"Will Extremists Hijack Occupy Wall Street?"

[handmade34]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/opinion/will-extremists-hijack-occupy-wall-street.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&wpisrc=nl_wonk



"The activists of Occupy Wall Street have already scored a stunning — and I think welcome — success.

A motley group of anarchists, avowed revolutionaries and young people dedicated to pragmatic liberal reform has already transformed the political conversation. They have compelled the media to pay fresh attention to voices on the left. And despite a lack of explicit demands, the movement obviously embodies an alternative vision of a new world that is, in the words of one participant, “participatory and democratic to the core.”

In the process, the activists have resurrected a defining aspect of the New Left of the 1960s: an overriding commitment to participatory democracy, to making decisions by deliberation and consensus and not through elected representatives. Sooner or later, Occupy Wall Street will have to grapple with the practical problems and limits of that ideal..."

[Scuba]

1. They'll try, just as the Ron Paul groupies have been trying....

... but the 99% is not, by definition, extreme.

[Somawas]

2. Until heads roll, No.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. And who will be taking those heads?

The OWS is an open and unstructured movement open to all. If it is really about the 99% we will need to tolerate Ron Paul supporters, people legally carrying firearms, drummers, and Dave Mathews supporters.

[Aryo]

3. When the Black Bloc shows up

the full force of the police state will be shown.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. I am surprised we have not seen some by now

With the current wave of violence against the encampments, I am wondering if they will come out now.

[2pooped2pop]

4. I wish they would quit saying young people

some of us have been protesting this shit for years, trying to get these young people involved. Granted, we could not make it launch without them. We need their youth, their ideas, their computer savvy, their determination, their good health, and their numbers. But we are not all Young people, students, or those kids. Oh yeah, they do sometimes include us not young people as the "dirty hippies"

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. What do you think the average age is in the encampments?

Based on the two I have been to the demographics were overwhelming young and fair skinned

[2pooped2pop]

9. that is true, but it is not all

We are part of the 99% and we are part of the representation. Not just the young have had enough.

[bemildred]

5. "Will the NYT report the news instead of spewing propaganda and speculation?" nt