The hashtag#occupywallstreet inspired the most basic of organizing strategies: sit-ins. OWS sit-ins became encampments, many of which are now being dismantled by law enforcement and debilitated by weather. As the movement is increasingly out of the sight of pundits and the popular media, and criticized as leaderless and lacking a clear purpose, it has become fashionable to talk about OWS as inevitably failing. This is a mistake. Encampment “occupiers” come and go; hashtag followers live on in cyberspace, where OWS is spawning leaders and developing goals, just not in the way that most people are accustomed to.
Sunday, Philadelphia’s Mayor Nutter made a very detailed and straightforward report on his Administration’s involvement with Occupy Philadelphia, of current municipal needs and provided a profile of a changed Occupy leadership and mix. [link to the full news conference] http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/video?id=8430335
The question remains: what happened to the original leadership? This has been SamHenry’s concern from the initial stages of this movement. It is leaderless in most locations and it is just this side of anarchy when some of the more radical elements join in. And just when things are getting juicy, Jesse Jackson shows up. He would never let a good mess go to waste.
Mayor Nutter has done the responsible thing. Overnight accommodation for protesters in public spaces should be outlawed. Either you protest within the guidelines or you become a mob. It’s very simple.
A look into the “HOW” of the Occupy Wall Street movement: The consensus process.
What is the difference between a republic and a democracy?
Democracy:
Invloves the government ruling and making laws for the “greater good” of all people, they may abolish personal rights in doing so.
Democracy is government by and for the people. They may or may not be republics–that is, government limited by constitution or charter.
The tricky part of “democracy” is defining “the people” and then deciding what counts as “by the people” and what counts as “for the people.” In a sense, that could be considered the content of democratic practice.
Republic:
Involves the government using and abiding by the constitution heavily. Personal rights are respected and cannot be taken away. This helps to avoid tyranny and mobocracy (the majority makes laws and governs by passion, prejudice, or impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences).
Republics are the common and “standard” type of governments found today, not democracies, despite what many people (who may not know the definition of either) think.
Just as democracies may or may not be republics, republics may or may not be democracies.
The difference between Democracy and Republic:
Democracy and Republic are two forms of government which are distinguished by their treatment of the Minority, and the Individual, by the Majority.
In a Democracy, the Majority has unlimited power over the Minority. This system of government does not provide a legal safeguard of the rights of the Individual and the Minority. It has been referred to as “Majority over Man”.
In a Republic, the Majority is Limited and constrained by a written Constitution which protects the rights of the Individual and the Minority. The purpose of a Republic form of government is to control the Majority and to protect the God-given, inalienable rights and liberty of the Individual.
The United States of America is founded as a Republic under the Constitution.
