And this is a much more realistic depiction of the Occupy protests:
This movement is currently dominated by a class of people who make up, perhaps, the top 20% of the ninety-nine in the US and Canada––and probably only four or five per cent of the global ninety-nine. . . So many of the activists interviewed around the “occupy” movement have demonstrated that this movement began as a manifestation of the petty bourgeoisie in crisis: some have spoken about a future where they can’t get the same jobs they could get in the past, revealing the widespread belief that this class deserves certain jobs; those calling for the “occupy” movement on facebook and twitter and countless “social networking” sites and tools (all of which are instruments that the majority of the global ninety-nine cannot access) focus primarily on the greed of the top one per cent––a psychological problem rather than the structural reality of capitalism.
I obviously don’t share the political views of the blogger who wrote the post but it is encouraging to see that realistic discussions of the protests have started to appear.
From my point of view, the bourgeois demands of the protesters have a lot of value. I believe that a happy, productive, growing middle class is necessary for the economic and political stability of a country. The erosion of the middle class is tragic for the US and for the Western European countries, so it’s fantastic that people are rising up and demanding change.
If only the protesters recognized that what they are defending is their right to a good job, a cell phone, a laptop, and a nice vacation. There is nothing shameful in wanting these things. There is nothing shameful in being middle class and wanting to retain that status.
Of course, when the protesters start telling us how their basic survival is at risk and that they are the 99%, then their movement loses all credibility.
Clarissa's Blog 
In Israel this summer it was middle class that protested too.
To be fair, in US “we’re 99%” may mean that it takes only losing a job in an economical crisis or an illness in the family or housing bubble bursting to throw middle class into ranks of poor.
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The top 10-15% are pretty well buffered, believe me.
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What do you mean “only”? The things you list are not minor inconveniences. They are major upheavals that don’t enrich people pretty much anywhere in the world.
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In nearly every protest ever, it’s the middle class (and those likely to soon be evicted form the middle class) who protest. It’s just the way of the world, mostly always has been and likely always will be.
They are generally the only ones with 1) enough free time 2) enough education 3) and lack of pressing commitments that allow them to spend the time protesting.
People from rural Arkansas, no matter their political affiliation, don’t drive 1,200 miles in cars they can’t afford, using gas they don’t have, with food they can’t buy on the road using food stamps, to protest.
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People from rural Arkansas can think and vote though, for a political party that reflects their interest. What percentage of the American people voted in the last presidential election?
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People from rural Arkansas will probably forget all about the economy in the voting booth and vote for the preacher of the moment who promises to save fetal matter and persecute gays.
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I don’t know where you are writing from, but we should be clear that in the US what people in most parts of the world call “middle-class” is called “upper-middle class”. Practically everybody with a job and a roof over their heads who is not a billionaire calls themselves middle-class here so it’s a generally useless term.
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Middle-class refers to people with a college degree who work in white-collar or white-collarish occupations.
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That’s exactly what I’m saying.
The protesters would gain a lot, I believe, from just recognizing who they are and not trying to pass themselves for who they aren’t.
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For the first time since these protests started 3 weeks ago we have started to see news of them appear in the main stream media here in Australia.
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Its kind of like the Hippie movement in the 60s, when, essentially, the huge majority of the protesting kids were from the middle class suburbs: the kids who could afford to buy tickets to music festivals and own every single Bob Dlyan and Beatles album and the kids who could afford to keep up with the Hippie fashion trends.
That fact, however, doesn’t diminish the sincerity of the peace marches in the 1960s, nor does that fact that these people protesting today are broadly middle class mean they are well intentioned.
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Of course! This is an important movement that has potential to achieve a lot. If only its participants stopped pretending they are something they so obviously are not, it would be much easier for the movement to articulate its goals.
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Opps, I meant
“…nor does that fact that these people protesting today are broadly middle class mean they aren’t well intentioned.”
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