What began with demonstrations in Madrid this spring has coalesced into something on a much grander scale. The anger of the Indignants on the Puerta del Sol has traversed the Atlantic and has fired the supporters of the Occupy movement in New York’s Zuccotti Park and beyond. This is now a viral protest spreading to cities around the world, one that politicians ignore at their cost.
It is easy to dismiss the protests as the product of an incoherent fringe. Certainly, the demonstrators have different aims. While they are united in their loathing of bankers on both sides of the Atlantic, the antigovernment movement in the US, for example, is much broader and stronger than the anti-Wall Street movement.
Where the protesters do find common ground is in their outrage at the lack of economic opportunities and their alienation from mainstream politics. Failure to address these concerns would risk reinforcing the protesters’ sense of disengagement, transforming their alienation into a dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy.