OCUPE A PIEDADE

Looking deeper into Occupy Wall Street     BY RAGHURAM RAJAN NOVEMBER 10, 2011   0   STORYPHOTOS ( 2 )     More Images »   Raghuram Rajan is professor of finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy. Photograph by: Photo: Courtesy Project Syndicate CHICAGO - It is amazing how the "one-per-cent" epithet, a reference to the top one per cent of earners, has caught on in the United States and elsewhere in the developed world. In the United States, this one per cent includes all those with a 2006 household income of at least $386,000. In the popular narrative, the one per cent is thickly populated with unscrupulous corporate titans, greedy bankers and insider-trading hedge-fund managers. Some suggest that the answer to all of America's current problems is to tax the one per cent and redistribute to everyone else. Of course, underlying this narrative is the view that this income is ill-gotten, made possible by George W. Bush-era tax cuts, the broken corporate governance system and the conflict-of-interest-ridden financial system. The one per cent are not people who have earned money the hard way, by making real things, so there is no harm in taking it away from them. Clearly this caricature is based on some truth. For instance, corporations, especially in the financial sector, reward too many executives richly despite mediocre performance. But apart from tarring too many with the same brush, there is something deeply troubling about this narrative's reductionism. It ignores, for example, the fact that many of the truly rich are entrepreneurs. It likewise ignores the fact that many of the wealthy are sports stars and entertainers, and that their ranks include professionals such as doctors, lawyers, consultants, and even some of our favourite progressive economists. In other words, the rich today are more likely to be working than idle. But what migh

Elinor Ostrom Outlines Best Strategies for Managing the Commons Nobel Prize winner headlines the Minneapolis Festival of the Commons, co-sponsored by On the Commons BY JAY WALLJASPERSHARE Print Elinor Ostrom details the importance of commons management at the Minneapolis Festival of the Commons, co-sponsored by On the Commons and Augsburg College (Credit: Augsburg College) Ostrom cited Jane Jacobs- who believed that local people usually know more about what's best for their communities than expertly-trained planners-as an influence on her work. A breakthrough for the commons came in 2009 when Elinor Ostrom won the Nobel Prize for Economics. The first woman awarded this honor, the Indiana University political scientist not only made history but also helped debunk widespread notions that the commons inevitably leads to tragedy. In 50 years of research from Nepal to Kenya to Switzerland to Los Angeles, she has shown that commonly held resources will not be destroyed by overuse if there is a system in place to manage how they are shared. How such systems work around the world was the topic of Ostrom's keynote address at Minneapolis' Festival of the Commons at Augsburg College Oct. 7-co-sponsored by On the Commons, Augsburg College's Sabo Center for Citizenship and Learning and The Center for Democracy and Citizenship. Ostrom explained there is no magic formula for commons management. "Government, private or community," she said, "work in some settings and fail in others." The most effective approach to protect commons is what she calls "polycentric systems," which operate "at multiple levels with autonomy at each level." The chief virtue and practical value of this structure is it helps establish rules that "tend to encourage the growth of trust and reciprocity" among people who use and care for a particular commons. This was the focus of her Nobel Lecture in Stockholm, which she opened by stressing a need for "developi

We Power From Zuccotti Park to Main Street, people's yearnings spark new possibilities for a shift from me to we BY JULIE RISTAU & ALEXA BRADLEYSHARE Print Occupy Wall Street and related actions across the country overturned the conventional wisdom that most Americans passively accept a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy. There's genuine surprise among journalists and other experts that thousands of people from all walks of life are camping out in the autumn chill to protest Wall Street greed. And there's shock that their actions are supported by a majority of Americans. A recent Time magazine poll found that 54 percent view the Occupy Wall Street protests favorably (23 percent do not). Compare that to the 27 percent in the same poll who view the Tea Party favorably. Until now, it's been easy to think that no cares what's happening because there were no protests in the streets. But the dynamics of social change are more complicated that that, as shown in this essay by On the Commons Co-director Julie Ristau and Program Director Alexa Bradley. Although written before the Wall Street occupation, it pinpoints the power of our yearnings to set the stage for future action. We live under the market paradigm today, they write, in which "people's social, political, and even personal consciousness is conditioned by their belief in the market as the only efficient system to organize society." That means it takes time for many people to respond to events like the economic crisis, and that when they do it comes out first as feelings, not as policy proposals. But three years after the crash, there's an upsurge in outrage about the richest one percent high-jacking the U.S. economy-and rising interest in the commons as a way to find our way of this mess. - Jay Walljasper Adapted from the On the Commons book All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons. Young and old together, we will not be moved. (Credit: By "David Shan

