Occupy Wall Street, Nov 11, 2011
I was a member of Toastmasters for 4-years.
I became a Competent Toastmaster in under a year after completing the first 10 speech projects (and went on to obtain my Competent Leader certificate a year after that). One of the speech projects is called Get to the Point. The goal is to prepare a 5-7 minute speech that informs, entertains and has one specific point you’re trying to convey.
And this is the problem with the Occupy Wall Street movement and other similar movements around the world, including Occupy Toronto (which is my home city).
While the reason they assembled is quite clear, what they want to accomplish isn’t.
Compare this to the Tea Party movement.
The Tea Partyers have one villain – Obama and the Democrats. Obama is taking the country too far to the left, they say. He’s in bed with America’s enemies. Obama is damaging American values with his socialist, pacifist views. Obama is interfering too much in people’s lives with bloated financial bail out packages.
The Tea Partyers had only one goal – to fill Congress with more Republicans in the next midterm election. What they did in Congress, the Tea Party movement wasn’t going to tackle that – yet. Instead, the goal was to simply get more Republicans in Congress.
That’s it!
The Tea Party movement had one singular focus – one thing they wanted to accomplish in order to dilute the villain’s power.
Compare this to the Arab Spring movement.
Their villain? Tyrants and dictators hoarding power for decades. The single focus of Arab Spring? To dismantle these faux governments.
Their goals wasn’t to implement democracy or appoint a new leader. That would come after the dictator had been removed.
Compare this to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Their villain is the disproportionate allocation of wealth. Or, in its simplest terms, greed. The 1% who are wealthy and continue to get wealthy. CEOs paid millions of dollars and get millions more even if the company isn’t profitable. Governments who bail out banks and megamillion corporations while Mr & Mrs Jones lose their home for falling behind on their mortgage. The 99% who pay the most taxes and have limited access to programs while the 1% continue to get richer and wealthier.
I get it.
What I don’t get is their goal.
When I watch the news, peruse Twitter and read blog posts, those who are “occupying” have different goals:
- “Levy more taxes against the rich,” says one.
- “Develop more programs for the middle class,” says another.
- “Regroup, reoccupy!” shouts another.
- “Cut CEO salaries,” says yet another.
It’s vitally important to get to the point.
A unified goal gives people purpose. A single focus gives people something to work towards. It doesn’t matter what will happen after you accomplish your goal. Just state what it is, then work towards it.
Update: In a Globe & Mail editorial, the article quoted Naheed Nenshi, Calgary’s first Muslim mayor, as saying the following:
“The protesters need to understand that they’ve lost the thread, they’ve completely lost the plot.Making this about the tents instead of about the issues they’re talking about, they’ve completely lost any ability to influence people.”
 "Pin It")