Story and Photography by Lehan Winifred Ramsay

I disagree with Occupy Wall Street. It’s irrelevant to talk about the greed of big bankers and corporations. They’re not the only ones who have tipped our world into it’s looming environmental disaster. They are just part of a system of making and selling and buying and throwing away.

I want to propose that we occupy Apple. Especially, those of us who have apple ipods and imacs and iphones. Those of us who have bought into a name and a convenience. I want to suggest that we now turn to Apple and ask it to change. Even whilst feeling the pain of losing Steve Jobs, I want us to ask it to change.

I want us to Occupy Apple. Not by actually going to the Apple Shop and putting up a tent there. But by figuring out a way that we can get the attention of Apple, to ask it to turn its attention, even if for a moment, to our dilemma.

Our dilemma is this. We love our lifestyle. We want it to just keep on getting better and better. We don’t want to give up our conveniences or our tools of work and leisure. But many many more people in the world are wanting a life just like ours. We know that the biggest problem of our life is that it is not sustainable, and that such an increase in people living like us would be catastrophic. But we love it too deeply to change it.

We love Steve Jobs. Because he looks so loveable and he gave us these lovely things, he changed our lives, he made things for us! Not the kind of luxury devices for the wealthy; like sports cars and one-off designer handbags. He made extraordinary devices that we could afford to have. And that changed our lives. Not just by connecting us up in a way that made our world feel like it was the only world, but by bringing well-designed objects into our lives and getting us accustomed to paying more to look better. We love him because he is our style guru, and only a few of his words – think different – when clicked on, bring up a whole manual of style. Life style.

So I want to suggest that we Occupy Apple. That we do it in a loving and sweet way. That we do it in the most endearingly cute and innovative way, in such a way that the person whose idea it is is swept up by the Apple Company. That we who have apple products, and we who simply learned to live with more style but kept our computer know-how and made our own computing products all find a way to make a little nest in Apple and all perch in there together. And once we’re in, we say “Apple, we need your help”.

And the help we need is a bit different from stopping all those Wall Street dudes from getting their big bonuses. The help we need is for us. We need help. We need help to understand that this problem is ours, and understand that no big deals and no big technological breakthroughs and no big laws are going to solve the problem of entire populations living the good life, and other entire populations just wanting to do the same.
I don’t really see that it’s depressing. I think it’s only depressing if you try not to think about it. Once you do think about it, it’s more of an interesting dilemma. I can’t really see how we can resolve it, and my feeling is that we are not going to. That we are more likely to just keep finding ways to do big things in order to avoid looking at the fact that we, that each of us, is the problem.

But I am not overly concerned about this. I think we just need to go to Apple, get inside it somehow, and communicate with it. Apple, we need help. Apple, we have a problem. It might be that Apple is planning a way that we no longer need our computers and our hand held devices. That could be the future. Anyway, if we ask it, perhaps Apple will make that the future and simply work toward it. We really have no idea what Apple wants, what Apple plans for the future. All we know is that when we hold something Apple in our hands, and it is working okay, the battery is full, the operating system, the software, the data, all there, then we feel happy.

I want us to ask Apple for help. I want us to find a way to Occupy Apple, and then find a way to get its attention, and from there, for us to ask Apple for help. Most of us don’t have accounts with those corporations on Wall Street. We don’t have shares, we don’t have funds. We are not Stakeholders. But in Apple we do have a stake. We not only buy from Apple. We like Apple. We trust Apple. And we admire Apple. And so it seems to me the most reasonable action to take, to go to Apple, to Occupy Apple, and to ask Apple for help.
I cannot see how we can solve the problem of our consumption of resources, and how our consumption is depleting the earth. I can, though, see with my own eyes how the depletion of the earth is creating problems. Problems of pollution, and problems of growing piles of garbage, and problems of the seas getting dirty and animals and fish dying. I can see that more people get skin cancers. I can see that in my lifetime winters have gotten warmer and summers are very hot. I have seen countries twice and noticed that the second time they had more shops and cars. I could see that their buildings got sewerage systems, and then nobody noticed the sewerage any more. And I think that might be a problem.

I remember I lived in a coastal town, and in the summer my friends used to go to the cliffs and jump off. They laughed at the locals for not swimming in the sea. The locals laughed at them for not knowing that that’s where their sewerage went. I know that Apple is not in the sewerage business. Anyway, perhaps people have to solve their own sewerage problems. I know that this country has sewerage problems.

Occupying Wall Street is a nice idea. Especially with summer coming, it’s a brilliant opportunity to enjoy a bit of camping in a prime location. But I think it isn’t making us look at the painful truths. Like: our love of what is killing us. So it is my suggestion that some smart young person find a way for us to Occupy Apple.