Even the lazy defeated frightened American prole will take to the streets eventually, even if just out of extreme boredom.

What's that line from Death of a Salesman?

"Attention must be paid."

Not to them, individually (although that's where it starts), but to the situation and to those responsible. I totally applaud this movement and the courage these people are displaying...and the courage that is now spreading.

I, for one, would be much happier if Democrats enacted the Jobs Bill, however inadequate, because that would demonstrate that they take unemployment of near 10% seriously.

People in this day and age need support for their employers

Last year a list was leaked of attendees of an important rightwing planning conference organized by Koch Industries. This is an annual meeting at which the servants of plutocracy plot its further entrenchment.  Eleven members of this year's Forbes 400 were on the list.  These are the hardcore plutocrats.  These are the people who personally take the time to destroy our political system for their own short-term gain -- and that of their families if their aristocracy of wealth is allowed to continue.  These 11 people pay a fraction of the rate you pay on your income into Social Security and Medicare. They have no need for Social Security or Medicare.  And they participate in a political movement that is trying to dismantle those programs.  Meet your masters, fellow Americans.

I think the part that really struck me was this (my bold):

...They don't have a formal list of demands.

And it's obvious that this isn't just about Wall Street, nor is it really a battle of any sort. There are political signs there attacking Fox News, expressing anger about Troy Davis, supporting the Iranian revolution, urging the Federal Reserve be reigned in, and demanding rich people pay their taxes. There are personal signs about debt, war, and medical problems. And people are dressed in costume, carrying lightsabers, and some guys are driving around a truck with a "Top Secret Wikileaks" sign on the side. I asked if they were affiliated with the site, and one of them responded with "That's what the Secret Service asked". Most of all, people there are having fun.

What these people are doing is building, for lack of a better word, a church of dissent. It's not a march, though marches are spinning off of the campground. It's not even a protest, really. It is a group of people, gathered together, to create a public space seeking meaning in their culture. They are asserting, together, to each other and to themselves, "we matter".

Meaning is a fundamental human need. The act of politicization, of building any movement, is based on individual, and then group self-confidence. As Daniel Ellsberg said, "courage is contagious". I'm reminded of how Howard Dean campaign worker and current law professor Zephyr Teachout characterized the early antiwar blogosphere and then-radical campaign of Dean, as church-like in their community-building elements. That's what #OccupyWallStreet reminded me of. Even the general assemblies, where people would speak, and others would respond, had a rhythmic quality to them, similar to churches or synagogues I've attended.

Right now their reputations have not suffered to the degree we have, if we can start exposing them for what they are, greedy gamblers of other people's money on loaded tables, then maybe voters and policy makers will start treating them as such.

Respectable business men they aren't, but you wouldn't know that asking your average joe or watching the news.

Funny that cops are brutalizing protesters even though their pension took massive blows because of Wallstreet.  I would think this has to be starting some sort of dialog with them, "Hey we are out here protecting the dirt bags that cost me two years pension, maybe we shouldn't be so forceful with the people who are fed up with their shenanigans."  

In an evolving document titled, "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City," organizers recently declared:

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, formerly divided by the color of our skin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or lack thereof, political party and cultural background, we acknowledge the reality: that there is only one race, the human race, and our survival requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their brethren; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

Wall Street is America's chief symbol of profits over people, self-interest over justice and of concentrated wealth over democracy. While millions of Americans struggle to find jobs, prevent banks from taking their homes, keep up with payments for student loans and get by on the minimal jobless benefits and welfare the government is willing to grant its citizens, Wall Street shoulders no burden. It enjoys millions of dollars in tax breaks each year. The corporations on Wall Street give executives bonuses that are grotesquely high, sometimes more than $10 million. Big banks are able to give their most senior executives these bonuses because the US government bailed them out through TARP in 2008. link