Sustainable Occupy Concept

Sustainable Occupy One Page Concept

Occupy is a movement about change and creating another world. To that end, the Occupy Wall St. Think Tank will be undertaking an in-depth research and solution oriented study aimed at compiling, assessing, and creating sustainable models for the Occupy movement to work with moving forward.

• The Think Tank will work to find a way to sustain individual socio-political engagement, occupiers, and the occupy movement itself. Our aim is to create ways for both individuals and communities to be more focused and dedicated as social and political actors, a structured yet flexible working and communications network, and the creation of longer term ethical environments to live, work and grow within.
  
• We also want to provide a sustainable example for general society. That we can live within moral and ethical frameworks and still partake in the rest of society. That we can still have iphones, watch TV, have decent clothes, see family and friends, go places, make things, achieve great things, and enjoy our lives – but to do it through a more inclusive and rewarding way of engaging with social, economic, and political interactions.
  
• Another world is possible - and there are countless examples from brazil to china, AD to BCE. Let’s learn from them all, create possible alternatives, engage with them, experiment with them till we find the best way of all!. Figure out what it could be, set it up, and lead by example!

Our principles: We will do whatever it takes to answer these questions and provide a solution. This project requires people with questions, no presumptive answers, and an ability to leave their ideologies at the door. While well versed in social scientific methodology, we will not be handcuffed by the rigidity of categorical methods of inquiry. We’ll read novels, plays, historical materials, newspaper articles; conduct street surveys and informal discussions; engage in participant observation, crunch numbers and paint pictures; and anything else or to whatever extent, that we see as a potential tool in learning, understanding and doing. Most importantly though, we’ll do it everywhere, and everything is on the table!

We will operate in an atmosphere of joyful exploration and mutual respect where every idea is valued.

Consider a few questions: What is the meaning of work? We can explore this question by engaging in physical production (sewing, carpentry, cooking), by reading novels about communes or academic works on the transition from manufacturing to service economies, or even have discussion groups with members of alternative living communities from abroad. Or how about nourishment? How do we understand our food and how we would want it to be produced and consumed. Or the nourishment we receive from art and music, or that a child receives growing up in a liberating environment? Stability, security, food, shelter, community, wants, needs, love, respect; how do we gain all of these for both our selves and others?

We will address these questions and countless more. We will learn from historical examples and doing, connect with small and large experiments around the world, and engage with the everyday lives of people and their ideas. We have a problem: “the world” is not working for most people. We must both create and envision a new one – in no particular order.