What we’re leaving behind today, at record pace, is what­ever belief we might once have had in the value of unstructured time: in the privilege of contemplating our lives before they are gone, in the importance of uninterrupted conversation, in the beauty of play. In the thing in itself – unmediated, leading nowhere. In the present moment.

-Mark Slouka, on the virtues of idleness, in “Quitting the Paint Factory

“Pay attention: Occupy was so powerful a force for nonviolence that it was already solving Oakland’s chronic crime and violence problems just by giving people hope and meals and solidarity and conversation.”

–Rebecca Solnit clarifies – violent crime in Oakland was down 19% while the encampment existed.

“The more we shed ourselves of national identity in this fight, the more we grasp that our true allies may not speak our language or embrace our religious and cultural traditions, the more powerful we will become.”

Chris Hedges on Occupy

Life After Death

Egalitarians must work to take over the Democratic party as the Tea Party has recently taken over the Republicans. Action in the streets will lead the way, but we must have electoral strength to make our leaders follow through with the changes we demand.

This is a conversation we haven’t been having for the past 30 years… [W]hite working-class voters are supposed to be riled up against Democrats for policies such as affirmative action and gun control. They’re not supposed to get angry with Republicans for voting to bail out the banks and then flatly ruling out the idea of relief for underwater borrowers.

-Eugene Robinson, “Still Occupied

What is missing from America is a healthy fear in the hearts and minds of the most powerful political and financial factions of the consequences of their continued pilfering, corporatism, and corrupt crony capitalism, and only this sort of movement — untethered from the pacifying rules of our political and media institutions — can re-impose that healthy fear.

-Glenn Greenwald on the importance of OCCUPY