#OccupyFail: “Occupy Harvard” Left Vacant — This is What Anarchy Looks Like

Yesterday afternoon I went to check on how “Occupy Harvard” was doing.  Not so well.  It had been left vacant, again.

Not simply, as I’ve documented previously (e.g., November 12, November 18, andNovember 19), in the relatively early morning.  That was perhaps understandable given that after the first couple of nights few, if any, of Harvard’s “space occupants” were actually sleeping in the tents.  No, this time I found the site vacant in the middle of the afternoon, while there was considerable foot traffic through Harvard Yard, so that many people could notice the non-occupation.

Don’t take my word for it; you can view the minute-and-a-half video I shot while circling the site here.  Note that at about 0:30 I show you the inside of the huge blue geodesic dome dominating the site which the space occupants seem quite proud of (see here and here).  On the outside the dome states that it’s “OCCUPIED,” but on the inside . . . well, you’ll have to watch the video.

Here are some photos documenting the continuing non-occupancy of “Occupy Harvard”:  (1) wide shots, which show various people in Harvard Yard even on a rainy day (everywhere, it seems, except at the “occupation”) here, here, and here; and (2) closeups documenting the state of the camp, and no visible occupants (not even at the info desk inside the center tent), here, here, here, and here.

In viewing these photos (and my earlier photos documenting the non-occupation of the site) it’s worth keeping in mind the commitment expressed at the top of the homepage of “Occupy Harvard”:  “Occupy Harvard is located in Harvard Yard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Also, I took a few photos showing that the gates to Harvard Yard are still barred to those lacking Harvard i.d.s, due to an “encampment” which hasn’t been taken down even though it’s not occupied in any meaningful sense — and in particular, showing the impact on tourists who would like to see the Yard but must settle for taking photos through the gates.  See here, here, here, and here. I shot a brief video of a tour group which was unable to get into the Yard, which you can view here (the Harvard Crimson has a video about the impact of “Occupy Harvard” on tourists, here.)

And now for my substantive point.  ”Occupy Harvard” being left vacant in the middle of the afternoon, less than a month since its launch, is a concrete example of the downside of the anarchic governance model at the heart of the “Occupy” movement, which is also at the heart of its failure to achieve anything of consequence.  At the November 18 so-called “General Assembly” of “Occupy Harvard” I saw the future of so-called “participatory democracy” or “deliberative democracy” — the governance model suggested by anarchists who were involved in the early planning of “Occupy Wall Street” (see here) — and it does not work, not even at Harvard.  And if it cannot not work even at Harvard, when applied by people who strike me almost without exception as intelligent, principled, and public spirited, then I doubt it can work anywhere.

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