November 16, 2011
Good Readers,
I am the antithesis of the Occupy movement and yet I am strangely attracted to it. It brings me back to my rebellious youth and at the same time it appeals to my experience with organizational behavior.
I am staying at the Omni Hotel and my room overlooks Mellon Bank plaza which, ironically, is the host of the neatly organized and quiet campsite below.
It was raining when I checked in this afternoon and the park looked empty. Three or four occupiers walked about and checked in at some of the buttoned up and weatherproofed tents .
After spending a day and evening with bankers, fine wine, gas drillers and other targets of the movement I strolled back towards the Omni. Going out of my way I entered the park and was greeted by a young woman and a slightly older looking man. The woman looked like she was in her 20’s. She looked healthy and well fed. The man was thin with a graying scrub on his face. We exchanged greetings. I asked questions about the organizational structure.
So my first impression of Occupy Pittsburgh was this: Two polite individuals stopped their conversation to talk to me and take me to their leader, their internet leader in this case. Before we started up the path two leather clad, backpackers sporting a variety of head piercings arrived. They said they were from Columbus en-route to New York City. I joked that Bloomberg won’t let them in with all of their gear and they laughed noting they too had heard the news. The conversation was ice-cream normal except for one small thing: The occupiers to whom I introduced myself niether asked my name, nor shared share their own. They greeted the newcomers with a hearty “Welcome Columbus” to which the newly-rives proudly answered “Thank you Pittsburgh”. I didn’t offer my name. I shifted the strap of my briefcase to hide the logo of my employer.
I asked about whether non-occupiers could participate via the internet. My anonymous hosts offered to take me to Helen. By this time Helen had already “left for the day” so instead they left me alone in the path and went to fetch “David”. After a few minutes David came down a dark side path to speak with me. I explained that having created the spark they should put the whole movement on the web. We discussed the pro’s and con’s of previous web based efforts. Then a short young man with a beard and neck tattoos interrupted and asked David for the telephone number of the ACLU. Standing with him was another leather clad backpacker sporting piercings. David didn’t understand the question so the bearded escort tried again this time asking for the telephone number of a different acronym. After two more attempts to communicate David simply asked if he needed the legal hotline. The bearded man nodded and David directed them towards another dark path.
I wanted to wrap up my conversation as I guessed did also David. We were discussing web based mechanisms for inclusion, the risk of dilution, and the limiting confines of the park. At thispoint David showed a very slight sign of exasperation. He politely excused himself and asked if we could pick up the conversation another time because he was being pulled in too many directions running the campsite, and that he promised his mom a phone call. I quipped that New York doesn’t have those problems anymore to which he answered “maybe that’s not a bad thing.”
