Autonomy and Accountability

Submitted by lizsavage on

This blog contains opinions and arguments that may cause action to be taken. Please be advised.

June 17th was the the 9 month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Most of the world outside of occupy is not aware of this, as the Main Stream Media (MSM) keeps pounding it into their heads that "Occupy is dead".  But this is not the way it looks to many on the ground, as we see what happens day to day, we follow the writings, the live streams, the blogs, and tweets of other occupiers all over the world. Unfortunately most of the world outside Occupy does not follow, or might not even know these things exist. They don't see us on what MSM calls "News" so out of sight, out of mind. There isn't a great amount of media coming out of the occupations, generally because we are really busy with what we are doing, and we always could use more help.

This is where we get into my two favorite words in the Occupation, both thrown around a lot but not understood by everyone. So lets go over them shall we?

 

au·ton·o·my

[aw-ton-uh-mee]

noun, plural au·ton·o·mies.

1. independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions: the autonomy of the individual.
2. the condition of being autonomous;  self-government, or the right of self-government; independence: The rebels demanded autonomy from Spain.
3. a self-governing community.

 

 
 
Autonomy to me means instead of having people tell me every night that we need more articles on our webpage, they will actually submit articles themselves, and take initiative to help spread information. Instead of always waiting for someone to ask or tell you to do something, ask or tell someone you can do something! Every person I meet has some kind of skill they can offer, yet I find many have been reluctant to share these skills, for a variety of reasons. We need to break the chains society has put on our minds and spirits. We need to let go of the idea we have to wait for someone to tell us what to do. We need to ask what needs to be done, and put our ideas into action rather than just into a notebook. It is up to each of us individually to make things happen. Everything you see happening around you generally happens because people decided to do it on their own, or with a group of comrades.  I bring this up as currently in OLA, OWS, and other occupies I see and hear of people just sitting around waiting and asking for things to be done, but it never occurs to them to take iniative to help make these ideas happen. So instead of telling people, "you should do..." how about; "how can I help you to do..." Or just do it if you have the means to!
 
Now onto the second word which should be just as important to us.

ac·count·a·bil·i·ty

[uh-koun-tuh-bil-i-tee]

noun

1. the state of being accountable,  liable, or answerable.
2. Education . a policy of holding schools and teachers accountable  for students' academic progress by linking such progress with funding for salaries, maintenance, etc.

 

 
Basically, If you say you are going to do something, do it! When someone takes point on a part of an action, a committee project, or whatever it may be, everyone else is depending on you to do it. If your overwhelmed, or not able to complete the tasks you took on, let others know, reach out for assistance. Don't just abandon ship and leave everything you took on in another's lap unexpectedly. Lack of accountability is not only a problem in occupy, but it is one of the very problems I believed we were fighting.... Governments, banks, and corporations (really all the same thing) are not accountable to us, or held accountable for what they do, and if we are really talking about holding them accountable, creating change, and living in a more autonomous world, we should be setting that example.
 

How do we move forward from the current state we are in? How can we facilitate autonomy? Is it even possible? To me it doesn't seem like we can just sit around and wait for it to happen. But as autonomy builds, how do we work towards accountability as a major objective, so more gets accomplished overall? How do we with a loose structure assist those around us in taking action, that gets followed through on? How do we destroy the notion you have to wait to be told to do something by "someone in charge?"

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1 Comment

TechnoZeus's picture

Working on it

Submitted by TechnoZeus on

I'm taking a long shot in the way I am going about it, but that's because I do not want to be made to disappear before I can get the ball rolling. I think many of us are doing what we can, but I agree that there is a definite need for people to break out of the "whose in charge" way of thinking and take what positive action they can, while accepting the risks personally.

Adventurer and problem solver by reputation, Actor by profession and peaceful Activist at heart - Donald Arthur Kronos, Ph.D.

http://DonaldKronos.info

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