Let us think positively.
Behind the immense diversity of purposes, there seem to be two common denominators: aversion to the absurd inequality of wealth and to “casino capitalism.” Neither, alas, can be abolished quickly. But there is no sign that the occupations are going to fizzle out; they are being encouraged, if not actually supported, by an increasingly number of eminent establishment figures, even Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of Canada. Few, if any, governments dare to denounce them. The Vatican seems to be sympathetic.
The occupations will evolve.
But how?
Informal contacts will be made (via social networks as well as through globalrevolution.tv) between various centres, first within the country, then, increasingly, around the world, including the regions of the Arab Spring. This will begin with exchanges of information about non-violent tactics, about technical details, from medical services to internal policing. For all we know, this is already happening. It is a new experience for all participants; everyone is learning.
After information: services. One cannot think of any essential service rendered in the existing society that cannot be replicated, in some rudimentary form, in the soon-to-be interconnected “occupied zones.” These activities will take place without any centralized structures. Everyone will proceed intuitively, by groping in the dark. Underground economies based on barter exist in all advanced countries; this will be an extension. Some sort of banking services will be necessary. There will be many who will urge the establishment of casinos, to channel the gambling instinct away from toxic speculation with bartered goods. Such thinking will also influence the curricula of schools that will have to be established. There will be an emphasis on cooperation, less so on competition. Human nature cannot be changed, but everything else can be. New words will have to be coined to take the place of “occupied.”
Idealists of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your hedge funds!
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
Go, Eric! I wrote on the same subject today, at http://www.JustPhilanthropy.org
High praise to both of us. I was guided by the idea that it was an illusion to expect the thousands of disparate groups to put into words their common purposes and that it might be easier SIMPLY to establish alternative worlds. I am a poet, not an evaluator. I have an easier life.
Messrs Mayer’s and Koch’s hypotheses make sense together here.
An alternative world wouldn’t be established by demands made in terms a prevailing world could effortlessly receive, re-cast, and manage back. Poetry would indeed come first – the making of an alternative world-view.
An occupation of real space for an embryonic viewpoint. An assertion of presence. “Eighty per cent of success is showing up” says W. Allen.
Inarticulate, maybe, but with its coherence underwritten by a shared situation that’s not easily denied, and by human aspirations. Specific demands and encouragements would be made – when and where they need to be – according to the receptivity and abilities of those who listen.
If SIMPLY were an acronym, it might stand for “So, Is the Movement’s Point-of-view Large enough Yet?”
Steven Mayer’s criteria for assessing this movement, then, would fit well:
• are recognition and ownership of the message growing?
• is support for the movement growing?
• is its influence growing?