The Failure of Occupy Wall Street — Huffington Post
For those who are objective and unemotional it was easy to see this coming. The Occupy “movement” (and I use that term generously) has spiraled into irrelevance and relative obscurity. And it’s a shame, as much of its message had broad resonance which could’ve been harnessed into significant power and influence in Washington. Instead, it became a whole lotta nuthin’ over nuthin.’
So what went wrong?:
1. The “Occupy” Factor: Successful protest movements aren’t about occupation, per se. This movement was too tied to its home base, a small symbolic tent-city near Wall Street, and in other similar parks in Boston, San Francisco and other cities. In order to rally scalable national support people needed to see marchers taking to the streets rather than largely hanging out in a park, which served, rightly or wrongly, to portray the Zuccotti Park inhabitants as drifters, vagrants and freeloaders rather than committed protesters. Much of the attention was not over its message but over the communal aspect of park life. Successful protest movements aren’t about camping out, book sharing, eating, and “talking to each other,” as one organizer told me. As a friend of mine joked, Zuccotti looked more like Bonnaroo. It confined and defined the message in a way that was limited and negative.
HT: Nick