If I was to measure the influence behind specific events and their currency through social media, the score would look something like this. I would give a score of about 90, on a scale of 1-100, to Anthony Bologna for macing the hippy girls. The reason I give it a 90, is that it brought more attention to the occupy movement at an early crux point and alerted people like Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann to chime in with follow up stories, and probably gave the movement it’s first celebrity. “Tony Baloney”..
Next I’d say was the 50 I’d give to the Boston Police for the 100 arrests that were so called Anarchists, that the protesters called the cops because these so called anarchists were going to start trouble and weren’t part of the protest. The fact is that the entire movement is anarchist in nature, according to a Bloomberg Business article, quoting David Graeber , who helped to facilitate the entire General Assembly modality, that is leaderless and considers everyone equal. The reason the score is lower than Tony B’s is that it added some interest, but not as much and no one got famous that day.
The next big score would have to go to the Mayor of Oakland, who was in DC while the Oakland Police were cleaning up the park by removing the protesters she had agreed to warn ahead of time, but didn’t. Her excuse was that she was out of town, more like out of the loop and that’s not very mayoral! This one gets a 99 for it’s cinematic brilliance, which managed to rival my favorite scene in Apocalypse Now; the glow, the explosions. It was almost worthy of an Oscar. The real icing on the cake, that really put it over the top of Tony’s score, was definitely the footage of the crowd carrying Scott Olsen, a 24 year old Iraq Vet and ex marine, after being shot in the head with an ordinance from the Oakland police. That score will be tough to beat, but something tells me there more coming. Especially after the Denver skirmish yesterday when police there used pepper spray to disband the crowd if protesters. Can you say “Constitutional”?
Look I figure not everybody is going to que in on the fact that the crowd is armed with smarphones and that everything is being spammed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I’m sure my grandma hasn’t, but the civil authorities who pride themselves on knowing the enemy so well. Come on man, think about it. If the influence of radical and illegal police actions only at best manage to whip up a viral frenzy, don’t you think they’d climb out of their illusions of authority and try something different, like supporting the protests. I know these guys have jobs and should be grateful, but I’m sure they are probably helping someone in the family who lost their job; and if things keep progressing, it’s highly probable that the city might be making more cut backs and their jobs are going to seem pretty tenuous at some point.
Oh well… I suppose that it really doesn’t matter, well most of it. I know my heart goes out to Scott Olsen for taking one for the team. It sucks that he’s even hurt at all! Wouldn’t it be amazing if the cities involved (most all of them) did crazy stuff like roll in those portable toilets they always seem to have by the hundreds at the county fair, donate a few generators, or (and I know thus might sound a bit communist) possibly help with feeding the homeless instead if complaining that they’re a fucking threat to the community. Some of these guys built your homes, your roads and your schools, you ungrateful idiots.
So I guess it comes down to this fact, and this is a fact… There is no way you can win this battle when everything you do is like money in the bank for the social media influence. Every viral video that shows off the truth about the massive imbalance of representation pays the occupy movement more and more social media influence currency each time you fail the test of loyalty to the tax payers who make your jobs possible. At some point there will be only one of two choices, that this will all come down to, either get with the people and do your part in our community or don’t! Either way, the people win!
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Socialmedia Influence – Currency of the Future is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.de
Michael Light started Endoflex in 2006 to report the beginnings of the Subprime Mortgage Industry Fallout and has continued with the recent Occupy – United for Global Change.
Occupy Wall Street has changed the way we see the media, and it’s relationship to the powerful influencers of the World, and may even be the spark that ignites the shift from monetary policy influence to Socialmedia Influence. Michael Light reveals this shift in his book with a succinctly humorous history of influence and the shifts that have preceded what may be the next Global paradigm shift.
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