Live From Wall Street A dispatch from Zuccotti Park BY JAY WALLJASPERSHARE Print Willie Osterwell, a punk singer from Brooklyn, reported from the frontlines in Barcelona about the free-form protest camps erupting all over Spain this summer for the Shareable.net. Now with a similar action happening close to home, Osterwell offers a vivid portrait on Shareable what's happening with the Wall Street occupation. He was arrested Saturday on the Brooklyn Bridge, so look for his next report. (Credit: David Shankbone under a Creative Commons license from flickr.com) (Credit: David Shankbone under a Creative Commons license from flickr.com; hukdunshur under a Creative Commons license from flickr.com) A new day on Wall Street. With every day that we hold the square, we chip away at our fear, at our confusion, at our alienation. We improvise new ways of living, new relations, new forms of solidarity. Another general assembly is beginning here in Zuccotti Park, a small park at the corner of Broadway and Liberty in Manhattan's financial district, two blocks from the World Trade Center site, three blocks from Wall Street. Zucotti, renamed "Liberty Plaza" by its occupiers [which was actually its original name], has been held as a home base by protesters since September 17. This, in itself, is a kind of achievment. In the General Assemblies leading up to the first day of protest that culminated in the occupation, organizers hoped that the occupation would last days, weeks, perhaps even months, but no one could guarantee it would make it six hours. Yet hundreds are here, on day ten, holding another open discussion of tactics, infrastructure and politics. Even a week ago this wasn't a foregone conclusion. Inspired by the methods of Arab Spring, and the protest movements in Israel, Greece and Spain, protesters from New York City and the rest of the country (I spoke with one man who had come all the way from Alaska) have built an encampment of sorts-so far t

Occupy Main Street Frustration about Wall Street greed boils over in Middle America BY JAY WALLJASPERSHARE Print Stars mark the spot of Occupation actions on Sept. 28. Now more than 1500 U. Now more than 1500 Occupy Meetups exist. (Credit: By "David Shankbone":http://www.flickr.com/photos/shankbone/, a photographer offering many vivid images from Occupy Wall Street under Creative Commons licenses at flickr.com) The entire Occupy movement unfolding around the world offers an inkling of how commons-based activism could evolve. It's a chilly day, but the "Occupy" protesters in jackets and scarves are warmed by each show of support from passersby. They chant "This is What Democracy Looks Like" and "We Are the 99 Percent" to the accompaniment of plastic water bottles thumping on trash can lids. The crowd resembles a random sample of all ages and backgrounds, from an 87-year-old lawyer in a Detroit Tigers ballcap (they lost the pennant that evening in the play-offs) to a grade schooler holding up a sign, "What About My American Dream?" This democratic ruckus can be heard a block away, but politeness prevails. No one-not those who look "square", or those who look "scruffy", or the police cruising past-are viewed as the enemy. Everyone who believes in economic fair play, environmental protection and citizen power is welcomed as an ally. To me, this is what a commons movement looks like. Hand-lettered signs on thin poster board or cardboard ripped from the side of a box express people's frustrations and as well as their hopes-"The Revolution Will Not Be Privatized", "Everyone Does Better When Everyone Does Better", "I Can't Afford to Hire a Lobbyist", and "Main Street, Not Wall Street". Actually, this rally takes place on Main Street-in Traverse City, Michigan, a town of 14,500 in northern Michigan. Throughout the late afternoon between 25 and 75 people gather at various points, heralding the call to "O

How Youth Decides: Real Democracy and Youth Decision-Making at #OWS Occupy Wall Street

Occupy the Commons How the values of collaboration and sharing fuel the success of Occupy protests BY JAY WALLJASPERSHARE Print Image from Kevin Hansen's video "Real Democracy and Youth Decisionmaking at Occupy Wall Street" Rather than an isolated band of protesters, the Occupy encampments depend on the continuing support of the broader community to keep going. The #Occupy movements that spread across the nation this fall are taking citizen activism in a new direction-toward the commons. The protests create actual commons, shared public spaces that have become both a symbol and an example of the more cooperative, hopeful future that 99 percent of Americans want to see. That's why these action have been able to shift the political debate by galvanizing public support for a more equitable economy. And rather than an isolated band of protesters, the Occupy encampments depend on the continuing support of the broader community to keep going. And as filmmaker Kevin Hansen shows in this new video, occupiers are also experimenting with new forms of collaborative, commons-based, genuinely democratic decisionmaking based on mutual consensus and inclusiveness. And rather than an isolated band of protesters, the POSTED NOVEMBER 8, 2011

COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL INCONSCIENTE Y FILOSOFÍA: UNA NUEVA MANERA DE PENSAR LO POLÍTICO Intervención Jorge Alemán Muchísimas gracias. Agradezco al Colegio de España estar aquí y a Laura Suárez haberme invitado para poder compartir esta mesa con mi amigo José Luis Pardo y con Markos Zafiropoulos y con mi amigo y maestro Jacques-Alain Miller. Voy a exponer frente a ustedes de manera muy improvisada una serie de líneas que atraviesan un librito que escribí hace poco y que se llama Para una izquierda lacaniana …[1] (con puntos suspensivos). Vaya por delante que yo considero a los libros, como pasa con el arte contemporáneo actual, como cuestiones absolutamente efímeras, es decir, el libro se agota en el momento en que comienza su circulación y me interesa precisamente emplearlos como esto, como lo que voy a hacer aquí, para introducir un trabajo con ellos de transmisión. Foto intervenida de la serie "Paraísos Perdidos II" de Eduardo Medici Lo que voy a narrar frente a ustedes son los diversos problemas que surgieron en relación al título del libro. Siempre me ocurre que estoy, tal vez por una impronta personal mía, situado entre malos entendidos. Hace unos años atrás fue con el libro Lacan: Heidegger, y allí el malentendido consistió en pensar que pretendíamos vincular al psicoanálisis con la filosofía. Por el contrario, Lacan: Heidegger era una intervención de Lacan sobre el texto de Heidegger en función de ajustar el psicoanálisis al siglo XXI. Ahora con la izquierda lacaniana, surgieron otra clase de malos entendidos que intentaré transmitir porque de lo que se trata, con el malentendido es que sea fecundo en la orientación que intentamos avanzar. En primer lugar, les voy a hablar de las distintas formas de ataque que tuvo este texto, especialmente en los blogs. La primera de ella viene de los propios lacanianos, que me dicen que cómo va a haber izquierda lacaniana cuando es evidente la vocación escéptica de Lacan hacia todo

OQUIO INTERNACIONAL INCONSCIENTE Y FILOSOFÍA: UNA NUEVA MANERA DE PENSAR LO POLÍTICO Presentación Laura Suarez Buen día a todos y muchas gracias por haber venido. Para comenzar quiero agradecer al Colegio de España y al Director Javier de Lucas por su disposición y por haber tenido confianza en mí para la organización de este coloquio. Quiero también expresar un reconocimiento especial a Stephanie Migniot, responsable de las actividades culturales en esta casa y cuya ayuda y paciencia han sido determinantes para que todo esto haya sido posible. Y finalmente, agradecer a José Luis Pardo, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jorge Alemán y Markos Zafiropoulos por su participación y también, en lo que me concierne, por su gentileza y su paciencia con lo que se podría llamar mi lado fuertemente obstinado. Esta jornada fue concebida desde hace varios meses y responde al deseo de darle lugar a una discusión en torno de un tema que, por más que haya sido abordado desde hace más de un siglo, sigue siendo todavía una fuente de debate y de pensamiento. Foto intervenida de la serie "Paraísos Perdidos II" de Eduardo Medici Así, la aparición del inconsciente freudiano y su toma en consideración por la filosofía y el pensamiento político, ha supuesto una nueva manera de abordar, no solamente la pertenencia recíproca del sujeto individual y del sujeto colectivo (lo que ha dado lugar a diferentes interpretaciones sobre lo que Hannah Arendt llamaba el espacio que emerge entre los diversos), sino también el « pertenecerse » del sujeto a sí mismo tanto a nivel individual como social. Este abordaje, esta forma de pensar y de comprender de otra manera, ha pasado - y pasa - por una posición de acusación y de destrucción de las ilusiones y de los males de la humanidad en la que ya Freud mismo se ha situado, una posición a partir de la cual la legibilidad de las cosas del mundo puede ser efectuada a través de lo que no es completamente visible. La relación en

Acción que transcurre en una época donde se verifica la caída de los programas institucionales, aquellos que instauró la modernidad para tratar y educar a la población. Programas que se sostenían desde una autoridad universal que podía establecer un pacto simbólico que garantizara la socialización y la subjetivación de las personas.

