I’m sure most of us have had that moment in which you said the thing that had to be said, rather than the thing that someone wanted to hear, and suffered for your honesty.  Perhaps it was a friend who really loved someone who was just all wrong, or a person you once recognized who was fading to drugs or alcohol, or maybe it was even someone who loved you that you loved, too – just not the same way.  At one time or another, we’ve all had to say something that was as difficult for us to vocalize as it was for someone else to hear.  Even if you can’t recall or somehow managed to dodge the bashed-for-caring bullet up until now, let me assure you: If you’re sitting in occupation (or promoting it from the outside), you’re officially hated.  Don’t despair, though.  It isn’t your fault.  This is not one of those times where things would be better left unsaid.

There are many, maybe millions, who feel that the Occupy movement is a waste, a joke, or some insane scheme at Socialism or worse.  Being vocal about the movement, I am often headed off by feisty young Republicans, grumpy old men, or the flatly uninformed with all kinds of reasons why Occupy is the ugliest concoction of the most un-American things they can conjure.  My rebuttal is typically kicked off with a hardy and involuntary laugh, the kind that could send coffee out your nose if you were mid-swallow.  It isn’t funny, I know, but there is a level of humor in it for me that I can’t explain.  Perhaps it’s the “laugh or you’ll cry” mentality.  In my conversations on the matter, I’ve been told everything from Occupy being a movement to make the US, Canada, and Mexico one country to how the marchers only want their student loans forgiven because they are too lazy to work and apply their degrees.  I’ve been told Occupy should be shut down because we are wasting the precious resources of cities too broke to handle all the arrests (as though not arresting occupants is a situational alternative too mind-boggling to consider), but at no point does anyone ask themselves why our cities are all verging on bankruptcy.  These are just to name a few punch lines in the cascade of ridiculousness that falls from the mouths of those who are among the 99% but are so far incapable of getting behind the movement even though it is clearly behooves them, personally and nationally.

Understanding why these citizens would cling to foolish and shortsighted explanations, spouting them out in instant frustration then ramming their heads safely into the sand, rather than calmly addressing the problems of society may be critical to the movement consoling and recruiting those who tremble in the face of social change.  In my search for insight into this bizarre and counterproductive behavior, I read an amazing article written by Jim Sleeper, a political science lecturer from Yale University.  The article talks about the irony of those who discredit a movement poised to improve their lives and why he believes they do it.  His eloquence is masterful, and his vocabulary will make you smarter even though you’ll feel dumb while you’re forging through it.  I strongly recommend reading it as my discussion of it is no substitute for this primary source (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-sleeper/behind-the-snarking-about_b_1065830.html?ref=politics&ir=Politics).   Reading it, however, is not a prerequisite to understanding my related message.

Sleeper sees the response as being related to “a public psychopathology” referred to with the French term Ressentiment, which is essentially when those too fearful to face the real offenders and oppressors seek smaller targets (typically those courageous enough to take on those same enemies) on which to focus their anxiety and insecurity resulting in misplaced anger and hostile disagreement.  The resentment grows as private trash-talk by like-minded cowards becomes increasingly public, fueled by the attacks of those who propagate the fear and lies inherent to the condition itself for the purposes of agenda progress and propped up by the false security of an invented reality, one in which the problem is not the inflictors of oppressive societal conditions but instead the courageous individuals who stand defiantly before these powerful forces and point out problems the cowards are too intimidated by to address.  Basically, they don’t like you because you won’t allow them to live blindly.

By standing up for what is right, by shouting truths counter to the popular belief, and by fighting so vehemently against forces that govern the lives of Americans, you are proclaiming that something is wrong – seriously wrong.  Believing you, hearing you, and opening their eyes to see what you see is falling down the rabbit hole.  It means they have to accept that things are have gone astray and, worse yet, to discover the truth behind the lies that painted their existence.  As when Dorothy drew back the curtain or as in the case of any child who ever yanked off a holiday beard, the truth can be heartbreaking.  What would they have, what hope, what aspirations, what new responsibilities if they come to face the fact that their American dream has been just that – a dream?

Bringing the masses into the fold requires us, the revolutionists, to offer more than just political rebuttals for their misguided resentment.  (Granted, not laughing in their faces would probably also help, and I promise to try.)  We must remember that those who take to the frontlines in any battle are those who are cut out for fighting, which is something most people are not.  Those who quiver in the back or who plant their feet firmly in resistance to truth are still valuable members of our society and our movement, and we must do whatever we can to help them adjust to world the way it is if there is going to be any hope for achieving the world the way it should be.  We need to be able to give them something more than a laundry list of grievances and a heap of facts proving how far we, as a nation, have fallen from grace.  We need to meet them with hope and with wisdom; and while answers might be on short supply just yet, though I have considerable faith in those behind this movement, we can share with them our vision and our ideas.

In the weeks to come, I’m going to write to you about the Civil War and a story my father told me about the Battle of Antietam.  The relevance of this story will cue us for a honing of our movement that is both natural and essential.  In the meantime, we must find ways to stir the pot, but not in the bubbling, boiling, swishing fashion of the raucous revolutions of old.  We need to smooth and cox and simmer as we would a delicate pudding, patiently awaiting the melding and rendering required of all great visions.  We must take the time to listen and find the fear behind their words, to reason with those who seem unreasonable, to answer with possibility instead of counterpoint, and to find the common ground.  And if that moment comes when you realize you are out of time, out of patience, and out of answers, you can always do what I did after being trapped in a flea market stale with a raging Republican (a man peddling discount toys on a picnic table for a living – a man clearly of the 99%) and a toddler in full meltdown.  When he asked forcibly and with great vocal snicker, “then who do you vote for?”

I shrugged and smiled sweetly with a batting of the eyes, and yelled “OCCUPY!”

Then I grabbed my kid and ran.

Hey, you can’t win them all.