Occupy’s slogans and reforms recycled 1980s-era proposals rather than novel ideas

Evidence

While brave activists had proven willing to invent new forms of civil disobedience, much of their tweeting and blogging tended to reveal a reversion to themes already promulgated by the usual suspects covered in this volume. When not openly appealing to a lost world, like the “Take Back the American Dream” motif, they would propose “reforms” dating back to the 1980s, such as the Tobin tax on financial transactions, or a “fairness doctrine” for political ads, or an ineffectual public financing scheme for election campaigns. Mostly in the heat of Occupy, disputations over the crisis and financial sector were dominated by backward-looking ambitions and nostalgia for a happier and more prosperous time. Slogans like “We are the 99%” seemed to be calculated so as to be overly inclusive, confusing expansiveness with democracy, and therefore ineffectual. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 905

Categorization

• XREF: Extends Mirowski’s thesis that the ‘thought collective’ absorbs and neutralizes opposition — connects to Naomi Klein’s critique of how movements recycle old demands. — connects to: Occupy failed because it lacked a coherent counter-repertoire to embedded neoliberalism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 906; Vague ideological slogans can mask rather than resolve real political contradictions — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2766; Do-it-yourself ideology re-absorbs formerly paid labor into leisure (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Is Mirowski underrating the strategic value of ‘over-inclusive’ slogans like ‘We are the 99%’? Worth weighing against social-movement theory on publicity value.

Broader Connections

• Occupy failed because it lacked a coherent counter-repertoire to embedded neoliberalism #corroborates (0.88) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 906
• Do-it-yourself ideology re-absorbs formerly paid labor into leisure #expands (0.75)
• Vague ideological slogans can mask rather than resolve real political contradictions #qualifies (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2766
• The 1960s protest movements demonstrated a distinct praxis rationalization worth strengthening #exemplifies (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2714