DAILY KOS TAG Occupy Wall Street 7354 entries

HU OCT 20, 2011 AT 12:51 PM PDT Occupy with Facts byRodneyEFollow

Thomas Sowell Delivers Inconvenient Truths By Heather Wilhelm Economic Facts and Fallacies By Thomas Sowell Perseus Publishing, December 2007 -------------------------------------------- Want to be a real hit at a cocktail party? Try bringing up politics, preferably with someone who disagrees with you--and if they're an emotional sort, even better. Proceed to delve into controversial issues of the day (the politics of race and gender, for instance) and, as you do, back up each point with lucid economic facts. After thorough research and a calm, learned presentation, odds are that you'll make a real impact. An impact, that is, in the form of gigantic tufts of steam shooting out of your audience's ears. Thomas Sowell's new book, "Economic Facts and Fallacies," is much like that cocktail party guest: cool, logical, informative, insightful, and, for some sides of the political aisle, a major irritant to be blocked out of the mind. Indeed, Sowell is the first to admit that facts, though the subject of his book, aren't always enough when it comes to winning the debate. He quotes Henry Rosovsky, a Harvard economist: "Never underestimate the difficulty," the professor once said, "of changing false beliefs by facts." Sowell's book dismantles many of the pervasive fallacies running rampant in politics today, broken into categories of urban life, gender, academia, income, race, and the problems of the third world. Some of these fallacies stem from false assumptions; others from faulty economics; still others from dodgy definitions. "Undefined words have a special power in politics," Sowell writes, "particularly when they evoke some principle that engages people's emotions." He mentions "fair" as a prime example. In the charged political milleu of 2008, "change" is surely another. Sowell packs the book with salient facts--that less than 5% of all American land is developed, for instance, or that the percentage of American families with incomes over $75,000 has tripled ove

Commentary on the First Statement of the Occupy Wall Street Movement Wed, 10/05/2011 - 07:40 - lindorff by:  Dave Lindorff   This statement was released after a unanimous vote of Occupy Wall Street's general assembly:   As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. Wall Street and the corporatocracy are behind America's rampant militarism They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of th

 The use of new media, such as the Internet and texting (which, today are intersecting), to prompt social activism has become well-recognized. Castells (1997) has outlined the Zapatistas use of the Internet in the Chiapas case. "Smart mobs" (Rheingold 2002) have used cell-phone and laptop technology to engage in the first "netwars", such as the "Battle of Seattle" (Kahn and Kellner 2004) and, more recently, opposition to elections in Iran. In a general survey of the social implications ofthe Internet on social activism, DiMaggio et al (2001) created general five categories of Internet activism: inequality (digital divide), political, economic, and social capital, and issues of culturalparticipation and diversity. Putnam (2001) has discussed the importance of the Internet to a reestablishment of the flow of social capital in the U.S., and the latest focus on virtual worlds by Malaby (2009) shows how social and cultural capital are central to the construction of horizontallystructured virtual spaces within which we organize onlin

The "Anthropology" of Science The focus of our study is the routine work carried out in one particular laboratory. The majority of the material which informs our discussion was gathered from in situ monitoring of scientists' activity in one setting. Our contention is that many aspects of science described by sociologists depend on the routinely occurring minutiae of scientific activity. Historic events, breakthroughs and competition are examples of phenomena which occur over and above a continual stream of ongoing scientific activities. In Edge's (1976) terms, our most general objective is to shed light on the nature of "the soft underbelly of science": we therefore focus on the work done by a scientist located firmly at his laboratory bench. In line with this perspective, a project took shape which we called, for want of a better term, an anthropology of science. We use this description to draw attention to several distinctive features of our approach.1 Firstly, the term anthropology is intended to denote the preliminary presentation of accumulated empirical material. Without claiming to have given an exhaustive description of the activities of all like-minded practioners, we aim to provide a monograph of ethnographic investigation of one specific group of scientists. We envisaged a research procedure analogous with that of an intrepid explorer of the Ivory Coast, who, having studied the belief system or material production of "savage minds" by living with tribesmen, sharing their hardships and almost becoming one of them, eventually returns with a body of observations which he can present as a preliminary research report. Secondly, as has already been hinted, we attach particular importance to the collection and description of observations of scientific activity obtained in a particular setting. By our commitment to techniques of participant observation we hope to come to terms with a major problem which have thus far dogged understanding of