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This chapter describes a number of features of the rather curious place of Marxism in American sociology today, and specifically within the sociology of social movements. I assume at the outset that Marx has something to offer in an attempt to understand the Occupy Movement. But what? I begin by critically examining contemporary efforts to salvage Marx’s theory. Two attempts in particular...

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David, a sixteen-year-old protester from New Haven, Connecticut, said the following during a protest at OWS in Lower Manhattan: “Corporations and government have been so inextricably linked that it’s not a true democracy anymore, and people have come to realize that.” David showed an impressive understanding, particularly for his age. He recognized that economics matters. History...

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In the fifth issue of the Occupied Wall Street Journal, one of the newspapers published by OWS, there was the following amusing note:

It is not uncommon for schisms to arise in social movements. The nature of these schisms often determines what direction a movement takes, for example whether they will lead to the collapse of the movement, to significant changes...

In this chapter, I pick up the focus on ideology which was begun in chapter 7. But the focus here is upon how elements of the Occupying ideology not described there were directly implicated in some schisms in the movement. I show how these schisms...

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Goethe commenting upon his visit to Carnavale in Italy wrote that “it is terrible annoying to watch others go mad when one has not caught the infection oneself” (quoted in Crapanzano 1986, 62). Such sentiments seem quite appropriate when applied to the Occupy Movement. It was riddled with madness. One example can be seen in the contradictory...

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