Why We're Lucky to Occupy

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/29448276?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/29448276">The Soft War</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/columnfive">Column Five</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

I find that the parallels that people are trying to draw between Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring demonstrations make for an interesting rhetoric.

Occupy has been asking their followers if they're ready for a Tahrir movement, but I'm wondering if that is even possible - the political situations differ so wildly.

Much has been made of the Occupy movement and the role that social media has played in mobilizing activists not only on Wall Street, but across the world. It's been dazzling in that effect - watching online activism spill out on to the streets, demonstrating how viral discontent doesn't necessarily stay within the confines of internet.

But we've seen it all before, and it's not an Arab Spring. Our need for economic equality and justice is important, but not the same.

Which isn't to say that's not a vital, important movement - I know that I am part of the 99%, and I know that everyone reading this blog is too. What I think is important to remember when we try to create these comparisons, however, is not just the risk that the Arab Spring protesters took by mobilizing their efforts online, or how desperate they were to ensure that the world bore witness to their cause. It's also the long-term, real-world activism that underpinned their efforts, and how, no matter what the outcome of the global Occupy movement is, we will still be able to freely express our dissent online and have a right to take our beliefs to the street.

So how do we fight the Soft War?

Awareness. Diligence. Reminding those who are in these dark zones who may still have access that we haven't forgotten them.

I don't have the answer. I just know that I am lucky to even write this.