Creating the quiet revolution

I feel protests serve a purpose.  They definitely bring attention to issues.  I wish the Occupy Seattle group had more coherence in the message they were sending.  In NY, the labor unions have gotten involved and have specific complaints around education and health care and labor issues they’d like addressed.  Here, on the other side of the country, I’m not hearing specifics, but as one Seattle protester put it, she supports everyone ‘screaming for change’.

But what change?  What’s the goal?  What’s the plan?  How is it to be acted out?  I’m not seeing that.  Just a lot of making noise without a plan.

The US is imperfect, there are issues that need attending to.   Having students owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt without their school providing outreach services supporting students in finding a job to match their degree is, in my mind, irresponsible.  My own partner experienced this in returning for his MBA, and ten years after receiving it, claims he has never had a job that has required it, but continues to pay down that debt.

Is a quiet revolution a better tactic?  What if hundreds of thousands of people got together and meditated or prayed for change, daily, 24/7, just as they are doing out on the streets.  They could meditate either inside their own homes, or out in public parks, or alongside the protestors.  But,  instead of getting pepper-sprayed, arrested, they’d be unharmed and causing just as much change.

But quiet meditators don’t make for good media coverage.  How exciting is it to see someone with their eyes closed, not making any kind of physical action.  Kind of boring for the viewer.  However, if you think about it, quiet meditators are really the essence of non-violent protesting.  Get that group together and create collective ‘sit-ins’ all across the country.  Focus the meditations on creating the change each group wants to see.

A thought and suggestion to the vocal, rapping and screaming protestors, see what might happen if you turned the volume down, went within and projected intention for change outward.

Photo credit