Getting to the bottom of protests

The reckless greed of Wall Street is legend and surely needs reining in, but the democratic claims of the Occupy Wall Street movement may prove something of a myth. What is it about American political culture, left, right and center, that makes such a hollow mantra of "freedom" and "democracy" whether it be in the name of upholding the status quo, upsetting the apple cart or fomenting revolution?

On Oct 1, I found myself at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, not far from where my grandparents first settled in this country, watching hundreds of police cordon off the stately landmark to divide a gathering crowd and confront protesters already on the bridge.

For over a decade now it's been hard for Americans to exercise constitutionally protected rights of free assembly due to fears generated by the trumped up "war on terror" and the burgeoning bureaucracy of an intolerant security state.

Thus, it came as a breath of fresh air to see people in the streets of New York peacefully assembling in public thoroughfares to protest the inequities of the status quo.

In the next few days I saw much good cheer and uplifting vignettes of awakened political consciousness in the "big apple revolution" but there were also disturbing signs of groupthink coalescing as various political actors and media manipulators tried to harness the spontaneous energy and angst of a frustrated generation.

The Occupy Wall Street protests are said to be leaderless; even the Washington Post and New York Times seem to say so. The apparent vacuum is too tempting to resist for those who fancy themselves natural leaders of the American people, and thus those who don't mock the demonstrations are gushing with goodwill and advice.

In no time at all, seasoned political "liberals" such as Al Sharpton, George Soros and Nancy Pelosi were in the game, trying to join the bandwagon, while conservative voices such as Peter King, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney made shallow disparaging remarks typical of the US right-left culture divide of decades past.

While moving among demonstrators in lower Manhattan, it is clear that some slogans are more equal than others, cardboard placards, online tweets and group chants converge in content. Statistical chance or hidden hand?

The protests seem not so much scripted as improvised within secret guidelines zealously guarded by facilitators. The high degree of discipline, necessary to the success of any movement, is both imposed and self-imposed. Self-appointed crowd facilitators skillfully co-opt wide-eyed members of the crowd through subtle psychological control mechanisms.

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