Re: <nettime> A Movement Without Demands?

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com>]

On Jan 9, 2012, at 3:12 AM, Michael H Goldhaber wrote:

> Snafu and Jodi Dean, why did you put your argument in favor of demands in such academic and turgid prose that it is a foregone conclusion the most in the occupy movement couldn't possibly understand it and would probably toss it aside with disdain? It reads to me as if intended for some non-existent vanguard party oddly composed of those who have read the right books.

I'm so tired of this complaint. Not everything has to be written for everyone to read. And, you know, sometimes people can look things up and maybe read some books. One of the great things about OWS is watching people read, argue, figure shit out. Why must everything be pitched to an 8th grade reading level?

> Second, I disagree about the need for demands, and much of the rest of it. "We are the 99%" is a brilliant slogan because once heard, it  is impossible to forget that the one percent have had too much power for too long.

It's a great slogan, but there really are a lot of fissures within the 99%. Someone at the 95th percentile has interests very different from someone at the 15th. There are fissures by region, gender, color, job status, all kinds of things. It's delusional to pretend otherwise. A lot of the 99% is going to vote Republican in November, you know.



Doug Henwood
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