Thank you. Perfect parallel.
The 60's anti-war hippie protesters (I was around and knew more than a few, though I was a kid), were not exactly diplomatic genius types who had a viable plan for world peace. From what I recall, they were composed about equally of stoners whose main motives were not wanting to go to Vietnam, preferring to stay stoned all day, avoid work as much as possible, and take advantage of the sexual revolution.... and hyper-idealistic college kids or college dropouts who were so full of slogans and chants and RAGE that they couldn't stop to consider an alternative viewpoint.
So many of them thought if we just laid down all our arms and put daisies in our hair and sang "Let the sunshine in", the Soviet Union and etc would go "Aw, how sweet, let's be nice to them and go have a drum circle and score some weed." :lamo Um, No.... the truth of the world is that showing an unwillingness to fight is like wearing a roast pig on your back in a tiger cage.
Like the hippies of the 60's, I tend to think the OWS protesters are a mix of naive ideologues and lazy opportunists, based on what I've seen. Many interviewees seem to have only a very vague idea of what they're protesting for, and even less idea of what they'd replace the current system with. Others have these incredibly unrealistic anarchist notions that in the absence of all gov't that people would just naturally be cooperative and communitarian and everything would be groovy, baby. :roll:
The 60's anti-war, anti-caplitalism, anti-Establishment hippies didn't really change much in the world, overall. Society is still structured much the same, with work and jobs and corporations and rich people and politicians and wars. Many of the very people who were hippy protesters back then are now capitalists, corporatists, and politicians, and they're not ushering in any Age of Aquarius. :lamo
The OWS is likely just another flash in the pan, but an even smaller and less significant one.