At first glance, I am inclined to label Occupy Wall Street “a movement.” If I was to elaborate further, I might call it “a movement for social and economic change.”

This is already problematic.

Any good English student would agree that the best place to begin analysis is with the language itself: “Occupy Wall Street.” As an imperative statement, the implied subject of the sentence is “you.” “Wall Street” functions as the object of the sentence, the location which “you” are instructed to occupy.

This brings us to the verb. In modern parlance, “to occupy” carries a rather menacing connotation. The word evokes an image of the German occupation of France, or the US occupation of Iraq.

Why, as a non-violent “movement,” would its founders designate it according to such ominous terminology?

The answer is that this is not a movement at all: it is a cessation of movement. Although the word “occupy” is used, it actually expresses the bare minimum of action required to fulfill the function of a verb. It’s meaning is closer to the verbs “exist” or “inhabit” than to verbs like “seize”, “control,” or “subjugate”.

The truth is that the question “What are the occupants doing?” is already flawed. It is precisely what they are not doing that constitutes the force of their non-movement.

We see that, historically, this cessation of movement is characteristic of every successful non-violent “movement.” Ghandi would not eat. Rosa Parks would not sit at the back of the bus. The workers would not work.

We see that we do not even have the language to express something as contradictory and subversive as the phenomenon we are witnessing.

The struggle to rejuvenate the word “occupy” presents a microcosm of the struggle to rethink our entire system. Until we stop moving, until we cease performing the ritualistic practices that tattoo our so-called solutions, we will never be afforded the opportunity to start a dialogue about what is not-OK with the world we live in. The first steps in a new direction are necessarily preceded by our unwillingness to travel any further down the path we are on.