I feel like the Occupy protests are partly about the blowback from the incredible pile of self-help, “believe-in-yourself” crap that gets shoveled into Americans’ brain pits every day. We’re told constantly that we’re so special, everything we do is important and yet we still want more praise all the time. Suddenly it is dawning on an entire generation that nobody is that special, that you are affected by societal forces, that having a hundred people comment on how great you look in the pictures you posted on the internet does not translate into material success. Some people are just born with more money or talent or connections than other people, and having Oprah tell you how great you are or posting that Ira Glass quote I keep seeing a thousand times about “making creative work” is not going to make a difference. History is still going to be the outgrowth of large scale material relationships between social classes, and figuring out who moved your cheese is not going to change that - we need a government that can regulate those relationships in a way that benefits as many people as possible.