Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The Operation of the Machine becomes so Odious

I updated my Facebook app for iPhone this morning, and of course it crashed my phone and it requires a system restore. Apple has also made it a requirement that a restore can only be accomplished with a connection to the internet. How nice. My company blocks the Apple domain so I can’t install iTunes to update the phone.  And since I don’t have internet access at home, I need to take my laptop to a coffee shop after work and try to find some fast WiFi.

Joy.

I told my landlord I am moving at the end of November. It really is a relief. I feel stifled in this basement.  I’m excited to decorate the new place, hanging up pictures and bringing out of storage some vintage knick-knacks. I hope to be able to have people over in a setting that more reflects my personality.

I was watching some YouTube videos last night of the #OccupyTogether march I attended on Sunday.  I was shocked to see my face on several of the videos. I was standing about 3 rows back from the front. I was amazed at how I looked on the video. I looked angry. My fist was clenched in the air. The muscles in my face and neck stretched tight. Wide open mouth shouting with the crowd. The reality of the march was very peaceful, with many smiles, and even laughter. Children were playing  and musical instruments were spread throughout.  The face on the videos was not the face I was actually feeling  while marching.

The march ended at a city park, where people stood and voiced their opinions. I was struck by their intensity, but I also noticed their lack of preparedness for the speeches.  I wanted to hear another Mario Savio:

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all." Mario Savio -Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964


2 comments:

  1. Yay! I just needed to turn off a few security settings and I was able to restore the phone at work!

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  2. Will we throw our bodies onto the wheels? It may have reached the point where enough bodies are thrown there against their will that there is no longer any choice but to stay there and gum up the works.

    Cool that you were there.

    ReplyDelete