OWS and their apologists

There's been much talk about OWS, with some saying it's a politically impotent movement that lacks focus and defined purpose, and other saying it's a movement outside a corrupt political process attempting to affect a response from without.

From what I've gathered, in spite of the mercurial posturing to avoid definition, the movement is a new form of counter-culture represented by a relative handful of young people separating themselves from the "system". There are older 60's throwbacks and those in the political class on the Left who "relate" to OWS, but the main core is a counterculture group displeased with the way things are.

While OWS apologists rail against outside analyses, nothing prevents observers on the outside forming opinions. As convenient as it would be to insulate the group from critical analysis, it's not the way things work, especially when outsiders can be affected if OWS influences change. This counterculture collective appears to have little desire to work within the system to affect change -- they want the system to respond to their displeasure. OWS has promoted few morally righteous, floating abstractions, , like fairness and equality, disconnected from messy facts in reality and nuance.

My best guess is that this counterculture group wants the system, the State, to respond to their partially formed ideas of fairness and equality, whether this means having access to meaningful, good paying jobs, forgiveness of debt, disempowerment of Wall Street, or a more comprehensive entitlement structure that includes meeting the basic human needs of shelter, food, clothing and income for everyone who's not rich. In order to meet the requests, OWS wants the State to fund the transformation through fair redistribution from the 1% to the figurative 99%, and by making corporations responsive to hiring needs and debt relief.

OWS appears to want a more pure and direct government control over industry, free of cronyism and dedicated to general welfare. In some ways Obama is pandering to these requests from the OWS counterculture movement by calling for fairness and denigrating the free market as an "on your own" losing proposition for the middle class and the poor. OWS requests are purposefully vague because they don't want to short themselves of potential benefits. As long as their displeasure is not sharply defined, the umbrella of fairness and equality can cover many requests for fairness and equality going forward -- the main victory is subjugation of the 1% to the needs and wants of the not-1%. Of course, if OWS gets their way, the golden goose will sicken and die, and then there will be a shared decline and lowered standard of living for all. In the long run (not that long though), there will be financial collapse, but in the long run we're all dead, right?