Thought that just crossed my mind, but I’m sure it has happened with many other before as well:
Would the Occupy Wall Street protests have materialized if the Arab Spring have never happened?
The main reason I’m wondering about this was the economic crash happened 3 years ago and took almost that long before we got OWS. Was the Arab Spring the crucial catalyst that finally made it possible?
It would be a rich irony if it were the case. Bush and the neocons wanted to spread democracy from America to the Arab world. Instead what happened is the reverse: the Arab world spreading democracy to America. The neocons tried to use force. In reality what worked was inspiration.
I, personally think OWS would have happened before if it were not for Obama.
The Arab Spring, OWS, the anti-austerity protests in Europe, and the Tea Party are, IMHO, a result of the same social pressure. OWS happened later because they actually thought Obama would bring hope and change, but they now share the same dis-illusionment as the rest of us. Unemployment in the Arab world is above 50% IIRC and the mean age is in the lower 20s; is it any wonder they are protesting? There governments have sold them out and sacrifised them on the alter of western capitalism: istead of investing in there futures, they went for short term profits. So passes the rentier state.
Here in the US 1/6 of us are officially in poverty and millions are unemployed or underemployed while the government is doing nothing. No matter which way you look at it (from either the left or the right) it looks like we have lost our way and are headed for disaster.
In Europe, the great social contract made decades ago is falling apart with pensions and social programs being cut left and right while the governments work to make sure none of the banks and other financial powers that be take a haircut with the bad investments they have made.
Regardless of what our conservative brethren think here in the United States, all of these social movements are rooted in the same things that have pissed of the tea party and will probably not go away anytime soon.
The Adbusters people who organized OWS don’t particularly care whether the President is liberal or conservative or the economy is good or bad. They’re neo-Marxists who think capitalism in any form is irredeemable. While they may have found a more opportune time to strike by waiting for a bunch of newly minted Reed College grads to be angry at not getting their own jobs as idiot bankers, their motives remain consistent regardless of any other factors.
I think the OWS are more inspired by the example of the Tea Party movement. The timing is probably due to the American election cycle. Conservatives are running for the Presidency and proclaiming their vision for America’s future. This fuels an anti-conservative backlash.