If you need an afternoon chuckle, say hello to the Occupy Duke protest movement. I’ve bolded some of the more entertaining elements.
The general assembly meetings of Occupy Duke operate on policy of consensus decision-making adopted from the Wall Street movement, Karklina said. With an indefinite time-frame and goals, the Duke movement—independent from Occupy Durham—hopes to include academic discussions such as teach-ins and debates, and creative expressions such as dance, music and banner-making.
“We do not have an agenda, and what I have been getting through the general assembly that we had earlier today… was that people don’t necessarily feel that there needs to be certain agendas or demands,” Karklina said.
The first night of encampment, favored by the clear weather, consisted of games and discussions intended to create a community atmosphere between campers and passers-by.
“I love sleeping in tents. If you think that people will stay in K-ville during January and February for a three-hour basketball game, this is a pretty worthy cause to camp out for,” sophomore Sarah Ludwig said.
Ludwig said the encampment creates a space where people feel comfortable expressing differing opinions. She noted that one male student passing by stopped to argue, saying the top one percent—people with an annual salary above $506,000, according to the Real Time Economics blog of The Wall Street Journal—are intelligent and deserve their earnings.
The discussions Saturday night were periodically interrupted by drunk students returning from a night out, Ludwig noted.
