Occupy Melbourne: The Good and Bad
I ventured down to Occupy Melbourne yesterday. It was the first Melbourne event in a global ‘movement’, originally started as Occupy Wall Street in New York. The movement was originally started by Adbusters, and was a protest against the uneven distribution of wealth. The movement has sort of, kind of, taken hold and at this early stage in the movements inception it’s worth noting what they are doing right and wrong.
Wrong
- Lack of clarity: Lets assume the goal of the movement is to have economic equality – if that’s the case then everything they do should be single minded towards that goal (think Wall Street protest by Adbusters). The rallies should be held in the financial quarter of the capital cities (not the city square), and protest should be limited to that agenda (not land rights, gay marriage, or 9 / 11 conspirators. Like any good brand keep it focused.
- Vitriol towards the 1%: Nelson Mandela said ‘The stronger the enemy the stronger you are.’ He was keen to embrace the enemy and work with them. Capitalism isn’t broken, it provides happiness and opportunity for most people in most countries where it takes hold – however it can certainly be improved. There were also too many hippies and hipsters. The rally felt like no less of a lunatic fringe than the type of crowd Allan Jones and Tony Abbott could muster – not at all representative of the 99%.
- Lack of credibility: The issues of fair distribution of wealth is a complex one. An economist or someone with credibility should have been on hand to talk about how the trickle down economy is broken and doesn’t work, and provide other sound robust economic models to consider.
Right
- Open source content: Instead of having an agenda they make people listen to the floor is opened up for anyone to suggest anything and then voted on by the general assembly. This then dictates the movements actions. If this remains focused it’s a great way to galvanise and direct the masses.
- Social media and PR: The campaign has created huge amounts of noise on and online by clever and consistent use of social media.
- The right cause: It feels like the cause of unfair distribution of the countries wealth is a fair and timely issue to go after. No one else owns this ground.
Watch Occupy closely – If they can keep it focused, and not get hi-jacked by the lunatic fringe (it’s meant to be the 99% involved) then this one may be here to stay.
Here’s my take on how to modify our capitalist urges into something more useful.
Fritz Bachen is a Consumer Psychologist and Founding Partner at Naked Communications. Fritz can be seen, read or heard at; The Gruen Transfer, ABC Radio (Sunday nights), Adnews columnist, as well as The Australian, Cleo, Mumbrella, Shop Till You Drop and so on. He speaks at numerous conferences on marketing, ideas, contemporary culture, and consumer behaviour. Fritz has degress in clinical psychology and commerce (marketing). A registered psychologist and has worked in private practice, forensic settings, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi) and marketing consultancy (Added Value). He was also state under 12 chess champion on WA, and has a board game called The Analyst selling well in the Benelux countries.
Comments
Sabina
Oct 20th, 2011Great food for thought : )
If only life reverted to 'living simple'. Marketing has an effect on our lifestyles and tells us in order to survive we need to have all things up to date, to keep up with technology, we need to consume fast food, because life is moving too fast, we want to live fast earn money fast, and taking the easy way out. The change in society has caused the change in mentality, not everyone can keep up. We have lost the small things like community spirit, once upon a time it was known that it took a village to raise a child, now that child raises itself, and with that comes limited life skills, understanding of how the world works & lack of learning from others mistakes so history doesn’t repeat itself. As each generation passes away, so does the much needed moral and values.
Jon
Nov 2nd, 2011Terrific post. I've linked to this as well as your "Consumption need not be a …" in a brief post I wrote on "Occupy".
I'm a neuroscientist who knows little about economics. But your post and Punch article both resonate for me. Thanks.
Fritz Bachen
Nov 5th, 2011@sabina thanks for the comment, and yes I agree 'Living simple' is about everything. Only issue is will living simple be enough o make us happy. WE need to live simple, but be able to think that that's enough. That's the tough bit.
@Jon I had a look at your blog – and love it – strongly recommend people go have a look.
Sabina
Nov 23rd, 2011Hi Fritz, yes, I think for those that have made that lifestyle choice and have a strong understanding of who they are can make that transition. Marketing encourages the growth of supply and demand, consumers have the ultimate power to change that cycle should they chose to live simple.Each persons interpretation of happiness is different. Your articles make me smile, so thanks for that little ray of sunshine : )
Anonymous
Nov 29th, 2011I find every time I post using facebook on Occupy Melbourne they attack the posts running them down even when just supplying info to help.Has to be on the Governments side or they attack in pairs. They should work for them as they are not on the 99% of the people as a few other occupy groups have actually asked me to join them. What is wrong in Melbourne ???
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