they need each other. Take today as an example, Channel 8 news has had uninterrupted coverage of the protest for over 24 hours now. Why? because there is a potential for violence. Why does it matter? because the potential for conflict has caused all of us to start discussing an otherwise forgotten message. In the end, if the occupy portlanders want to make a real difference, they have to take one for the team. It seems that the police and city officials have figured out a way to silence them through patience.
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