As Occupy protesters turn violent, it’s worth reflecting on why the movement failed in the first place.

The Occupy Movement and the Communism of Everyday Life

By Lee Harris

When the Occupy Wall Street movement began in 2011, it took as its motto the bracing claim: “We are the 99 percent.” A year later, it is beginning to look more like the Occupy movement is simply another 1 percent, different of course from the 1 percent of the richest Americans that the movement set out to target, but no more representative of the average American than the likes of Bill Gates or Warren Buffett. How did this happen?

Despite the fact that the Occupy Wall Street movement never came close to standing for the opinion of 99 percent of Americans, it originally struck a sympathetic chord among the many Americans who blamed our nation’s economic woes on the greed and selfishness of the rascals on Wall Street. 

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/may/the-occupy-movement-and-the-communism-of-everyday-life