OWS, Personal Responsibility, Civil Liberties, and the Death of Dialogue

Do you think I'm biting off a bit much with this title?

I'm a big fan of OWS.  I haven't done much to support them, except to get off my butt and complain to the White House about the Homeland Security coordinated break up of the encampments.  Most of my friends are theoretically behind them as well, although they will hop on board to complain about them disrupting traffic, antagonizing workers who are part of the 99% and just trying to get to their jobs, or causing tax dollars to be spent on additional overtime.

I am privileged.  I'm a white man, with two college degrees, one of which I didn't have to pay for.  I'm probably in the 5%, at least at the moment.  I also have an underwater mortgage, debt related to the second college degree, and debt related to excessive consumer spending.  I'm committed to paying it all off, and if everything hangs together for a few more years, it looks like I will.

They're doing all right on the politics.  Focus is being brought to bear on the post 9/11 style of policing, the need to do more to remove corporate money from the process of governance, and the fact that our democracy and constitution is severely damaged at this point.

But the part that I've been working on for a few years, and think that Occupy needs to embrace, is to work to starve the problems at their roots.  If you complain about certain corporations, and then still give them your money, you are just complaining.  Consumer culture is the drug that allows the multinationals to run amok. I've been buying high quality new and used clothing, and less cheap stuff.  I've engaged in more cooking from scratch, and less restaurant and convenience foods.  I've started a small garden, I'm canning loss-leader food from the Thanksgiving sales and I've learned how to make sauerkraut. 

Learning and teaching self-reliance needs to be at the core of the movement, as well as building community.  If that is at the core of things, there is a chance to starve some of the worst aspects of our corporate culture, and make a more sustainable planet at the same time.