This is a quick poem inspired by my interactions with the Occupy Wall St movement (an interesting conversation I had yesterday inspired me to finish it). For the most part they seem like good, well-intentioned, mostly liberal people who, when confronted by the current situation are afraid of what it might say about the politics that they've been pursuing for so long. Rather than admit the obvious (the corruption of government as an institution, the need for a decentralized society built on organic community, the fatal contradiction of the leftist worldview that believes one can have personal liberty while the government delivers you your prosperity on a platter), they stand paralyzed in the face of reality saying things like "no one knows what will happen next", "no one knows what to do about this problem" etc.
I hope all my OWS brothers and sisters who read this realize (and here, I speak from my deepest of personal experiences) that the first part of accepting reality and your place in it is admitting you are wrong. I have been through this process. It was hard living in an ideological limbo where I paid attention to so many things I was unable to form an opinion on, but admitting that my previous conceptions (I was, you could say, a generic statist) that set my course of action were wrong started me on the woodland path that I am still walking today. Your former self will fall to ashes but you will rise a phoenix from the fires of change.
Negative
Solidarity Movement
The
crowd
Of
decaying walls
Whose
roof that united them
In
common interest,
Belief,
Prosperity,
Has
collapsed into the ground
Leaving
them stranded:
Searching
for someone to blame
As
they crumble in the rain.
Out
of isolation come the walls
To
stand in city streets
Chanting
slogans,
Holding
placards,
Walking
alone
Though
with each other.
Between
them
All
bonds lie broken:
Each
one stands
In
contradiction with the crowd,
But
walks with it
In
self-righteous anger
That
divides them even as it unites.
This
movement stands afraid
To
question
To
answer
To
find
An
answer to their anger
For
fear of what it might unbind…
