Darwin
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I am the System: A Manifesto to Occupy Wall St.
The single individual never exists in isolation. In her singularity, one being never escapes the network of relations. But this is not one world as some kind of homogeneous whole. In their multiplicity, social systems always exist as a conglomerate of singular individuals. We are caught in these systems. Systems like Wall St. Systems like large Corporations. Systems, like the monolithic apparatus’ of the government. But these systems are not in themselves bad, wrong, dehumanizing, destructive. These systems are caught in us, they are us, we are them; this is what this elusive “they”, the many voices of the system, will try to deny.
E pluribus unum, that old phrase imprinted on the seal of the United States represents for us the very symptomatic problem of our country, our world, our multiplicity of systems today. “Out of many, one” as if all these people, with all their individual situations, all their singular knowledge, all of their valuable uniqueness, must homogenize into one system, one unity, one voice. Corporations feed off of this slogan. They provide for us a system that appears as one but which is empty. No one is accountable. No one can find the leader. No one can see who makes the decisions. There are no “people who pull the strings.” Even the president, who is supposed to be our most powerful leader, finds himself flustered before the system.
We all know this. Our jobs drop away. Our houses are being foreclosed. Our stocks plummet on whims. Our money disappears. While somewhere else a few individuals get rich. We cannot understand it. We cannot connect the dots. So we protest. We want to occupy Wall St., to somehow get inside the system, to be part of it again. We want to be democratic, we want the demos, the people, to means something within the system. We are tired of being effaced in the whole that renders us silent.
To truly occupy Wall St. requires more than just people making their presence known in the streets. It requires a fundamental shift in our values, our conception of ourselves in the system. We seek to re-valuate these concepts that have been hijacked by homogenizing forces that have plagued a system which no longer needs such forces. The present some difficulties without simple solutions:
- Our world requires a new theory of value. Value is not solely based on labor but rather on the existence of singular individuals with their own skills, experiences, and understanding. Labor can no longer be the standard because this world no longer needs all the labor force that exists in it. There are not enough jobs and there will never be. The forces of mechanization, which have made our lives so much better, inevitably take jobs; but we cannot and do not want to undo those processes. When the system does not need you to contribute, when it demands nothing from you except consumption, how can we base our value on labor?
- We affirm the fundamental value of human beings. The belief that people are inherently lazy and greedy is largely a product of a system which is blind to the desires inherent in all of us. We live in a system that seeks to maximize efficiency (less work, more pay) but then demonizes its citizens who internalize this principle (I will work as little as possible). What is called “redistribution of goods” is nothing more than an acknowledgement that value extends beyond labor and that individuals will continue to make contributions to the system as long as they are given the opportunity to participate, to live, to be. In the end the question is not, what has this man done but what is he worth as a being. The myth of freeloading assumes that those who cannot find a job do not want to work, while those who have jobs somehow earned it. But we know this is not the case. We cannot continue to deny those who seek to work but cannot the basic necessities of life. We cannot blame them for how they have fallen into the system. We can no longer deny them the support of essential healthcare, housing, food, and education.
- The process of concentration brought about by corporations that seek to maximize profit and minimize costs will continue to push the processes of mechanization so that less people can do the work for many. Hence, without some correcting mechanisms, those fortunate enough to be left standing after the layoffs will find themselves with a concentration of wealth that far exceeds those who were dropped off in the name of efficiency. We cannot continue to delude ourselves that these people are somehow “better” than those who find themselves condemned by the system into joblessness. The illusion of equality of opportunity cannot be asserted; there are simply too many factors for such a meritocracy to have any reality.
- We must support our neighbors as individuals. We cannot stand by this idea of patriotism that supports a nation with only abstract citizens. This country has stood too long in a patriotism without dissent. A patriotism that loves the country but hates its neighbors. Get a job, bum. Support your country. Don’t freeload. You’re a burden. The whole, the system, the country is far more important than you. You are a burden.
- We affirm that there are possibilities between rhetorical extremes—these extremes which exist in “capitalism vs socialism,” which is nothing more than a shameful remnant of the McCarthy era that is no longer relevant. Capitalism in both a theoretically “pure” form and as it stands now inevitably focuses wealth in the few. Likewise, the concept of a “socialism” equated with “communism,” in which totalitarian regimes excessively control the social structure is not only antiquated but irrelevant. The truth is, we do not need to worry about whether our governmental system is going to attempt to force its citizens into its desired mold; our system already does this quite well.
- We cannot forget that there are multiple channels through which democratic forces may operate. We will not remain silent, nor will we content ourselves with only one outlet for our voice. Capitalism provides only one feedback mechanism through the purchasing of goods. But this is not sufficient—when dealing with a complex system no one solution is ever sufficient. We must not forget that this system we call “government” was also supposed to be connected to the people, to individuals who, while represented by the vote, are more than an anonymous vote of stilted and limited candidates. We are given representatives that do not represent. The many cannot be held in these few, picked out by forces which we can hardly control or comprehend but which we see everywhere. We need new outlets, new in-roads into the democratic process.
Undoubtedly this will require difficult choices and complex solutions but we affirm that we should face this complexity as complexity, these systems as systems because they are complexities made up of us, of me, of you. We will push for new solutions, old solutions, innovative and daring solutions. We can only go forward if we recognize this fact and allow the whole and its part to again be put into proper relation. So we will enter Wall St, literally, figuratively, persistently. Because we are already there, already here, already within the system. As part of it, we refuse to be silent, homogenized, simplified, demonized, condemned, neglected, rendered superfluous.
Joshua Call
