Week Four: Response to Crypis' A Brave New World (remix)

In response to ‘A Brave New World (remix)’ this is something that is literally happening right now at this very second. We are a county that is in turmoil, as always, and I found that there was some rather valuable things hidden in this essay. Beginning with the background of the Occupy Wall Street movement Crypis dives into how all gatherings and marches all not only have a ‘push buttons’ but also an educational element. (When I say ‘push button’ I mean something that will force the government to interject and quite possibly turn something peaceful, into something violent.) Now, the second element of that is rather important to me especially and I am glad that Crypis touched on it. Education. There are times when you just do not know what to do, but you know that something is wrong, so you join with others and raise awareness even tho if interrogated by a bystander you might not be able to answer all the necessary questions this imaginary person might say is “needed”. On the third page of this essay Crypis says, “The overwhelming challenge for Occupy is to build the capacity for all its participants to learn democratic social engagement skills towards consensus, to build skills of bias awareness, empathetic listening, negotiation…” the list goes on and in the end, for us at least, knowledge for what we stand for is vitally important (Cypis 3). This does not mean that because you are not well versed enough you cannot stand tall and protest, it just means that standing tall is one part of it, passing on the education and values of that in which is being protested is just as important, and completes the whole. 

Cypis concludes by saying one of the most moving facets of Occupy is how ‘vulnerable’ people are in this. Social change and the act of standing up for it is something that while not frowned upon, takes great courage. Someone who stands knows that they are preparing for discrimination and the process of becoming what Cypis lists as: “patient, respectful, emotional, open, raw, reciprocal, empathic, human” (Cypis 5). You have to be human...

Sources:

http://media.wix.com/ugd/87d3d4_32921e29df8a4af8828cca9d28a84828.pdf