It's so quiet here! I love it.
Really enjoying the book about Upton Sinclair's 1934 campaign for Calif governor and learning much -- had no idea Hollywood got so involved. Some amazing antics. The author's take is that this is the birth of media campaigning and tricks and spin doctors and such. What also impresses me is how much more discussion of ideas happened then than now, even in the environment of dirty tricks. Part of this was due to Sinclair himself, who had plenty of ideas and specific things to do.
But the real lesson for today from 1934, I think, is that the protectors and defenders of special interest capitalism will go to any lengths to keep power. This is why new strategies and approaches are needed -- and despite the superficial originality of camping in a park, the Occupy movement so far is offering the same protest strategy we've seen for a very long time, i.e. put bodies on the street. I am not optimistic that any real change will happen in my lifetime as a result. And will never happen in the present two party system.
I keep thinking, using the 1960s "Get Clean For Gene" McCarthy campaign as a model, what if the emphasis of the Occupy movement was door-to-door canvasing for a third party, Occupy Politics, young men and women, and not so young men and women, all dressed neatly, best manners, old school politeness, smiles, optimism, embracing the reality of having a majority and alienating no one in it ... have a nice day and on to the next door. I bet hundreds of thousands would have joined. I think the two parties would have become very, very nervous. This could have happened but it would have taken leadership, which the Occupy group says it doesn't want (which is ridiculous -- SOMEONE leads those assemblies etc). Well, this is just pissing against the wind.
"The personality of the leader is probably a crucial factor in determining the nature and duration of a mass movement." --Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
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