Wednesday, October 19, 2011

At Least It's Different

I heard the following on NPR today, which is generally shitty, but still one of the more useful ones. It's Kim Bostrum, an "Occupy Wall Street" protestor in Missoula, Montana.

On "quiet consensus" leadership:

Pretty much all decisions are made according to that model, and I think people are really finding that it's amazing to feel like when you say something, it matters, as painful as it can be at times.

On their reasons:

As many people as you ask here, you're gonna find different reasons. I think the reason everybody's here is because we’re angry. The reason I’m angry because I feel like a wealthy minority is controlling our so-called democracy. They control our food, our water, they’re outsourcing our jobs, and this wealthy minority is kinda taking over the country and we kinda want to take it back.

On Bostrum's conflicts of interest:

Well, I'm on my lunch hour, so I'm not representing my employer right now.

On being pawns to party politics:

We're fighting it tooth and nail. We don't want to be co-opted. This is not a move to support Obama or the Democrats. I don't want anything to do with re-electing Democrats in general but Obama specifically. I don't feel like he's represented the change that I had hoped for.

On Mitt Romney:

He means nothing to me. He can come join us, but I think that he's one of the one percent.

On one thing that could make a change:

Well, there's, um.... I hate that we're being set up as kind of capitalism and democracy or something else, which, you know, people like to term it communism, socialism, we're all being, you know, called all those names that people consider bad without really considering what they mean, and there are other things that haven't been created yet. We're smarter than that. We don't need to settle into this system or that system. We can create a new system, I think, and one that I'm interested in is the idea of nested councils, where people are assigned to a representative group, similar to a jury duty. You don't get to go out and campaign for it. You're assigned to it. And when it's your time to go and serve, you have to go and serve. It gives the community real true say in something that really affects them.

Any errors in transcription are mine. Listen to the whole thing here.

5 comments:

  1. There's no protesters here. That's self-aggrandizement, not protest.

    If someone in Missoula wanted to protest something, they could find better targets than "wall street," which barely is visible here.

    Of course, the vast majority of people reading your blog probably know bupkis about Missoula, so they'll assume Bostrum represents something or someone or some team of interests that actually thrive(s) in Missoula.

    Would be quite wrong.

    The money that flows through Missoula has very little, if anything, to do with Wall Street. Wall Street is the domain of people who love concrete canyons, mega-city vibe, hypercapitalism.

    Missoula's rich are not Wall Streeters. The Wall Streeters tend toward Bozeman. Or Whitefish.

    Missoula's rich are MDs and dot.commers, not financial finnagelers.

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  2. Also, if you're snarking on Missoula... I'd suggest you visit here first, get to know some people, before pretending you're better than the place or its people.

    Seriously.

    I'm not eager to defend Missoula, but I am eager to point out ignorance.

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  3. Karl, if I came off as snarky or patronizing, that wasn't my intention at all.

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  4. cuneyt, i haven't read here yet ..i just wanted to say that i responded to you.. over at john h.'s.. ..i'm washing up and going to a meeting right now ..but i'll be back.. .

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