I am a individual occupier who does not speak for the a camp.
I feel that we are an experiment, not a protest. Let me try to explain what I mean.
Whilst I do feel that there is big picture stuff, external to the camp that we can and will change, I personally feel that it is just as important for us demonstrate alternative and effective ways of doing things.
One of the things that sets us apart from many of the structures we are challenging, is our consensus decision making process. One of the important things about this is that it means everyone gets listened to. Whilst this can be a difficult and time consuming process it is also a really interesting one to be involved with.
The meeting we ran on Thursday night was a fairly mixed example this. The meeting went on for a long time, and eventually no decision was reached. So it failed as a decision making process. But, compared to some early meetings, it was still orderly and people were genuinely listening to each other and people with a wide range of views were contributing, and were heard. I am heartened by the discussions we have been having today around creating relatively autonomous working groups, who will just go and get stuff done. We are learning and developing both our skills and our processes all the time.
The big picture (of trying to make a better world) and the small picture (of all trying to get along in camp, using a consensus decision making process) seem more and more intertwined. We cannot move forward unless we do genuinely listen do all views, and throw them into the mix of looking for solutions. This is what we’re trying to do every day. And perhaps the failure of present systems is that they don’t do that, but simply marginalise views that don’t fit.
