Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar: OWS Can't All Be Anger

Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, a professor of history and the associate dean for the humanities at the University of Connecticut, is the author of "Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap."

The Occupy Wall Street movement, with its cross-section of activists (including "1 percenters" like Russell Simmons), reflects an impulse of empathy for everyday people who are hurting under a system that has increasingly awarded more to those with the most, while the poor are forced to do less with less. Many of the Occupy activists have expressed great anger at the increasing bifurcation of wealth in the United States. But whether this movement, or any, is more durable when it develops out of a visceral anger is hard to tell.

History is full of examples of people who are drawn to a single movement for a host of reasons. There are some who were attracted to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s because of visceral anger at having a loved one die because a white hospital refused to treat him or her, or because the daily indignities of racism (denied voting, jobs, etc.) were too pressing for the spirit. But anger cannot be the driving force for a durable struggle....