Because “Occupy” seems to be “Le Mot du Jour,” I started thinking about its connotations for me. I wondered who came up with the term, “Occupy Wall Street” and why?
My first thought was that it didn’t fit. It seems like a passive word, and I don’t think of the protesters as passive. They are taking the time, energy, and action to make a point. They are out there while the rest of us are going about our lives, secretly cheering for them.
For me, there’s also a lack of connectedness, a lack of dimension to the word. No emotion. When you occupy a place, you’re just in that space in that time. You are just “there” in some surface way. There’s no nesting, no living, no home.
Hmm…then again, maybe it does work. With all the people losing their homes it is fitting that they learn to only “occupy” them as buildings, as simply a place in time, a roof over their heads. And they wonder why people trash the buildings when they leave. If someone can take it away, it is folly to become attached.
and don’t forget that when you occupy a place, you break the ordinary “function” and routine of the place, giving the place itself another meaning. to the bastille!, more or less
and i’m all enfant de la patrie, as to the occupy movements all over the world. ciao and thanx for coming by my place.