Dispatches from the Occupation: A History of Change

by Stephen Collis

Somewhere at the core of almost every intellectual discipline is an attempt to explain change—why and how things change, and how we negotiate these transformations. It is the most ancient of philosophical questions, but in this collection of essays, award-winning poet Stephen Collis investigates the Occupy movement as it takes up the cause of social, economic, and political change.

Dispatches from the Occupation opens with a series of short essays on the Occupy movement as the author witnessed it, and participated in it, firsthand. Here are “dispatches” from the day-to-day unfolding of the occupation in Vancouver, short manifestos, theoretical musings, and utopian proposals. The global Occupy movement has only just begun, so this book presents an important first report from the front lines.

The middle section of the book is a long meditation on the idea of change as it moves through intellectual history. Change follows certain patterns, and its articulation can be compared across the humanities and sciences. Here the idea of “social change” is set in the wider context of change as one of the timeless ideas and problems of philosophy.

Dispatches from the Occupation closes with a reflection on the city of Rome, written in the shadows of the Pantheon. Collis traces the trope of Rome as the “eternal city,” from its imperial past to the rebirth of Roman republicanism during the French Revolution and the era of modern social movements.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2012

Reviews

[Mike Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a difficult book to evaluate. The author is a professor of contemporary literature and an activist who participated in the Vancouver Occupation of 2011. The book is a collection of short writings that follow the motivation for the occupation movements, not only Vancouver but also Wall Street and other demonstrations in protest of what the author argues are our deteriorating governmental and ecological systems. It is written with academic precision and appropriate annotations and references.

Ultimately, the argument is in favor of civilian demonstrations to voice concern and outrage at increasing income gaps between the "1% and the 99%," and the methods of economic and governmental control that continue to cause such inequities. It is an indictment against capitalism in its most ruthless and hence self-destructive form, and an argument for protest of selfish control by the 1%.

My rating is based on the quality and thoroughness of the writing, not specifically on the validity of the author's argument. Three stars. Hard core conservatives would rate it one, socialists would rate it five.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always curious to discover that what you think is probably your own, relatively isolated experience and hodge-podge intellectual disposition is, in fact, emblematic of a widespread form of subjectivity.

Which is a fancy way of saying that it seems like Collis and I read a lot of the same books, and I agreed with both many of his thoughts and the way in which he expresses them.