There is nothing more ridiculous and ineffective than people protesting something specific and there is nothing more dangerous than people protesting nothing in particular. The latter is what's going on with the recent "Occupy Wall Street" protests in New York City. I'm sure there are some people who are there to demonstrate against specific injustices. Lord knows there are plenty to choose from where the U.S. economic crisis is concerned. But for every protester who is there because they're upset about the way banks are screwing over their customers in the pursuit of even greater profit for their major investors (as opposed to the benefit of their millions of small-time investors, re: customers) or every protester who's occupying Wall Street because of the ethical bankruptcy of the runaway train that is Congressional lobbying, there are a hundred protesters who are there because they're sick of being poor and not knowing why.

I can't say for certain how the Occupy Wall Street protests are going to play out. More like than not, they fizzle as people get tired of hanging out on the street all day and road-showering in the nearest McDonald's. This, after all, is still America. We are far from the most righteously indignant people and we have the collective attention span of a three-year-old. Also, even though the economic situation here is dire and has been going on for ages, the risk/reward structure of really tearing shit up over the job market is still pretty unfavorable. Some folks would like to think that Occupy Wall Street is America's version of the Arab Spring, that it's the Tahir Square of the West. Thankfully, it's not. Americans aren't being disappeared, shot in the streets or publicly hanged for political dissent, we're just struggling to reacquire the standard of living we enjoyed before the bubble burst.

At the same time, I can't in good conscience roundly dismiss the protests just because they're unfocused and hard to take seriously considering America's position relative to other troubled cultures in the world. The likelihood that the demonstrations actually get anything done is lower than Obama's approval rating in Texas, but that doesn't mean things can't turn ugly. Think the 1999 WTO conference in Seattle. All it took were some practiced agitators from an anarchist organization out of Oregon to rile up a city full of folks who were pissed off at everything and nothing and make a riot out of it. Today in New York, we've got thousands of pissed off poor people from middle class backgrounds galvanized by their own need to be important. There are enough people there who want to play revolutionaries mixed in with a heavy helping of highly suggestible people who can quickly be reduced to monkey-see, monkey-do.

And then there are the cameras. One thing the Arab Spring has taught us about technology is that it not only facilitates coordination of direct action, it also creates an instant brand for media consumption. I have no doubt in my mind that a significant portion of the people occupying Wall Street are there because they want to be a part of the Youtube videos, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds of their own revolutionary moment. Sure, being reminded that everything's caught on video and uploaded instantly turned the NYPD from a wrongful arrest in the above footage, but that same sentiment has added a layer of vanity to the protests as well. There's less courage in an act of civil disobedience when you know for a fact that people will pay attention, less martyrdom in the abuses you endure when you're being Nada on purpose. The real question is, will this less genuine, pop culture flavored version of protest be more effective than the comparatively silent demonstrations of the past?