A week of cognitive dissonance and direct action

By Cheryl Meeker
Re-posted from Capitalism Is Over! If You Want It, January 24, 2012

image: Food Bank of America

What do we do when the government shockingly proves it already has the power to do one day what we were opposing the prior day? It is more than disquieting to see the government brutally illustrating the fact that the U.S. is a society that simply does not any longer believe in due process. Glenn Greenwald reports on the cognitive dissonance produced by the SOPA/PIPA opposition, victory, and subsequent seizure of Megaupload.

And what does it mean when the only “anti-war, pro-due-process, pro-transparency, anti-Fed, anti-Wall-Street-bailout, anti-Drug-War” advocating presidential candidate is Ron Paul? Greenwald, again, makes the case for avoiding mindless partisanship and for allowing space for a real public debate, in part by countering our “inability and/or refusal to recognize that a political discussion might exist independent of the Red v. Blue Cage Match.” Read Greenwald’s nuanced analysis in “Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies”.

The answer from OccupySF has been to get down to business, by focusing on the financial district using direct action planned by a diverse horizontal hierarchy of community and affinity groups. OccupySF refused to limit the scope of specific injustices to highlight with a day long schedule of multi-faceted actions that drew global press as reporters and photographers attempted to cover and capture the variety of challenges to financial institutions and the mainstream narrative that were brought to bear publicly on Friday.

image: The Black Blob

Dialectical-materialist philosopher Slavoj Žižek notes the ironic fact that today the chance to be exploited in a long-term job is now experienced as a privilege. Read his analysis of the Occupy movement and of the signs we are all seeing that the capitalist system is no longer capable of self-regulated stability; as he says, it is a system that is threatening to run out of control

Occupy as Form, Keyword: Horizontal

The following is a "reflection" that was published on the ARC Muses blog, Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Occupy as Form: Cheryl Meeker
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the working session "Occupy as Form" on February 10, 2012. Participants have been invited to post some brief thoughts on the topic in advance of the event. This guest posting is by Cheryl Meeker, artist, activist, art writer and co-founder of stretcher.org.

Keyword: Horizontal

Taking an axis as a keystone, the Occupy groups utilize an organizing form that is diametrically perpendicular to, if not opposed to the vertical hierarchies employed by corporations, institutions, the academy, the church, and the patriarchal nuclear family. As an artist that has worked in a variety of collectives and collaborations, coming up against the embedded habit of top-down hierarchy has always worn me down. What happens to the discontent that remains from not being heard under majority rule? Relief from the stunting affects of vertical hierarchy can be found in groups that operate on the basis of consensus.

The Socratic method and the dialectic owe something to the horizontal, while the wisdom of the massive mycelium growing under forests spreads horizontally, as does the thin atmosphere coating the surface of the planet. These systems embody the connectedness of all life. Horizontal organizing acknowledges the importance of a space for each body and a time for each voice to be heard, as well as an understanding and appreciation of the process itself. Paul Stametz says we need to understand the organisms that sustain life on earth or we will destroy life on earth and ourselves in the process… that we “need a paradigm shift in our consciousness -- what will it take to achieve that?” Perhaps horizontal consensus based organizing can help us understand interconnectedness by subjectively changing us in the process. General assemblies and working groups are open to the public and Occupy can benefit from the contribution of each individual.

I am interested in how the methods of Occupy can be used in the broader social/political/economic field to support the 99% and find the possibility for saving as many species as possible in the coming years. I am also interested to find out if those who feel more comfortable with vertical hierarchies will choose to involve themselves, in order to experience another way first hand.

past

Right Window

Gallery/window space in the same building as ATA, 992 Valencia @ 21st Street in San Francisco. Right Window members: Dodie Bellamy, Katie Bush, Craig Goodman, Cliff Hengst, Scott Hewicker, Kevin Killian, John Koch, Cheryl Meeker, Karla Milosevich, Paula Pereira, Jocelyn Saidenberg, Wayne Smith.

Collaborative Curatorial Work

Capitalism Is Over! If You Want It is a series of interruptions/actions launched in July 2010 by artists from around the world in response to the need for a fundamental shift in our approach to Capitalism and the negative impact it has on the environment, health, and well being of all. The status-quo is not sustainable. The title of the project references John and Yoko’s “War is Over if You Want It” campaign of the 70’s and aims to employ art in a similar manner but at a more grassroots level. Since we started the project, we've learned that Phil Ochs is the originator of the "War Is Over" concept. See his "Have You Heard? The War Is Over!" article excerpted in the Village Voice, 1967, which calls for a public collaborative piece in the social practice mode.









Capitalism Is Over! If You Want It A series of art interventions that took place in various locations in San Francisco in August 2010 and will continue online and in other venues. Curated with the Capitalism Is Over! If You Want it team of curators.

past

Anti-social at Mission 17

Press for Anti-social