Water Cooler Wars: Occupy hand signals


Upstate Be


It seems like occupying things is all the rage right now. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Atlanta and even, on Nov. 19, a scheduled Occupy Anderson protest. And even though it's not entirely clear what the full message is supposed to be for the Occupy rallies, one thing is absolutely certain: Their communication style is about as hip as the hipsters participating.

Personally, I don't know that I agree or disagree with the Occupy movement. That's probably because I don't know enough about what the movement is trying to get done or what change they are trying to effect. What I do know is that, like speaking Elvish from J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth or Klingon from Star Trek, they have come up with a language all their own to get that jumbled message across.

To be honest, I hadn't heard about his new communication style until I saw it on "The Colbert Report" a couple days ago. Turns out they use their hands and something called the "human microphone" to vote on issues and determine how a specific issue should be dealt with.

For instance, if they don't like something, they will do a kind of jazz hands deal with their fingers pointing down. If they like something being said, it's the same thing only those fingers are pointing up. And if they need to get something out through the voice of the people, one person says it and the rest of the group echoes it over and over and over again until everyone gets the message.

Sounds a little corny, right? Well, you couldn't be more wrong.

For as long as civilization has existed, we have come up with non-verbal and unifying ways to communicate among the masses. Soldiers have their own signals and speak to effectively communicate with one another. Cliques use high-fives, thumbs-up and elaborate handshakes to say hello, good bye, that's cool and will do. Even Wall Street uses inane hand gestures to buy and sell on the market floor day after day.

And that's why the gestures for Occupy Wall Street and the entire Occupy movement are so cool. While getting their message to the people, they have found a way to mock the very institution they are rallying against. Like Ferris Bueller on the exchange floor, the protesters can talk amongst themselves in a way no one can understand and still stick it to the man.

At first, I thought this whole thing was a joke. I thought it was just a bunch of rabble-rousers who were forced to set up a tent in New York City and see how long it would take until someone kicked them out. But with their style of communication, it's obvious this is another way to make the 1 percenters completely crazy.


Special to Upstate Be


I really dig what the protestors of Occupy Wall Street are trying to say. I'm one of many in the 99 percent who feels it's time that the people who control the money and power in this country become a little more transparent and start working for the majority. Salaries should be lowered, privileges should be revoked and that top one percent should be held accountable for years of abusing a system that was set up to work for all people.

However, I can't shake the feeling that these protestors are their own worst enemy. I'll admit that a small portion of them are organized and respected individuals. I don't think famed philosopher and activist Cornel West would have thrown his hat into the protest unless he thought it had some merit.

The movement certainly does, but the kitschy forms of communication that the protestors have recently adopted are coming off as not only dated but a little juvenile. The movement has gone viral, but unfortunately the movement's means of crowd communication are about as annoying as most viral videos.

If you saw a small group of young hipsters on a subway, bus or in a coffee shop coming up with unnecessarily complicated hand signs in order to convey a message, you would probably write them off as what they are: hipsters taking up space and wasting time. Now imagine that was a crowd of thousands doing the same thing, but as you walk by you're in the minority because there are just so many of them performing "up twinkles" and "down twinkles."

I get that the crowd needs to convey as a group that it approves or disapproves of what is being said, but have they ever heard of just a simple thumbs up/thumbs down or the always-effective yay and nay? I have a feeling that some actions have been approved during these protests because someone mixed up a hand signal or just enjoyed raising the roof for no reason. I walk around my house raising the roof because it's so much fun; who knows if I might just do it on instinct when an important voting matter comes up?

These protestors could appoint a leader (or representative) to speak for the group. Sure, certain portions of the crowd might appoint their own leader and then opinions would clash, but that's what democracy is all about. They do support democracy, right? I sure hope so.

And the concept of the human microphone is just silly. Once these people appoint a leader or figurehead, they could all chip in a few bucks and invest in something called a megaphone. The call and response, human microphone thing is fun at baseball games, but you're now just coming off as annoying. The more organized the protestors are and the more serious they take their own cause the more their message would be taken seriously. If they want to make a difference it's time to ditch the gimmicks.