Occupation

Published in BASE: Building Alliances for Social Engagement

The occupation of the occupiers is to occupy the occupied. Depending on who is doing the occupying, this is called “security.”

The occupation occupies the space once occupied by the occupied at the onset of the occupation. While the occupiers are occupied with the occupation of keeping the occupied under occupation, the occupation of the occupied is to resist occupation. This resistance is usually called terrorism.

The occupied territories are simultaneously occupied by both the occupied (called militants) and the occupiers (called settlers and/or liberators). Eventually the occupiers will fully occupy the land that once held the villages of the occupied before the occupation. This is often referred to as progress.

The occupations of the occupied under occupation are now unoccupied.

But the occupation does not occupy the minds of those not occupied or occupying. In fact, they don’t want to be occupied by thoughts of the occupied or the occupation.

Occupation, after all, is such a harsh word.