Ever since OWS started taking off, I kept thinking how well Colonel Sherburn's speech from Twain's Huckelberry Finn describes the whole phenomenon perfectly. Especially the analysis of mob action. This excerpt probably describes the average grunt's feelings about the whole thing:

Quote"You didn't want to come. The average man
don't like trouble and danger. YOU don't like trouble
and danger. But if only HALF a man -- like Buck
Harkness, there -- shouts 'Lynch him! lynch him!'
you're afraid to back down -- afraid you'll be found
out to be what you are -- COWARDS -- and so you raise
a yell, and hang yourselves on to that half-a-man's
coat-tail, and come raging up here, swearing what big
things you're going to do. The pitifulest thing out is
a mob; that's what an army is -- a mob; they don't
fight with courage that's born in them, but with cour-
age that's borrowed from their mass, and from their
officers. But a mob without any MAN at the head of
it is BENEATH pitifulness.

Thoughts? Is it fair to assume that this applies to OWS, or to the general MO of the far left, for that matter?